On October 2nd, an online conversation was conducted by the Program of African Studies of Northwestern University between Professor Chris Abani and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka.1 It was the resumption of a conversation between the two writers and scholars at the New York Public Library in November 2019. In response...
This dissertation aims to understand the ways that the social, specifically race, ethnicity, and neighborhood, intersects with the religious identity, beliefs, and practices of early-generation Americans in Chicago. This dissertation asks at the most general level: What is the relationship of race, ethnicity, and religion for early-generation Americans? More specifically,...
In 1936 Modibo Keita, a twenty-year-old student at the distinguished Ecole William Ponty in Gorée, Senegal, wrote his “mémoire de fin d'étude” on Soninke childhood. The original manuscript is held in the archives of French West Africa in Dakar, part of the collection of “cahiers de William Ponty.” This paper... and En 1936 Modibo Keita, un étudiant de vingt ans à l'école distingué William Ponty à Gorée, au Sénégal, a écrit son mémoire de fin d'étude sur l’enfance sarakollé. Le manuscrit original se trouve dans les archives de l'Afrique occidentale française à Dakar, où il fait partie de la collection de...
The manuscripts known as the "cahiers Ponty", written by students at the famous Ecole William Ponty near Dakar, were created under a policy that favored ethnography as a tool as well as a discipline. Several extracts of these student notebooks are discussed here, as a sampling in order to illustrate... and Les manuscrits connus comme les « cahiers Ponty », écrits par les étudiants du célèbre Ecole William Ponty près de Dakar, ont été créés sous une politique qui a favorisé l’ethnographie comme outil aussi bien que discipline. Quelques extraits de ces cahiers sont discutés ici, comme un échantillonage pour illustrer...
Each successive wave of immigrants to America has faced prejudice founded in fear and uncertainty. Immigrants from Italy were particularly discriminated against in the early years of their arrival, from 1880 through 1920. They faced violence, racial slurs, and media attacks based on an unsubstantiated stereotype of criminality. This project...
The building of a trans-ethnic political space, and a nation that commands the loyalty of the country’s citizens, have been persistent aspirations of Nigerian governments. The 1979 elections demonstrated that, however much political party leaders may seek to build a national following, they are “trapped” by ethnic and other sectional...