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Rooms 2025 B & 2025 C301 E. Gregory Drive, Champaign, IL

@ SDRP

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Sponsored by:Residential Life (RESLife), UIUC

Abu Bakarr Bah, PhD. Keynote Speaker

Northern Illinois University

Breakfast

African Cuisine for Lunchwill be provided.

Saturday, April 19, 2014 Morning Session: 9am - 12noonAfternoon Session: 12:30pm - 5pm

African Students Organization

Myths and Realities

THE (UN)SPOKENEMERGENT AFRICA

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ABOUT THE AFRICAN STUDENTS ORGANIZATION

The African Students Organization (ASO) is a registered student organization at the University of Illinois

at Urbana-Champaign. Our goals are to:

1. Unite African Students with a goal of raising their political consciousness and providing progressive

leadership on issues relating to Africa.

2. Provide student members with an environment conducive to successful completion of their academic

objectives.

3. Create and identify opportunities for members from the African continent and members of African

descent in the Diaspora to understand each other and their different backgrounds, and enhance

awareness about African issues, culture and values.

4. Help incoming African students settle and adjust to studying in the UIUC community and to give

them material and moral support in pursuing their educational goals.

5. Provide a forum for discussion and debate of matters of special interest to African unity and

development.

6. Build networks, forge links and cooperation with other African student organizations from other

institutions.

7. Promote racial, gender, ethnic, political and economic equity, and build unity and solidarity especially

with African Americans and other Third World peoples and organizations.

OUR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2013-2014

President: Ifeyinwa Onyenekwu

Email: [email protected]

Vice President: Mabinty Tarawallie


General Secretary: Abigail Esenam Asangba


Publicity Secretary: Abiodun Oki


Soc. and Org. Secretary: Kelechi Ibe-Lamberts


Webmaster: Folarin Babajide Latinwo


Treasurer: Tobiloba Folahun Ogunniya


mailto:[email protected]







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THE ASO FORUM

ASO organizes annual forums aimed at promoting campus awareness and activism on matters regarding

the African continent and Diaspora. These forums provide students, faculty, and staff with an opportunity

to showcase new research ideas in a professional and open environment. Our hope is that our forum will

support creative debates, broaden knowledge, inspire innovations, suggest solutions to Africa’s problems

and foster professional networking. So far, we have successfully hosted nine forums and have

collaborated with departments such as the Center for African Studies (CAS) and the Department of

Linguistics; and associations such as the African Cultural Association (ACA), a registered student

organization at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. For details on our previous forums, visit our

webpage: http://publish.illinois.edu/africanstudentsorganization/

http://publish.illinois.edu/africanstudentsorganization/

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We wish to thank this year’s keynote speaker, Prof. Abu Bakarr Bah and all our invited speakers,

presenters and facilitators for being a part of this year’s forum.

Many thanks go to the Department heads and professors who supported our work: Prof. Maimouna Barro

from the Center for African Studies, Prof. Ilesanmi Adesida, Dr. Emmanuel Nuesiri from the Department

of Geography, Prof. Merle Bowen from the Center for African Studies, the Director of ResLife Alma

Sealine, and the Krannert Engagement Director Samuel Smith.

The 2014 ASO Spring Forum was made possible through the efforts of a committee of dedicated graduate

students. In addition to the current ASO executive committee members, we would like to acknowledge all

of the volunteers, sponsors, facilitators, and food caterers.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following organizations:

College of Engineering, UIUC

Center for African Studies (CAS)

Department of Sociology, UIUC

Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center, UIUC

Residential Life (Reslife), UIUC

Office of Minority Students Affairs (OMSA), UIUC

Illinois Strategic International Partnership (ISIP), UIUC

College of Business, UIUC

Special thanks go to the ASO Forum planning committee

Ebenezer Acquah

Susan Ogwal

Vukoni Lupa Lasaga

Mor Gueye

Richard Beyogle

Anne Lutomia

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Beginning in 2006 (and re-introduced in 2011), the ASO officers created two awards to recognize

members and friends who have distinguished themselves through dedication to the Organization and the

Champaign-Urbana African community.

