1. Agenda africanista

2008

– 03 a 06 de Janeiro de 2008 – Workshop História Viva: ao encontro da Memória dos Herdeiros da Escravidão. 122^nd American Historical Association Meeting, Washington D.C. Organizadores: Paul Lovejoy (Universidade York - Instituto Harriet Tubman de pesquisa sobre as migrações globais dos povos africanos), e Ana Lúcia Araújo (Universidade Laval – Cátedra de pesquisa do Canadá em história comparada da memória). Contactos: Ana Lúcia Araújo:

analucia.araujo@gmail.com

– 10 de Janeiro de 2008 – Abolition and the Road to Freedom: 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of 1808. [The U.S. National Archives in partnership with several partner agencies will present a symposium commemorating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the U.S., on Thursday, January 10, 2008 at the National Archives in Washington, DC. The Center for the National Archives Experience and the Foundation for the National Archives are presenting the event, entitled Abolition and the Road to Freedom: 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of 1808, in collaboration with: the Bicentennial Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade; the National Museum of African American History and Culture; Howard University; the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the National Archives Afro-American History Society. Abolition and the Road to Freedom is generously supported by the Foundation for the National Archives, the Ford Foundation, Howard University; and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

The United Nations (UN) called in 2006 for international activities to celebrate and commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire (March 25, 1807). The symposium evolved from this watershed event in world history. The Slave Trade Act of 1808, passed by Congress in March of 1807, became effective January 1, 1808. The purpose of the day-long symposium is to raise awareness of the slave trade, its abolition, and the impact on U.S. history and culture. The National Archives extends its thanks to the executive members of the Bicentennial Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade: Joseph Harris, Howard Dodson, John W. Franklin, and James Early, for their key roles in organizing this symposium.

Symposium Abolition and the Road to Freedom: 200th Anniversary of the Slave Trade Act of 1808. Thursday, January 10, 2008;  9:00 am to 5:30 pm; U.S. National Archives, William G. McGowan Theater, 7th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC. Advance registration is required. PROGRAM: 9:00 am to 9:30 am. Welcome. Remarks by Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States, Lonnie Bunch, director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Howard Dodson, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. 9:30 am to 10:30 am. Keynote Address. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Levering Lewis speaks on “Competing Agendas: Ending the Atlantic Slave Traffic.” 10:45 am to 12:15 pm. Global Scope of the Slave Trade and the Act of Abolition. This panel will address the national and international reasons for abolition. Panelists include Joseph Inikori, professor of history, Rochester University; Ira Berlin, professor of history, University of Maryland; Sylviane Diouf, curator, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; Marika Sherwood, The Black and Asian Studies Association, England; and Lisa Crooms, professor of law, Howard University. 2:15 pm to 3:45 pm. Africans and the African Diaspora. This panel will identify and compare the status of African descendant communities in the United States and other American regions during the periods of enslavement and abolition. Panelists include Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, senior research fellow, Tulane University; Selwyn H. H. Carrington, professor of history, Howard University; Michael Gomez, professor of history, New York University; Michael Turner, professor of history, Hunter College, City University of New York; and historian and scholar Bernice Reagon. 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm. Contemporary Implications of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. This panel will examine how the legacy of enslavement continues to affect contemporary American society. Panelists include Ali A. Mazrui, director, Institute of Global Cultural Studies, Binghamton University; Georgia Dunston, professor and founding director, National Human Genome Center, Howard University; George Dalley, chief of staff, Office of Congressman Charles Rangel; John W. Franklin, National Museum of African American History and Culture; and Clarence Lausane, professor, School of International Service, American University. REGISTRATION: Register by January 4.] Para mais informações, visite

http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/events/january.html#symposium ou contacte Katie Wilmes (email: katie.wilmes@nara.gov telefone: 202-357-5127).

