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AFRICANS IN THE AMERICAS AND AFRICAN AMERICANS IN AFRICA:
THE SHIFTING BOUNDARIES OF CITIZENSHIP IN THE 21st CENTURY
Annual Conference
New York African Studies Association (NYASA)
37th Anniversary
Hosted by The Pennsylvania State University:
Department of African American Studies
Africana Research Center
Paul Robeson Cultural Center
Co-hosted by The Pennsylvania State University:
African American Studies Student Council
College of the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies
Department of Philosophy
Department of Political Science
Diversity Enhancement Program, Smeal College of Business
George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center
Jazz/Students’ Group
Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Equity
Penn State University Press
Rock Ethics Institute
February 24-25, 2012
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
Africans in the Americas and African Americans in Africa:
The Shifting Boundaries of Citizenship in the 21st Century
The 37th Annual Conference of the New York African Studies Association is being hosted at Penn State as part of the campus celebration of Black History Month. The theme of this year’s gathering captures the essence of this celebration in the United States. The presence of enslaved Africans fueled the discourse revolving around freedom and the question of who could become a citizen. People of African descent led the battle for universal freedom in the United States and throughout the world their struggle symbolizes the possibilities of freedom to all regardless of race, gender, religious status, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were more than victories for African Americans; they also represented the possibilities of freedom for all humanity. The recent global financial crisis and the Great Recession brought to bear the growing inequality and gulf over citizenship in both the Northern and Southern hemisphere as global capital proves its inadequacy in lifting everyone out of poverty and despair. The events surrounding the Great Recession including mortgage foreclosures and bank bailouts have triggered protest, riots and new social movements where the shifting boundaries of citizenship has been the heart and core of the debates over the future.
These events recall FDR’s January 11, 1944, State of the Union speech outlining the Economic Bill of Rights. Roosevelt argued that an economic bill of rights had become necessary because the nation’s development had made it so. Among these rights are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industry, shops, farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right to every family to a descent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to an adequate protection from economic fears of old age, sickness, accidents and unemployment;
Finally, FDR focus on the right to a good education. (William L. Niemi and David J. Plante 2011:415-416)
These rights were linked to Roosevelt’s “Four Freedom Speech”---freedom of speech, religion, from want, and from fear. We can see that FDR’s ideas resonate today with the debates emerging from the “occupy Wall Street movement and how to get out of the recession. Michele Alexander (2010) has drawn attention to the New Jim Crow that is emerging as a result of the high incarceration rates of African American and Latino youth. Melissa Harris Perry (2011) focuses on the negative image of Black women and the consequences for citizenship. We hope that the conference will increase the discourse on citizenship and expand rather than restrict the boundaries of freedom drawing attention to the relationship between economic, social and political freedom.
Darryl C. Thomas, Chair
Associate Professor
Department of African American Studies
The Pennsylvania State University
Lindah L. Mhando, Co-Chair
Assistant Professor
Department of African American Studies
Department of Women’s Studies
The Pennsylvania State University
The New York African Studies Association (NYASA)
Brief History
The New York African Studies Association (NYASA), founded in 1967, traces its roots to the SUNY African Studies Faculty Association. NYASA is one of only two regional Africanist organizations in the United States, providing the opportunity, particularly for Africanists throughout New York and the Northeastern United States, to have discourse about developments in Africa and the African Diaspora.
NYASA provides avenues for Africanists and their allies to present papers on various subject matters; nurture an atmosphere of cultural interaction among diplomats, scholars, teachers, and students; and create a link to teaching and pedagogical techniques among elementary, secondary, and college teachers. A primary raison d’être stated in the Association’s bylaws is to sponsor different forms of scholarly interchange, including workshops, seminars, and an annual conference. The first annual conference was in 1974 at SUNY New Paltz, and the second annual conference was at Syracuse University in 1975, the same year NYASA was incorporated as a nonprofit organization. Cornell University hosted the third NYASA conference in 1976. Professor Walter Rodney, author of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, was one of the featured speakers at that conference. Many SUNY campuses and private universities and colleges have organized the NYASA conference in past years, including SUNY Binghamton, SUNY Brockport, and SUNY Oswego.
In the past, NYASA has recognized distinguished Africanist scholars, pre-collegiate teachers, and organizations that have provided outstanding services to Africa and the African Diaspora. Doctors Without Borders and the Africa—American Institute (AAI) are examples of recipients of the NYASA community service awards. Professor Chinua Achebe, Professor Molefi Asante, Professor Ali A. Mazrui, Professor Iris Berger, Professor Maulana Karenga, and Professor Wilbert LeMelle are examples of distinguished Africanist awardees.