The Ibulaimu Kakoma Award for Individual Commitment and Leadership in honor of our

Patron and mentor, the late Prof. Ibulaimu Kakoma. This year, it has been awarded to Ebenezer

Acquah.

The ASO Award for Outstanding Community Service. This year, it has been awarded to Mor

Gueye.

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The (Un) Spoken Emergent Africa

The central theme of this conference seeks to address the emerging economies of the

African continent. Currently, Sub-Saharan Africa has a remarkable gross domestic product

(GDP) growth rate, higher than most regions in the world. Indeed, seven of the world's fastest

growing economies are African and yet the image of the continent continues to be that of war-

torn countries, disease, corrupt governance and hungry children. This conference seeks to

amplify the depiction of Africa by providing a more systematic overview of the empirical and

analytic research carried out by various scholars and to shed light on activity that is often

overshadowed and unspoken.

Consequently, the African Students’ Organization’s (ASO) forum aims to give voice to

the milestones that various African countries are attaining in diverse sectors like economics,

urban development, political science, history, linguistics, literature, healthcare, engineering,

education, agriculture, business, government, library science, technology and social work. Apart

from presenting the research findings, scholars and activists will additionally discuss the

following questions: What are the challenges faced and opportunities encountered when

documenting and archiving Africa? Why do some African stories remain or go untold? How are

Africans currently documenting their stories? These questions are among the many that

educators, students, and panelists from across multiple disciplines seek to answer and address in

critical debate and scholarship.

Welcome!

Mabinty Tarawallie

Chair, ASO Forum Planning Committee

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PROGRAM SCHEDULE

Opening and welcome address 09:30 - 09:45

Ifeyinwa Onyenekwu – President, African Students Organization (ASO)

Maimouna Barro, PhD – Associate Director, Center for African Studies, UIUC

Paper Session #1: An emerging Africa: What’s right, what’s wrong? 09:45 - 11:10

Facilitator: Anne Songi Lutomia, PhD Student – Human Resources Development, UIUC

09:45 - 10:00 Developing alternative methodologies: Using needs assessments as a

mechanism for community self-determination in South Sudan

TARNJEET KAUR KANG, PhD Student

Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, UIUC

10:00 - 10:15 Africa Rising but we have been here before

EMMANUEL NUESIRI, PhD

Geography and Geographic Information Science, UIUC

10:15 - 10:30 Confronting the white elephant: International volunteering and racial

(dis)advantage BENJAMIN J. LOUGH, PhD

JANET D. CARTER-BLACK, PhD

School of Social Work, UIUC

10:30 - 10:45 Peer effects in agricultural extension: Evidence of endogenous social

interaction in the performance of Community Knowledge Workers (CKWs) in

Uganda

FESTUS ONESIMUS AMADU, Graduate Student

College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences, UIUC

10:45 - 11:10 Questions/Answers session

Invited talks #1 Africa’s diaspora and friends contribute 11:15 -12:00

11:15- 11:25 Medical mission trip

NNAKWE CHINONYE, PhD

Director of Graduate Diversity Recruitment for the Office of the Provost

The University of Chicago

11:25 - 11:35 The potential in business

TOHEEB OKENLA, Freshman


11:35 - 11:45 Study abroad in Sierra Leone

NATASHA WILKINS, Senior


11:45 -12:00 Questions/Answers session

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* LUNCH BREAK 12:00 - 13:00

*Concurrent with booth displays

Paper Session #2: Gendered discourses and culture 13:00 - 14:30

Facilitator: Richard Beyogle, PhD Candidate, Department of French, UIUC

13:00 - 13:15 Swazi folktales: The symbiosis of message and medium

TELAMISILE PHUMLILE MKHATSHWA, Graduate Student

Center for African Studies, UIUC

13:15 - 13:30 Hypermasculinity, State violence, and family well-being: Child health in

Zimbabwe ASSATA ZERAI, Ph.D, Associate Professor


13:30 -13:45 Afropolitan remix: Popular music and moving beyond money and style

RICHARD M. DEJA, PhD Candidate

Musicology/African Studies, UIUC

13:45 - 14:00 Disrupting patriarchy: An examination of the role of e-technologies in rural

