Posts by Paul

The Boko Haram Insurgency , a roundtable discussion with Comfort Ero

Comfort Ero , Programme Director, International Crisis Group Monday,

Monday, 28th April, 3PM

 Royal African Society, Lower Meeting Room, 36 Gordon Square, London, London WC1H 0PD

In their latest report in the Curbing Violence in Nigeria series, International Crisis Group looks at the Boko Haram insurgency.In the past 4 years the Boko Haram (real name: Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad) insurgency has claimed approximately 4,000 lives. Targeting the Hausa elite and government infrastructure such as schools and military bases, the insurgency is devastating an already debilitated region.The new ICG report highlights the socio-political origins of the conflict, the transformation from peaceful movement to underground insurgency, and its current impact on regional security and stability.This roundtable meeting will discuss the conditions in Northern Nigeria that incubated the militant group, the development of Boko Haram’s agenda & targets, and the ongoing efforts disarm the fragmented movement.Comfort Ero has been Crisis Group’s Nairobi-based Africa Program Director since January 2011. She previously worked with Crisis Group as West Africa Project Director. As Program Director, Comfort oversees projects covering South, West, Central and the Horn of Africa. She has a PhD from the London School of Economics, University of London.

 

To register please  email RSVP@royalafricansociety.org.

 

Material Culture of Politics in Africa

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7307/coverphoto/2548689@N20_l.jpg?1394098007#2548689@N20

New flickr group Material Culture of Politics in Africa  brings together images of contemporary materials produced in Africa with political relevance — posters, leaflets, graffiti, tshirts, portrait cloths, stamps, postcards etc
http://www.flickr.com/groups/2548689@N20/

 

 

 

The Pan-African history of Basil Davidson: Episode 1 – Different but Equal: Screening + Q&A

 

Tuesday, 11 March 2014 – 7:00pm to 9:00pm

Khalili Lecture Theatre (KLT), SOAS

http://www.abbrv.co.uk/vDj

 

Speakers: Mick Csaky, Series Executive Producer; Gus Casely-Hayford, presenter, Lost Kingdoms of Africa; Professor Stephen Quirke, Institute of Archaeology, University College London.

The Royal African Society is proud to announce that it is hosting the 30 anniversary of Basil Davidson’s award­winning 8 x 1­hour documentary film series “AFRICA: A Voyage of Discovery” which first appeared in the UK on Channel 4 television in April 1984 and went on to play worldwide, with an accompanying book.

Basil Davidson’s seminal documentary series ‘Africa’ challenges the long held beliefs like the opinion of David Hume that Africa had ‘no ingenious manufactures among them, no arts, no sciences’. The series presents a pan-African conception of history from the origins of Egypt and Nubia to the liberation movements that Basil was familiar with, and newly independent nations in Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

When Greek Historian Herodotus visited Ancient Egypt he described the civilisation he saw there as ‘different but equal’. Episode one shows that some of the world’s greatest early civilisations have their origins in black Africa, including those along the Nile Valley. The episode includes interviews with Senegalese mathematician, philosopher and Egyptologist Cheikh Anta Diop and explores the growth of African civilisations in West and Northeast Africa.

In the Q&A following the screening we will discuss the extent Victorian Egyptologists ‘whitewashed’ archaeology to fit in with their conception of Africa as a land with no intrinsic history.

About the series:

The series was produced in collaboration between Channel 4, The Nigeria Television Authority MBTV and RM Arts. It first aired 30 years ago in 1984 and won many awards, including the International Film & TV Festival of New York Gold Award. It has since been distributed, free of charge to many schools and colleges in the UK and Africa.

About Basil Davidson

Basil Davidson was a distinguished author and historian, having written more than 30 books on Africa. Prior to this he was a soldier working in Churchill’s Special Operations Executive during World War 2.