NYASA Executive Board 2011-2012
President: Kwame Akonor, Seton Hall University
President Emeritus: Seifudein Adem, SUNY Binghamton
Vice President: Betty Wambui, SUNY Oneonta
Secretary: Abdul Gulu Nanji, Columbia University
Treasurer: Kevin Hickey, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
NYASA Members-at-Large
Connie Anderson, Hartwick College
Robert W. Compton Jr., SUNY
Locksley Edmondson, Cornell University Oneonta
Eduoard Mafoua, SUNY Canton
Kathleen O'Mara, SUNY Oneonta
Felicity Palmer, Clarkson University
Jerry Persaud, SUNY New Paltz
NYASA Founders
Percival Fatola Borde
S.J.S. Cookey
Lazarus Ekwueme
Rawle Farley
Joseph Harris
Thomas H. Henriksen
J. Congress Mbata
Kodwo Mensah-Brown
Corinne Nyquist
Thomas Nyquist
Evelyn Jones Rich
Warren Weinstein
Claude Welch, Jr.
For more information about or to contact
The New York African Studies Association (NYASA)
Go to: www.nyasa.org
Local Arrangements Committee
Darryl Thomas, Chair
Lindah Mhando, Co-chair
Ahmed Banya
Ronnie Burrage
Jamie Campbell
Osman Chaudhry
Wayne Gersie
Charles Lumpkins
Vivian Yenika-Agbaw
Publications Committee
Seth Asumah, SUNY Cortland
John Marah, SUNY Brockport
Mecke Nagel, SUNY Cortland
Jerry Persaud, SUNY New Paltz
Student Representatives
Jemimah Mwakisha, Binghamton University
Daniel Neuman, SUNY Oneonta
Keon-Michael Wilson, SUNY Oneonta
Student Organizers and Assistants at The Pennsylvania State University
Sika Abbey
Pepita Mhando
37th Annual Conference of
New York African Studies Association
The Pennsylvania State University
February 24-25, 2012
PROGRAM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2012
11:30 A.M. Registration begins
Place: HUB-Robeson Center, Hertzel Union Building (HUB), Heritage Hall
11:30 A.M. – 12:30 P.M.
NYASA Executive Board Meeting
Room: Heritage Hall
12:40 P.M. – 1:00 P.M.
Welcoming Remarks
Room: Heritage Hall
Introduction by NYASA President, Kwame Akonor, Seton Hall University
Welcoming Remarks, Paul Taylor, Head, Department of African American Studies
1:10 P.M. – 2:40 P.M.
Workshop on Publishing Articles and Books
Room: Heritage Hall
Presenters: Kassahin Checole, Publisher, Africa World Press and Red Sea Press
Kendra Bolieu, Editor-in-Chief, Pennsylvania State University Press
1:10 P.M. – 2:40 P.M.
Panel -1- Inequality and Social and Political Movements
Room: Heritage Hall
Chair: Lindah Mhando
Papers: Striving Beyond the Colonial Monster or Colonial Undertones, Global Attractions,
Jemimah Mwakisha, Binghamton University
Africa: Through the Lens of National Geographic Magazine, Andrés Cartagena Troche,
University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras Campus
The Harlem Renaissance, Keon-Michael Wilson, SUNY Oneonta
1:10 P.M. – 2:40 P.M.
Panel -2- Religion and Culture
Room: HUB
Chair: Vivian Yenika-Agbaw
Papers: Let More African Americans Minister to their ‘Cousin’ Black Africans!, Faustin,
Ntamushobora, Biola University
Despite the Striking Expansion of Churches in Harlem during the Jazz Age, Jacqueline
Robinson, Gettysburg College
Institutional Erasure: Percival Everett’s Assault on Society’s Tradition of Abetting the
Imposition of an Authentic African-American Identity, Sheena Garrant, University of
Houston
1:10 P.M. – 5:30 P.M.
Model Southern African Development Community (SADC)—Parliamentary Forum
Room: HUB
2:50 P.M. – 4:20 P.M.
Panel -3- Citizenship and Social Identity
Room: Heritage Hall
Chair: Corinne Nyquist
Papers: Beyond Cultural Difference: Revisiting Black Immigrants in Education, Ifeyiwna U.
Onyenekwu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Ilê Aiyé and Candomblé and the Ideal of Africa in Brazil, Cheryl Sterling, New York
University
A Black Man for Vice-President: The CPUSA 1932 Presidential Campaign and the Black
Nation Thesis, Trevor Sangrey, University of Santa Cruz
2:50 P.M. – 5:30 P.M.