Kenya

BRENDA NYANDIKO SANYA, PhD Student

Education Policy, Global Studies in Education, UIUC

14:00 -14:30 Questions/Answers session

14:30 -14:40 Remembering some people we have recently lost

Invited Talk # 2 14:40 -15:05

14:40 - 14:55 A walk down memory lane:

Reflecting on the history of ASO

MOR GUEYE, PhD Student

Curriculum and Instruction, UIUC

14:55 - 15:05 Questions/Answers session

Keynote Address 15:10 - 16:25

15:10 -16:25 African agency and the contours of State-building in Africa

Abu Bakarr Bah, PhD

Department of Sociology

Northern Illinois University

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Vote of Thanks and Awards Presentations 16:25 - 16:35

Mabinty Tarawallie – Vice President (ASO) and Chair, Forum Planning Committee.

Closing remarks and pictures 16:35 - 16:50

*** DISPLAY BOOTHS

Booth 1: African Students Organization at UIUC

Booth 2: Center for African Studies

Booth 3: Summer Institute for languages of the Muslim World (SILMW)

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bu Bah is Associate Professor of Sociology at Northern Illinois

University and Faculty Associate at the Center for NGO

Leadership and Development. He is also Editor-in-Chief of

African Conflict & Peacebuilding Review published by Indiana University Press and the author

of Breakdown and Reconstitution: Democracy, the Nation-State, and Ethnicity in Nigeria. His

research work deals with human security and human development issues, especially in the areas

of good governance, violent political conflicts, humanitarian intervention, democracy,

international NGOs/intergovernmental organizations, and postwar reconstruction. His most

recent works have been published in journals such as Journal of International Peacekeeping,

African Affairs, Critical Sociology, International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, and

Africa Today. He is currently completing his second book on international state-building in West

Africa.

Abu Bah is a recipient of the 2012 Council of American Overseas Research Centers Multi-

Country Research Fellowship and a frequent guest on international media programs such as Al

Jazeera America and China Radio International. He has been an invited speaker at major

institutions such as Social Science Research Council, University of Illinois at Urbana

Champaign, University of South Florida, and Virginia Commonwealth University. He has also

chaired panels and served as discussant at major international conferences.

Abu Bah served on the Board of Directors of the West African Research Association (2009-

2012). He is currently President of the NIU Chapter of PHI BETA DELTA International Honor

Society and a member of the Advisory Board of Jane Adeny Memorial School in Kenya,

Abu Bah has taught a wide range of graduate and undergraduate courses, including Sociological

Theory, Democracy and Development, Migration, and Social Institutions. He has also directed

study abroad programs to Sierra Leone, West Africa.

Abu Bah received his doctoral degree from the New School for Social Research in New York

and undergraduate degree from the University of Sofia in Bulgaria. He was born and raised in

Sierra Leone, West Africa.

A

A profile of the Keynote speaker, Abu Bah, PhD.

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Assata Zerai Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Sociology

Associate Professor of African Studies

Center for Global Studies

Assata Zerai is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois Urbana-

Champaign. She is a core faculty member in the Center for African Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology

in 1993 from the University of Chicago. Her scholarship focuses on the ways that race, class and gender as

interlocking spheres are reflected in maternal and child health, evangelical religions settings and anti-war activism.

Her research expertise includes development and testing Africana Feminist methodologies for social analysis and

social organizing.

Benjamin Lough

Assistant Professor

School of Social Work

Ben Lough is currently a faculty member of the School of Social Work at the University

of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Professor Lough earned his BS in Sociology in 2000 and his MSW in 2003 from

Brigham Young University and his PhD in 2010 from the George W. Brown School of Social Work at Washington

University in St. Louis. Dr. Lough has extensive international research experience, having recently served as a

resident consultant to the United Nations in Germany, an independent consultant to the Department of Human and

Social Services of American Samoa, program evaluator for Mayan Tree in Guatemala, and program evaluator for

the Foundation for International and Community Assistance in Armenia and the Republic of Georgia. His

research interests include: civic engagement, international development, and volunteer management. He currently

researches the impacts of international volunteerism on host communities and organizations, and he has completed

field work on this question in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, and South Africa.

