When: April 17th 6:00-8:30pm

Where: Einstein Auditorium, NYU Steinhardt Department of Art & Art Professions, 34 Stuyvesant St., Barney Building, Ground Floor

Space is limited: Please RSVP now: http://wagner.nyu.edu/events

Special Guest Speakers:

Awam Amkpa, PhD. Filmmaker, author, and Chair of NYU Africana Studies. Organizer of Real Life: Pan African Festival of Documentary Films, and the Kofi Ghanaba musical archive in Ghana. He will show excerpts from his new documentary film on West African artists.

Ross Bleckner, MFA. Renowned artist, whose works are held in prominent public collections throughout the globe, including MoMA, MoCA, Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He is a Clinical Professor at NYU Steinhardt’s Art Department. Mr. Bleckner will present paintings made by former child soldiers during his workshop in Uganda, where he has recently been appointed the first Artist Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations.

Djibril Diallo, PhD. Lon. As Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Dr. Diallo helps advance the priority of universal access to HIVA/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support. Dr. Diallo also serves as the chair of the Leadership Committee for the U.S. Launch of FESMAN 2009 (the World Festival of Black Arts 2009), which will be held in Senegal in December 2009, offering an opportunity to strengthen the role of the arts in promoting development and peace. He is also the co-Chair of the World Affairs Taskforce of the U.S.-based National Association of Black Journalists, and is a Board Member of All for Africa, a U.S. non-governmental organization promoting African development, and the Africa Centre in London.

Columbia University Seminar on Studies in Contemporary Africa
presents

SAVIORS AND SURVIVORS: A DISCUSSION ABOUT DARFUR

Thursday, March 26, 2009
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Social Hall
Union Theological Seminary
3041 Broadway at 121st Street
New York, New York

A conversation around the book Saviors and Survivors: Darfur,
Politics, and the War on Terror, by Mahmood Mamdani, published in
March 2009 by Pantheon.

Speakers:
– Khaled Fahmy, Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, New
York University
– Amir Idris, Assistant Professor of History, Fordham University
– Mahmood Mamdani, Professor of Government and Anthropology,
Columbia University
– Peter Rosenblum, Clinical Professor of Human Rights, School of
Law, Columbia University

Co-sponsored by the Institute of African Studies

For more Institute of African Studies Events, please go to:

http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/ias/index.html

The Institute of African Studies present a book discussion of
Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation of the
Americas, 1585-1660 with co-authors Linda Heywood and John Thornton

Date: March 25th, 2009
Time: 3-5pm
Location: Philosophy Lounge

This book establishes Central Africa as the origin of most Africans
brought to English and Dutch American colonies in North America, the
Caribbean, and South America in their formative period before 1660. It
reveals that Central Africans were frequently possessors of an
Atlantic Creole culture that included adaptation of Christianity and
elements of European language, especially names and material culture.
It places the movement of slaves and creation of the colonies within
an Atlantic historical framework, including showing interactions among
Africa, Europe, and all of the Americas.

It explores the development of attitudes toward race, slavery, and freedom as
they developed in the colonies of England and the Netherlands, and it
revises earlier discussions on these issues. The book suggests ways in which
this generation of Africans helped lay the foundations for subsequent
development of African-American culture in all the colonies of these
countries.

Linda Heywood is a professor of African History and the History of the
African Diaspora at Boston University.  She is the author of Contested
Power in Angola, editor of and contributor to Central Africans
Cultural Transformations in the American Diaspora, and co-author with
John Thornton of Central African, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation
of America (Cambridge University Press, July, 2007), winner of the
Herskovits Prize.  Her articles on Angola and the African Diaspora
have appeared in The Journal of African History, Journal of Modern
African Studies, Slavery and Abolition, and the Journal of Southern
African Studies.

She has served as a consultant for numerous museum exhibitions,
including African Voices at the Smithsonian Institution, Against Human
Dignity sponsored by the Maritime Museum, and the new exhibit at
Jamestown. She was also one of the history consultants and appeared in
the PBS series African American Lives (2006) and Finding Oprah?s Roots
(2007).  She is writing a biography of Queen Njinga.

John K. Thornton is Professor of African American Studies and History
at Boston University.  He received his BA from the University of
Michigan (1971) and MA and PhD from UCLA (1972, 1979).

YFOCAR will be a three-day conference held from April 24th to the 26th at Yale University to discuss contemporary and historical aspects of the relationship between China and Africa.

YFOCAR will feature a full schedule of events including panels, keynote addresses, discussion seminars, debates, film screenings, and concerts. These events will seek to create an open dialogue to strengthen cross-cultural ties, encourage mutual understanding, and set the stage for long-standing respect between China and the African continent. To that end, we will bring leaders in political, economic and cultural fields to discuss a variety of topics including International Global Effects of the China-Africa Partnerships; Energy, Environment & Global Politics; Darfur & Other Crisis Regions; and Africans Living in China.

YFOCAR invites open-minded scholars, students, and young professionals who are interested in the discussion of China-Africa relations to come participate. Attendees will leave the conference with a more comprehensive understanding of Chinese and African issues and will be better equipped to contribute to the development and study of this important relationship.

The registration form for the conference is available on the YFOCAR website, www.yale.edu/yfocar. Attendees must complete their registration by April 5th at 5pm. We ask that students also provide a registration fee of $50 which should be paid via check mailed to the address provided on the website. Students will be responsible for their
transportation to and from Yale. YFOCAR will provide housing and two meals per day per attendee.

The Sixth Annual African Economic Forum
“Assets to Action: Unmasking Africa’s Diverse Resources in a Challenging Era”

–Kwame Nkrumah’s Address to the National Assembly, June 12, 1965

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director of the World Bank and former Finance Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Dr. George Ayittey, Economist, Activist and President of the Free Africa Foundation

Featured Speaker:
William Kamkwamba, African Leadership Academy

With Panel Discussions On:
**Agriculture: Mobilizing Africa’s Agricultural Resources
**African Private Equity: Leveraging Local Resources
**Inspirations & Innovations: Bridging the Technology Gap
**Post-Conflict Economic Development
**Tourism in Africa: A Viable Revenue Source
**Development at the Cusp: Legal Practice in Africa

The ticket prices for the African Economic Forum are as follows:
Columbia Student / Professors: $25
Columbia Alums:   $35
General Public:   $45
Tickets on sale at SIPA, 4th floor (main floor) lobby starting Monday, March 8th. On-line registration to start later this week!

This event is brought to you by the SIPA Pan-African Network, the African Business Club, and the African Law Students Association, Columbia University.

http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/aef/index.html