Panel -4- Student Panels - Pan Africanism & Diaspora
Room: HUB
Chair: Terri Robinson
2:50 P.M. – 5:30 P.M.
Panel -5- Student Panels – Social Justice
Room: HUB
Chair: Ryan Brown
2:50 P.M. – 5:30 P.M.
Panel -6- Student Panels -- Education
Room: HUB
Chair: Sika Abbey
2:50 P.M. – 5:30 P.M.
Panel -7- Student Panels -- Social Media
Room: HUB
Chair: Travis Salters
6:00 P.M. – 7:00 P.M.
Reception
Room: Heritage Hall
7:00 P.M. – 9:00 P.M.
Music Entertainment
Room: Heritage Hall
Okyerema Asante, Music from Ghana and Beyond!
Okyerema Asante is a master drummer from Ghana, famous for performing all parts of a traditional five-person drum group by himself. He attaches percussion instruments to various parts of his body and simultaneously plays drums, a balafon, and many other instruments. He has as many as 85 instruments in one performance. Coming from a family of drummers, Asante is an expert of traditional Ghanaian talking drums. Asante's own albums include Ohene Kesee A Ebin, Crabs in a Bucket, and Bringing the Flame Home: From Havana to Africa (with Benito Gonzalez).
Asante is also known for playing with Paul Simon on his Graceland album.
Ronnie Burrage Band Jazz and More!
Burrage writes in a broad range. He has performed with Wayne Shorter, Mcoy Tyner, Sonny Rollins, Pat Metheny and many other greats, and performed their compositions; his own work merits comparison to theirs. “My music is diverse, but as a whole it goes on a journey,” he said.
Music has been a journey for Ronnie Burrage – a unique one no one could ever duplicate. When Ronnie was nine in 1969, he won an audition to perform with Duke Ellington and did just that in St. Louis and Detroit.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2012
7:45A.M. – Registration begins
Place: Atrium, Business Building, Smeal College of Business
7:45 A.M. – 8:45 A.M.
NYASA Executive Board Meeting
Room: 102 Business Building
9:00 A.M. – 10:30 A.M.
Plenary Panel: Arab Awakening
Room: 110 Business Building
Chair: Seth Asumah
Panelists: Demographics, Economic, and technology: Background to the North African Revolution,
Ricardo Laremont, Binghamton University
The Libyan Intervention and Its Implications for the African Union, Kwame Akonor,
Seton Hall University
Arab Spring in Egypt, Arthur Goldschmidt, The Pennsylvania State University
9:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M.
Model Southern African Development Community (SADC)—Parliamentary Forum
Room: 102 Business Building
10:40 A.M. – 12:00 P.M.
Panel -8- Citizenship and Social Identity
Room: 103 Business Building
Chair: Samuel Quianno
Papers: Digital African Diasporas: Liberians Creating Community Online, Yolanda Covington-
Ward, University of Pittsburgh
Contemporary African Women Immigrants in North America: Patterns of the Dynamics
of Personal, Local and Global Triggers since the 1960s, N’Dri Assie-Lumumba, Cornell
University
Nothing Post about Blackness: Analyzing the Paradox of Post-Blackness, Acie
Middleton, Ohio University
10:40 A.M. – 12:00 P.M.
Panel -9- Africa in World Politics
Room: 104 Business Building
Chair: Seifudein Adem
Papers: Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Zimbabwe) and Protection of State
Information Bill (South Africa): Parallels and Contrasts, Robert W. Compton, Jr., SUNY
Oneonta
Schooling, Culture, and Postcolonial State, Carine Omole, SUNY at Binghamton
Nigerian Children Unpaid Work, Aramide Kazeem, Pennsylvania State University
10:40 A.M. – 12:00 P.M.
Panel -10- Inequality and Social and Political Movements
Room: 106 Business Building
Chair: Locksley Edmondson
Papers: A Toothless Pursuit of a Revolutionary’s Truths: Marable’s Malcolm X: A Life of
Reinvention, Errol A. Henderson, The Pennsylvania State University
Hubert Harrison: ‘Radical Internationalist’ and ‘Father of Harlem Radicalism,’ Jeffrey
Perry, Independent Scholar
The Historical Sociology of Black Labor in the United States: 1619-Present, Owen
Brown, Medgar Evers College, Senior College of the City University of New York
10:40 A.M. – 12:00 P.M.