Janet Carter-Black

Clinical Associate Professor

School of Social Work

Janet D. Carter-Black, PhD is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Illinois

at Urbana-Champaign School of Social Work. Dr. Carter-Black combines her years of child welfare practice and

administration at Cunningham Children’s Home where she served in a variety of capacities from Child Care

Worker to Director of Human Resource Development, with her primary research interests which include resilience

in African American families. She recently expanded her research focus to include examination of a social

phenomenon termed “the burden of acting white” which refers to the experience of academically gifted African

American students being targeted for harassment and rejection by same-race peers. Dr. Carter-Black’s most

current investigation of this phenomenon indicates at times such challenges emanate from within the family

system.

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ABSTRACTS and DESCRIPTIONS

Paper Session # 1

Developing alternative methodologies: Using needs assessments as a mechanism for community

self-determination in South Sudan

TARNJEET KAUR KANG, PhD Student Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, UIUC

This paper will examine the use of needs assessments in international development, and

specifically identify how this evaluation approach can be used to further community self-determination in

South Sudan. As the world’s newest country, many foreign NGOs have entered the country to assist in

post-conflict and post-independence development. Assessments have been conducted to determine the

standard of living in the country, and as many NGOs rely on evaluation-based funding programs they are

required to justify expenses for the renewal of grants. An argument will be made for the use of needs

assessments at the local level as a mechanism for community self-determination. This allows for the

voices of South Sudanese communities to be firmly institutionalized into the program and policy

development process, which in turn allows for the needs of South Sudanese citizens to be better met.

Within the context of South Sudan, utilizing this approach may allow us to incorporate needs related to

governance, education, peace and economic development. It also provides a means for creating a balance

between South Sudan’s government meeting the needs of its citizens in its current limited capacity, and

communities exercising self-determination to meet their own needs. Additionally, communities across

South Sudan vary in their governance and access to resources, as they have been impacted differently by

the civil wars, the imposition of oil seeking companies, as well as the increasing centralization of

governmental power to the capital of the country. In response to this, needs assessments at the community

level integrate democratic and decentralization processes into development and governance practices.

Africa rising but we have been here before

EMMANUEL NUESIRI, PhD

Geography and Geographic Information Science, UIUC

Africa’s economic growth in the last decade has been receiving very positive reviews. The

Economist magazine maintain that in the last decade sub-Saharan Africa’s real GDP grew at a rate of

5.7% up from 2.4% in the previous two decades. This growth rate was more than Latin America and at

par with Asia despite the magnificent performance of the Chinese and Indian economies pulling Asia

along. While this is very good news, we should not forget that we have been here before. In the first

decade after independence in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Africa had the highest economic growth rate

compared to other developing regions in the world. The economic surplus that accrued from the post-

independence era economic growth, held in trust for the people, by the various agricultural marketing

boards, was squandered by the post-independent elites. When the prices of Africa’s agricultural exports

fell drastically in the world markets, there was no safety net to fall back on, resulting in widespread

poverty. Here we go again, with African economies experiencing a boom based on the exploitation of

natural resources. Would Africa’s governing elites today repeat the errors of the past? While countries

such as Norway are creating huge sovereign wealth funds with their economic surplus today, how are

African countries preparing for the inevitable economic bust in the near future?

Keywords: Economic growth, boom, natural resources, governing elites, bust

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Confronting the White elephant: International volunteering and racial (Dis)advantage BENJAMIN J. LOUGH, PhD

JANET D. CARTER-BLACK, PhD

School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Background: Racial issues are not often addressed openly in development discourse – leading some

scholars to describe racial concerns as the “elephant in the room” or an invisible blind spot in

international development practice. This study investigates how recipients of development aid in Kenya

view themselves in relation to Western helpers.

Methods: Researchers spent one-month in Kenya conducting primary field research with nine major

volunteer-sending organizations. Methods include a combination of 24 structured staff-member

interviews, 59 community-member interviews in participatory workshop format, and 83 quantitative

surveys. All interviews were digitally recorded, translated, transcribed, and analyzed.

