Agenda 01 - 07 December 2013

PhD candidate: X (Xavier) Poshiwa MSc. Title: African wildlife and people: finding solutions where equilibrium models fail. Promoter: prof.dr. HHT (Herbert) Prins & prof.dr. EC (Ekko) van Ierland. Co-promoter: dr.ir. IMA (Ignas) Heitkonig PhD & dr.ir. RA (Rolf) Groeneveld

wageningenur

On religious revitalization in Africa and the prospects for socio-economic transformation. Abamfo Ofori Atiemo, University of Ghana. Hopes for a fundamental socio-economic change to accompany the revolutionary era in Africa ended with widespread disenchantment for most people in the 1990s. In the current era of democratization, the search for the most effective way to transform Africa continues unabated. In this search, scholars and policymakers have shown great interest in religion, especially the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. Please register.

ascleiden

Scholars of Africa have noticed how bureaucratic, record-keeping states of the sort introduced in colonial times have interacted with techniques of governance in which oracles, rituals and other aspects of religion played a prominent role. Since most colonial territories in Africa acquired independence, the official apparatus of government, in which law and bureaucratic administration play a key role, has continued to coexist with techniques and institutions related to religious cosmologies. At the same time, new types of religious movement, such as Pentecostalism and Islamism, have emerged in many places. Please register.

ascleiden

Frederick Cooper (New York University) will give a lecture on Beyond Empire: France and French Africa in the Post-World War II Context. Empires have come and gone throughout world history, but the situation after World War II was different. New claimants to imperial power and new forms of empire had come onto the scene in the twentieth century, but as the war came to an end the very category of empire as a legitimate form of polity was in question. Nevertheless, the story of French Africa in the post-war years does not fit well into a narrative of global history as a long and inexorable transition from empires to nation-states.

leidenuniv

Mr G. Yirga Abay will defend his PhD thesis "Ecology and conservation of spotted hyena in human dominated landscapes in northern Ethiopia" at the Leiden University. Supervisors Prof.dr. G.R. de Snoo, Prof.dr. H. Leirs (Antwerp University). Everyone is welcome, no registration needed.

leidenuniv