Panel -11- Gender and Sexuality
Room: 107 Business Building
Chair: TBA
Papers: Drop by Drop, Grain by Grain, Soul by Soul: One Woman’s History of the Remaking of
Ghana's LGBT Communities: Intersections with Lavender Colonialism, Kathleen
O'Mara, SUNY Oneonta
Kikuyu Feminists? The Lives of Mumbi, Wangu and Wambui, Betty Wambui, SUNY
Oneonta
12:00 P.M. – 2:00 P.M.
NYASA 37th Anniversary Luncheon, Awards Ceremony, and Election
Room: Atrium, Business Building
Introductory Remark: Thomas Nyquist, NYASA founding member
Presiding Officer: Kwame Akonor, NYASA President
Welcoming Remarks: Rodney Erikson, President, The Pennsylvania State University
Keynote Speaker: Anthony Bogues will speak on Reflections on Africana Political Thought : From Anti-Colonial Sovereignty to Freedom and Dignity and Radical Imagination. Bogues (Ph.D., 1994, Political Theory, University of the West Indies, Mona) is Harmon Family Professor of Africana Studies and Political Science, affiliated faculty in the Department of Modern Culture and Media. His major research and writing interests are intellectual and cultural history, radical political thought, critical theory, Caribbean and African politics and literature. Dr. Bogues is the author of over 50 published essays and articles on subjects ranging from the Haitian Revolution, the complexities of African American political thought, and the nature of freedom in the modern world to the relationship between critical political theory and the imagination. Between 2004 and 2007, Dr. Bogues was Royce Professor Teaching Excellence. He is associate editor of the journal Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism and a member of the editorial collective of the journal boundary 2. He is also a visiting professor at The Centre of Caribbean Thought, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, and honorary professor at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He lectures and writes on the relationship between history and literature in Caribbean novels, conducts independent reading courses on the writings of W.E.B. DuBois, Frantz Fanon, C.L.R. James, Michel Foucault, and Hannah Arendt, and teaches graduate seminars for the Cogut Center for Humanities. He is a series editor for the book series on Caribbean Thought, Caribbean Reasonings. He is convener of the international project “Exploring African and African Diasporic Knowledges”. Professor Bogues is currently working on questions of power and its relationship to violence and death; the relationship of historical trauma to freedom; and the political aesthetics of Caribbean and African literature.
Awardees:
NYASA Distinguished Africanist Award: Muna Ndulo, (Law, University of Zambia), is Professor of Law, Cornell Law School and Director of Cornell University’s Institute of African Development. His academic interests include legal aspects of foreign investments in developing countries, international human rights, common law and African legal systems, and the drafting of constitutions for emerging nations. Dr. Ndulo is the founder of the Southern African Institute for Public Policy and Research, a member of the Board of the African Association of International Law, and a member of the Advisory Committee, Human Rights Watch. He has been affiliated with the Cornell Law School since 1984 and published 14 books and over 80 articles.
NYASA Distinguished Service Award: Coraminita Mahr, Vice President of 1199/Service Employees International Union, student activist, community organizer, human rights and labor rights activist for the past 41 years. She continues to fight against economic, racial, political repression, police brutality and advocates for the rights of all people to live in peace, with dignity, free of oppression. As a leader in these movements, she believes we must always struggle and fight for those rights that support and promote our economic and democratic freedoms. Without these struggles, we will not maintain our civil rights or civil liberties. She believes we all have a responsibility to make the world a better, more humane, and safer place for our children and future generations.
NYASA Distinguished Teaching Award: Sylvia Nyana Owiny, Subject Specialist Librarian on African Studies, African American and Diaspora Studies, and Ethnic Studies at the Pennsylvania State University Libraries. Ms. Owiny received her Master of Library Science from the University of Buffalo and her Bachelors of Science degree in Sociology from Cornell University. Since joining the Penn State community in 2005, she has provided instruction, references, and collection development in her subject areas (African Studies, African American Studies, and Black Diaspora), and the general social sciences. She has also worked tirelessly to make the Blockson collection a dynamic research site for research and education for both undergraduate and graduate students. As the liaison to the faculty and students in the Department of African American Studies, African Studies Program, and Africana Research Center, Ms Owiny supports their teaching and research needs and promotes awareness of the library’s resources and services. Ms. Owiny also has an active research agenda with articles published in peer-reviewed journals and a book chapter. Her research continues to focus on improving access and the provision of knowledge/information in academic institutions and oral cultures, and the preservation of Indigenous knowledge (Africa). She has presented papers at local, regional, national, and international conferences including the 2010 Acknowledge Africa Share Fair in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
2:00 P.M. – 2:30 P.M.