Results: From the perspective of African community members, there is a strong association between race

and: (1) resources or assistance, (2) knowledge, expertise or skills, (3) trust, and (4) caring and

compassion. Staff members were statistically more likely to believe that hosting an international volunteer

from outside of Africa increases their appeal to funders. All else being equal, respondents indicate that

hosting a white volunteer increases the trust others have of their organization compared to hosting a black

volunteer. Overall, respondents were significant more likely to prefer a white volunteer from the outside

of Africa if given the choice.

Conclusions and Implications: To shift the power balance and to change disempowered racial

perceptions, civil society organizations that send international volunteers can engage hosting communities

in critical conscious-raising, strengths-based dialogue and polemic discourse about the mutuality of

exchange. Targeted preparation of volunteers may also confront the “color-blind stance of development”

as volunteers are challenged to reflect on their own unconscious or unobserved helping biases.

Peer effects in agricultural extension: Evidence of endogenous social interaction in the performance

of Community Knowledge Workers (CKWs) in Uganda

FESTUS ONESIMUS AMADU, Graduate Student


Peer effects, or the propensity of an individual’s actions or outcomes to reflect the dominant

outcome of his or her group or community (Manski, 1993), has received increasing attention in the social

sciences due to its salience across a wide variety of context (Sacerdote, Bramoull , D ebbari and

Fortin, 2009; De Giorgi, Pellizzari and Redaelli, 2010; Krishnan and Patnam, 2013). For instance,

workers with high productive ability improve the performance level of a team compared to their

counterparts with lower abilities. This finding has vital implications for employers and human resource

managers in terms of staff allocation to duty, pairing or teaming (Mas and Moretti, 2009; Rees, Zax, and

Herries, 2003). Similarly, studies of peer effects among students provide information on their academic

outcomes and social decisions such as fraternity membership (Sacerdote, 2001) and their choice of an

academic major (De Giorgi, Pellizzari and Redaelli, 2010).

Peer effects are assumed to have a large effect in contexts that rely on informal learning, such as

agriculture in developing countries. Agriculture has been the focus of peer effects studies, especially with

regards to technology adoption among rural farmers (Krishnan and Patnam, 2013; Liverpool-Tasie and

Winter-Nelson, 2012, Maertens and Barrett, 2012; Conley and Udry, 2010). However, we are unaware of

any studies on peer effects among agricultural extension workers, even though extension has long since

been considered a crucial aspect of agricultural development (Knutson, 1968; Lipton and Longhurst,

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1989; Dinar, 1996; Anderson and Feder, 2004). It contributes to the literature by being first to provide a

quantitative estimate of extension workers’ productivity through the concept of peer effects.

This research empirically estimates the existence of peer effects in the labor outcomes

(performance) of inherent in identifying peer effects, we utilize the rich theoretical advances in social

network analysis (such as Lee, 2007; Bramoull , D ebbari and ortin, Wasserman and aust, )

and the empirical applications (e.g., Krishnan and Patnam, 2013; De Giorgi, Pellizzari and Redaelli,

2010). Specifically, we employ the linear-in-means model applied to social networks analysis in peer

group settings, to identify peer effect among C Ws in districts across ganda. The identification

strategy is based on the assumption of the existence of intransitive triads (Bramoull , D ebbari and ortin,

2009) or partially overlapping peers (De Giorgi, Pellizzari and Redaelli, 2010) within the network.

The analysis utilizes a novel dataset comprising of the administrative monthly records of searches

done by CKWs over the period, January 2010 to December 2011. Using these monthly records, we

construct a spatial panel. We restrict the analysis to CKWs with appropriate person IDs and geocodes. A

total of 650 CKWs were selected. Further, a K-Nearest neighbor/peer interaction matrix based on the 5

closest CKWs within a given district will be constructed. Spatial lags are computed for each matrix and a

spatial-two-staged least square regression is applied to account for the endogeneity of peer effects

(Kelejian and Prucha, 1998). I also use a change in incentives facing CKWs to identify the productivity

response by each CKW, and the role played by peer effects in that productivity improvement. Further, I

hope to use a difference-in-differences strategy to identify the effect of both the change in incentives and

how it perpetuates throughout the network. The study has significant policy implications for improving

agricultural extension in developing countries and elsewhere.

