As the new academic year begins, we’d like to welcome new readers to CIHA Blog. We seek to foreground critical and religious voices to explore connections among issues of faith, governance, gender, and race in colonial and post-colonial contexts. Through our analysis and dialogue, we strive for equality, justice and, ultimately, respect for others’ desires, beliefs and practices. Today we’d like to highlight work produced over the late spring and summer as part of our regular “round-up” of key posts.
Over the past 6 months, we have looked at narratives about data (or the lack thereof) in Africa and the politics of knowledge production on the continent more generally. We ran a blog post series on the #MeToo movement in humanitarian aid contributed to by Minenhle Nomalungelo Khumalo, Brenda Bartelink, and Titilope F. Ajayi. Several posts (reposted from our friends at African Feminism and on World NGO day) also touched on issues of racism, sexism, and paternalism in aid relations.
We took advantage of our multi-sited positionality to provide a unique set of reviews on the blockbuster film, “Black Panther” in March which was well-received. Gerald Acho set the scene well, betraying a bit of anxiety in addition to hope regarding future portrayals of Africa. Akosua Adomako Ampofo confessed she had to block out the critics in order to allow herself to give in to pure enjoyment. For Akosua-Asamoabea Ampofo, this gratification and appreciation was in the end immense although also unexpected. Nevertheless, Adomako Ampofo, as well as Edwin Adjei, also addressed the complicated nature of the relations between Africa and the Diaspora that the movie rather courageously tackles. Minenhle Nomalungelo Khumalo’s review represented one of the most insightful critique of the film, pointing out the genuflections to Hollywood that limit the movie’s bravery.
The South Africa team has written extensively about the intersection between the environment, religion, and African epistemologies and continue to work closely with the Ujamaa Centre and Advisory Board member Gerald West who writes regularly for the Blog. Rev. Sthembiso Zwane (Ujamaa Centre for Community Development and Research) described the “thuma mina” (send me) moment of hopefulness felt by much of the country following the resignation of Jacob Zuma earlier this year. At the annual Steve de Gruchy Memorial Lecture hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal in April, Prof. Trygve Wyller addressed the relevance of German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer–who was executed by the Natzis in the 1945–for postcolonial migrant churches today, connecting issues of how to perform church across sites in Norway, Syria, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Our team in Senegal has been writing about recent events in the news including student protests over rising fees and key historical figures from Casamance who need to be remembered. The Ghana team has contributed important pieces reviewing relevant film, literature and events from African contexts including a film entitled Coping, Guangzhou Dream Factory, and Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities. The team also provided important critique of a recent journal article that looked at how churches in Uganda have been promoting a message of economic self-sufficiency.
Our team at the Hekima Institute of Peace and International Relations (Kenya) have reported back from several relevant events on their campus related to transitional justice, peace and reconciliation, and faith and human dignity. And our team at the University of California, Irvine developed research focused pieces to help unpack complex and emerging phenomenon such as the growth of China’s soft power on the continent and the rhetorical use of Islam to justify military spending. One intern developed an important piece offering advice for how humanitarian groups might better leverage online communication tools.
We are always happy to note that our posts continue to spur conversations both online and off and look forward to continued engagement. In the coming months, watch for analyses of the ongoing protests in Cameroon, and current research on gender, religion, health and healing, among other important issues. Happy reading!