Announcement of Election Results
Room: 110 Business Building
2:40 P.M. – 4:10 P.M.
Panel -12- United States and Africa
Room: 104 Business Building
Chair: Wayne Gersie
Papers: Online Activism in the Defense of the Gabonese State and the Limits of an African
Virtual Democracy, 2009-2011, Jeremy Rich, Marywood University
Back to the Future: Climate Change, Dry Agriculture/Forestry and the Politics of Food
Security in Ethiopia/Horn of Africa in the 21st Century, Darryl Thomas, The Pennsylvania State University, and Ahmed Banya, The Pennsylvania State University
2:40 P.M. – 4:10 P.M.
Panel -13- Citizenship and Social Identity
Room: 106 Business Building
Chair: Jerry Persaud
Papers: Black Like Who?: Diversity & the Afro-Caribbean Immigrant Experience at HBCUs,
Alicia D. Nance, Louisiana State University
Masks of Identity: Africans in Diaspora and Contemporary Blackface, Kevin Hickey,
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Look for Recognization for Black Marshals at Ole Miss, Roger Moore, Independent
Scholar
2:40 P.M. – 4:10 P.M.
Panel -14- Inequality and Social and Political Movements
Room: 107 Business Building
Chair: Mecke Nagel
Papers: Freedom and the African American Experience, Frank Riley, Medgar Evans College
Senior College of the City University of New York
Anti-Black Mass Violence in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century United States
(and in the African Diaspora), “Race Riots” or “Pogroms”?, Charles Lumpkins, The
Pennsylvania State University
2:40 P.M. – 4:10 P.M.
Panel –15- Religion and Culture
Room: 108 Business Building
Chair: John Marah
Papers: Conflicted Journeys: Colonial and Missionary Crossings in Amanda Smith’s An
Autobiography, Tisha Brooks, Tufts University
Slave Revolts as Precursors of Black Cultural Revolution, Errol A. Henderson, The
Pennsylvania State University
John A. Williams’ Novel Visions of Resistance in the African Diaspora, John A.
Williams, Kamau Kemayo, University of Illinois Springfield
2:40 P.M. – 4:10 P.M.
Panel -16- Gender and Sexuality
Room: 110 Business Building
Chair: TBA
Papers: America’s Internal Colonial Model and Africa’s Decolonization: Nkrumah’s Role with
Women, Doris S. Essah, Independent Scholar
The Social Culture Perspective of Distance Learning/ICT Impact on the Development of
Ghanaian Women, Grace Adofoli, University of Wisconsin—River Falls
The Emotional Degradation of the Female Slave in America’s Antebellum Era, Jennifer
Trotter, University of Washington (Seattle Campus)
2:40 P.M. – 4:10 P.M.
Panel -17- Student Panels -- Gender and Representation
Room: 103 Business Building
Chair: Pepita Mhando
2:40 P.M. – 4:10 P.M.
Panel -18- Student Panels -- Students Activism and Organizing
Room: 104 Business Building
Chair: Travis Salters
4:20 P.M. – 5:50 P.M.
Panel -19- Africa in World Politics
Room: 103 Business Building
Chair: Abdul Nanji
Papers: A Reflection on the Dynamics of the BRIC Countries (Brazil, China, India, Russia and
South Africa) within the Neo-Liberal Globalization: An Old Ideology in New Political
Discourse or New Opportunities for African Social Progress, Tukumbi Lumumba-
Kasongo, Cornell University
Changing Attitudes about China in Ethiopia from Haile Selassie to Meles Zenawi,
Seifudein Adem, Binghamton University
Malcolm X and Black Internationalism in the 21st Century: Crisis in Racial Capitalism
and the Rise of the Afro-Asian World, Darryl Thomas, The Pennsylvania State University
4:20 P.M. – 5:50 P.M.
Panel -20- Student Panels -- Black Culture (Music and Fashion)
Room: 106 Business Building
Chair: Melissa Jollah
4:20 P.M. – 5:50 P.M.
Panel -21- Student Panels -- Diversity and Inclusion--
Room: 107 Business Building
Chair: Jeenetra Johnson
4:20 P.M. – 5:50 P.M.
Panel -16- Gender and Sexuality
Room: 108 Business Building
Chair: TBA
Papers: Corrective Rape- The Silencing Project, Lauren Johnson, SUNY Oneonta
In Search of A Third Space, Ireri V. Ramirez, SUNY Oneonta
6:00 P.M. – 6:30 P.M.
Closing Remarks
Room: 110 Business Building |