Invited talks #1

Medical mission trip NNAKWE CHINONYE, PhD

Director of Graduate Diversity Recruitment for the Office of the Provost

The University of Chicago

Chinonye Nnakwe (PhD'09, UChicago) Moderator, Director of Graduate Diversity Recruitment

for the Office of the Provost at the University of Chicago Chinonye "Chi-Chi" Nnakwe is the Director of

Graduate Diversity Recruitment at the University of Chicago. In her position, she collaborates with

faculty, students and administrators in all divisions and professional schools to create, enhance, revise and

execute a strategy for recruiting students from underrepresented backgrounds. In addition to her outreach

work, Dr. Nnakwe also builds curricula and pursues research projects that address educational disparities

among underrepresented groups in higher education. Dr. Nnakwe received her Bachelor of Science in

Biochemistry with Distinction in the Curriculum from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

and her PhD in Pathology, with a concentration in Cancer Biology and Yeast Genetics from the

University of Chicago.

The potential in business TOHEEB OKENLA, Freshman


As someone born and raised in Nigeria (or any developing country), you view the world a lot

differently from others. This difference in perspective, which consequentially influences everything we

do, is what makes us Africans, African. As we trailblaze with our minds set on going forward, this is my

humble perspective on the importance on “looking back.”

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Paper Session #2

Swazi folktales: The symbiosis of message and medium TELAMISILE PHUMLILE MKHATSHWA, Graduate Student

Center for African Studies, UIUC

Oral Literature, particularly folktales are an integral part of the African lifestyle. Africans use

tales to educate, entertain, rebuke, and commend both adults and children. The advent of colonialism and

modernism, however, resulted in the pervasive belief that folktales and African oral literature is inferior

or savage when compared to modern literature. Swaziland was not spared from this misconception. Some

of the educated or “knowledgeable” Swazis claim that folktales have lost their value and are an inferior

form of prose. Moreover, a growing number of Swazi children are losing the knowledge of their mother

tongue (SiSwati) because they do not speak it often, even their bed time stories are in English. This paper

shows that Swazi folktales are in-depth artistic pieces of work. I analyze linguistic and paralinguistic

features of the narratives to demonstrate that Swazi oral tales are highly artistic and thought provoking.

Using the socio-artistic approach, I show the symbiotic relationship between the medium (language) and

messages (themes) in Swazi folktales. The paper emphasizes that Swazi folktales can benefit Swazis as

they face linguistic and moral degeneration. The work concludes that parents, educators and media houses

should do everything in their power to promote storytelling and Swazi folktales amongst the present and

coming generations.

Key words: Folktales, message and medium.

Hypermasculinity, State violence, and family well-being: Child health in Zimbabwe ASSATA ZERAI, PhD, Associate Professor


In this manuscript, I explore the demography of maternal and child health in Southern Africa

from an Africana feminist sociological perspective. I present a framework that considers the ways that

nation, race, class, gender, sexuality, globalization, and other dimensions of oppression intersect to impact

upon the experiences and agency of individuals and groups with health care and social support in

Zimbabwe. I analyze data sets from the Demographic and Health Surveys for this country. On the basis of

the Africana feminist framework elaborated herein, I argue that maternal and child health cannot be

understood unless the socioeconomic, political, and cultural contexts are taken into account. I extend and

test the hypothesis that militarism (especially state violence) and hyper-masculinity in Zimbabwe have

deleterious effects on family well-being in general, and especially on maternal and child health. This

work contributes importantly to the social scientific literature in the social demography of Africa because

it adapts the vibrant intellectual work of Africana feminists to a quantitative methodology. Thus the work

proposes a new Africana feminist quantitative methodology that could be utilized to study other subject

matter. Further, on the basis of this novel methodological approach, this work elicits results that give rise

to useful maternal and child health-related policy recommendations.

