Over eight hundred delegates, from every continent but mostly from Africa, assembled at the University of Birmingham earlier in September for the bi-annual African Studies Association of the UK conference.
It was wonderful to participate in such a mixed, vibrant and stimulating event. Probably the only downside was that there were so many sessions running in parallel that one person could only ever experience a tiny slice of the proceedings.
Dr Hadiza Kere Abdulrahman, recent doctoral graduate of the University of Lincoln and active member of the Africa Research Forum, presented a paper in the very first session. The theme was ‘Representations and silence: violence in Nigeria’. Hadiza’s paper focused on the Almajirai and Qur’anic education in Northern Nigeria, and presented the perspectives of those who had been through this system, rather than those who had fixed mindsets about them.
The panel included two other papers: Christiana Ejura Attah on Boko Haram on sexual slavery, and Daniel Chukwuemeka on the terrorist stereotype in Nigerian fiction. A strong theme of the session was the urgent need to break silence, in order to challenge stereotypes. There was lively discussion about how such stereotypes came to be in the first place and how one might get beyond them.
Prof. Heather Hughes, also University of Lincoln, presented a paper called ‘Lives Matter: biography-writing in Africa’. This was in one of two panel sessions she had organised on the theme of biography and narratives of life in Africa. The paper, recently published in the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia on African Histories, attempted an overview of trends in biography-writing on African subjects.
Both of the biography-related panels included new and ongoing research into the lives of important figures who deserve greater prominence: painter John Mohl; churchman Seth Mokitimi; Xhosa poet S.E.K. Mqhayi, interpreter Isaiah Bud-M’belle and all-round leader, Solomon Plaatje. In addition, Dr David Killingray presented a fascinating paper on African activists in Britain in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.
The conference keynote was given by Prof. Grace Musila, author of the highly original A Death Retold in Truth and Rumour: Kenya, Britain and the Julie Ward Murder (Rochester, James Currey, 2015) – a study of the varying perspectives on (and misunderstandings of) the death of British tourist Julie Ward in Kenya in 1988. Her lecture focused on feminist readings of African history and society, using a comparison of the lives of two presidential spouses: Lena Moi and Sizakele Makhumalo Zuma – the partners of Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya and Jacob Zuma of South Africa respectively. She deployed the concept of ‘political widowhood’ to understand the ways in which both women had to deal with their roles and ultimately dysfunctional relationships.
Some titans of African studies were honoured in various ways at this conference: Abdul Raufu Mustapha, Karin Barber, Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias and Toyin Falola. The conference also recognised the achievement of ninety years of publishing the revered journal Africa. It was also heartening to see the strong role that the Lagos Studies Association played at the conference.
All through proceedings, publishers and book collectives had stalls in the Great Hall on campus – it was clear that there is a very vibrant publishing industry on, in and for African Studies, which can only be good for the future. Another positive sign: the large number of young African scholars presenting their work.
Report by Professor Heather Hughes and Dr Hadiza Kere Abdulrahman