Keywords: ethnic divisions, maternal and child health, Africa, Zimbabwe, feminist analysis

Afropolitan remix: Popular music and moving beyond money and style

RICHARD M. DEJA, PhD Candidate

Musicology/African Studies, UIUC

The term ‘Afropolitan’ was popularized by Taiye Selasi in her article titled “Bye-Bye, Babar (Or:

What is an Afropolitan?).” It is a coinage combining the words “African” and “cosmopolitan,” and

conveys a sentiment expressed in the oft quoted statement, “We are not citizens of the world, but Africans

of the world.” The expression has since appeared in numerous contexts including journals, album titles,

and fashion blogs. Supporters of the term posit that it speaks to the dynamic and positive nature of

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contemporary Africa, but critics argue that it has been reduced to a mere reference to style and economic

privilege. Musicians like Femi Kuti and others are referenced to exemplify the Afropolitan persona, but

whose works and careers are rarely considered in detail. A closer look reveals a more elaborate picture

where commercial success, social representation, and personal philosophies intersect in a process built

upon (re) defining and embracing that which is African today.

In this paper, I examine the term ‘Afropolitan’, the context that inspired it, and the discourse that

followed, paying particular attention to debates concerning its meaning and relevance, and how it

resonates within the African music. Whether or not the term works, and for whom, is secondary to the

desire for generating the term in the first place. It is evermore clear that simply combing ideas or speaking

in terms of syncretism is proving less useful, failing to account for the continued remixing of notions

concerning identity and being in the world today.

Disrupting patriarchy: An examination of the role of E-technologies in rural Kenya

BRENDA NYANDIKO SANYA, PhD Student

Education Policy, Global Studies in Education, UIUC

This paper considers the significant growth of the mobile telephone industry in Kenya and

discusses the mobile phone as a potential tool to circulate grassroots (or indigenous) feminisms, cultures

and cultural products. In considering the mobile phone and the utility of affiliated applications such as

one of enya’s mobile banking systems and their impact on social and cultural lives (an impact that may

not be an intended or explicit outcome of the innovator’s work) this essay suggests that this important

advancement in technology, which surpassed and bypassed other technologies in most communities in

Africa, must be examined critically, both in terms of the cultural shifts caused by the explicit and implicit

transmission and exchange of information. By democratizing access to technology, the mobile phone

allows us to question established social assumptions and values regarding information and

communication technologies (ICTs) and the assumed social and educational discourses that tend to

dominate conversations about information in traditional media and dominant culture.

15

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops.

Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard

'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines

Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame

I rise

Up from a past that's rooted in pain

I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.

- Maya Angelou

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OUR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2013-2014

President, African Student Organization

Doctoral Student, Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership

University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign

[email protected]

Vice-President, African Student Organization

MSW Student, School of Social Work

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

[email protected]

Social Secretary, African Student Organization

Doctoral student in Community Health


[email protected]

General Secretary, African Student Organization

PhD student, Department of Geology

Institute for Genomic Biology


[email protected]

Treasurer, African Student Organization

Undergraduate Student, Political Science, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences


Webmaster, African Student Organization

Doctoral Student, Chemical & Bimolecular Engineering, UIUC

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FORUM PLANNING COMMITTEE

Doctoral student, Graduate School of Library and Information Science University of Illi nois at Urbana-Champaign

Doctoral Student, School of Art and Design, Art Education University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Graduate Student, Global Studies in Education University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Doctoral Student, Department of Linguistic University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Doctoral Student, Curriculum and Instruction University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

ASO FORUM 2014

Office of Minority Students Affairs (OMSA), UIUC

Residential Life (RESLife), UIUC Center for African Studies (CAS), UIUC

Department of Sociology, UIUC Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center (BNAAC), UIUC

College of Engineering, UIUC McKinley Health Center, UIUC

Department of Agriculture and Consumer Economics, UIUC Study Abroad Office, UIUC

Social Dimensions of Environmental Policy (SDEP), UIUC

the (un)spoken emergent africa - home | …illinois.edu/lb/files/2014/04/17/51977.pdf · 4 the (un)...

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