– 14 a 17 de Janeiro de 2008 – Conference on Rwanda Genocide. York University, Keele Campus. Hosted by International Development Studies, Council of Masters, McLaughlin College and Founders College. Co-Sponsored with The Centre for Refugee Studies, The Centre for Human Rights, York International, York Federation of Students, Harriet Tubman Institute, Glendon College, and Faculty of Education. [The Conference on Rwanda Genocide: lest We Forget is an opportunity for students and staff of York University and members of the general public to learn about the causes and roots of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, in an effort to prevent similar occurrences. The conference will include presentations by speakers and artists on a number of topics including the Politics of Intervention in Humanitarian Cases, Politics of Reconciliation and Healing Rwanda. For more information and to register contact: General information: Sameer Gulamani 416.414.7610 Ruth Kambali 416.665.8667 Registration: Consuelo McAlister 416.660.8697 Jessica Jackel 416.986.3216 www.yorku.ca/mcl ]

– 26 e 27 de Fevereiro de 2008 – The Relevance of Traditional Architecture: Housing Rural Communities and the Urban Poor. INTBAU Nigeria is organizing a conference in Kano, Nigeria. It is aimed at bringing together professionals, students, educators of the built environment and other NGOs to come up with solutions of sustainable built environments constructed with local materials and that mirror the essence of traditional architectures. This is in line with the millennium development goals of slum eradication and good standard housing for all. The organization believes that by using culture to inform work on Building, Architecture and Urbanism, the maintainance of traditional buildings and surroundings, revival and continuity of traditional skills, craftsmanship and theories in the built environment, are executed successfully and in a peaceful manner. For more information visit their website: http://www.intbau.org/nigeria/index.htm 

            Contact: tonyaton2003@yahho.com 

– 26 de Fevereiro a 01 de Março de 2008 – The Seventh European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC) will take place in Lisbon. http://www.iisg.nl/esshc/2008.php

– 13 a 16 de Março de 2008 – Routes to Freedom: Reflections on the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. The Common Law and Civil Law Sections Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa [The Gowlings Moot Court Room, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON Canada http://www.commonlaw.uottawa.ca/ ] [“The Conference will run from 8:30 on Friday the 14th of March to 13:00 on Sunday the 16th of March 2008.  More details about the conference can be found at the conference website: www.abolition1807-2007.uottawa.ca (under construction).Topics: This multi-disciplinary conference will explore the reality and impact of the transatlantic slave trade, anti-slavery movements and their link to contemporary relationships between the peoples of Africa and the world.  Several themes pertaining to slavery in Canada and the wider Black Atlantic have been identified but are not limited to: The Impact and Legacy of Transatlantic Enslavement. The Political Economy of Slavery. Slavery and the Antebellum South. The Trajectory of Slavery in Canada. Slavery, Colonialism and the Roots of International Law. The Haitian Revolution and its Impact on the Freedom Movement in the Americas. From Property to Personhood:  Transmuting the Law. The Impact of Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade on other Regions/Nation. The Black Abolitionists: Transnational Human Rights Activists. Innocence Denied:  Children and the Slave Trade. Slavery, anti-Slavery and Faith. Feminist Analyses of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Slavery, Memory and Literary Production. Slavery, Migration and Diasporas. The Evolution of Creole Languages and the Slave Trade. Contemporary Forms of Slavery and the Transatlantic Legacy. The Challenge of Community and State-Based Restitution Models. Theoretical Limits When Analyzing the Slave Trade. Speakers from academia and the community at large are invited to present papers and make suggestions for innovate presentation formats.  The topics covered and the exact form of the conference will be determined in part by the submissions. Symposium highlights: In addition, to 2.5 days of stimulating panels and discussions, the conference will feature: Friday Evening, March 14, 2008. On the evening of Friday the 14th of March, the conference will feature a reception hosted by the Law Society of Upper Canada, The Canadian Association of Black Lawyers and The Black Law Students Association of Canada at the Ottawa Court House. Saturday Morning, March 15, 2008. On Saturday morning, the Symposium will feature a Literary Presentation and discussion with Lawrence Hill, author of Book of Negroes (Nobody Knows my Name- US release).  Mr. Hill’s book is a Canadian National best seller and has been long-listed for the Giller Prize. Saturday Evening, March 15, 2008. A fundraising gala dinner will be held on Saturday the 15th of March.  The proceeds will go to a fund for undergraduate entrance scholarships and graduate fellowships to assist young scholars from and/or engaged in pursuing legal studies related to social justice and international human rights and development law.  Tickets will be separate from conference registration. Art Exhibit. An art exhibit will be held for two weeks, from March 7th to 22nd in a local gallery featuring artists whose work celebrates the survival, resilience and creativity of diasporic peoples. General inquires should be sent to astagen@uottawa.ca . The University of Ottawa, Canada’s largest law school, is (a) bijuridical and bilingual law school in our nation’s capital.  We are the only law school in the world where students can elect to pursue their studies in English, French or both languages.  Our areas of specialization include Dispute Resolution, Environmental Law, International Trade, Social Justice and Technology Law.”]  Mais informações:

            http://www.commonlaw.uottawa.ca – www.yorku.ca/tubman

– 09 e 10 de Abril de 2008 – Exploring Religious Spaces in the African State: Development and Politics from Below. Conference organised by the Centre of African Studies, the University of Edinburgh and WISER, The Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research.  Edinburgh. [Religious institutions have been at the forefront of human welfare for centuries. In Africa it is often difficult to untangle religious organisations from the agency of development. Religion, rather than declining as had been predicted with the advent of secular development, is taking an increasingly central and vibrant role in African political and developmental life. The African case demonstrates how secularisation theories had failed in assuming that in a modernising context the non-secular would gradually recede from public life. The reality is the non-secular in Africa is often pervading the spaces that the secular has singularly failed to address. Contemporary critiques of development theory assert that “development” poses solutions to development problems in a peculiarly apolitical, antiseptic, neutral way. It fails to provide solutions that encompass human needs; food security and shelter is materially important but so is a sense of community and belonging.

In Africa the “faith” dimension is important and plays a significant role in promoting non-governmental public action. Religious organisations and faith communities have wide networks, social resources and often unique access to people who are poor, marginalised and excluded.  Religious organisations represent a particularly significant component of civil society; and faith-based development has strong ethical foundations that become particularly important in the absence of alternative worldviews, social norms and political ideologies.

            This conference aims to understand the role of religion within development and politics and develop our understanding of the role and position of religious organisations and actors within more traditional conceptualisations of public action and its relationship to the state in Africa. The focus will be on Christian, Muslim and traditional religious organisations and institutions in, for, and against the political and broader development processes in post-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa.

The conference will be organised around the following tentative themes: 1. Filling the vacuum of the African state: tension or collaboration? This theme aims to explore the relationship between religious organisations and the African state. How do religious organisations define their role in the post-colonial state? How do religious organisations critique or plug the gaps in the so-called “weak” African state? How do religious organisations cope with prejudices and forms of control from secular organisations? 2. Faiths and development: religion and modernity. This theme aims to explore the relationship between religious organisations and development. How do religious actors and ideas contribute to development in contemporary Africa? Can we speak of a unique “religious” answer to development? How do religious organisations forge their own identity as development is becoming increasingly technical, technology-led and driven by agendas such as the Millennium Development Goals? 3. Faiths and responses to health crises: the case of HIV/AIDS. This theme aims to examine the major contributions religious organisations are making in the battle against HIV/AIDS. How do religious organisations negotiate the problematic relationships between public health, religious doctrine and political discourse? What role do different kinds of religious organisation play in providing healthcare? What is the relationship between religious organisations, the state and development agencies with respect to healthcare? Posters from postgraduate students are welcome and they will be displayed during the conference. For any questions, please contact the conference organisers or the Centre of African Studies in Edinburgh. Conference organisers: Dr Barbara Bompani School of Social and Political Studies (SSPS) The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh – UK. Email: B.Bompani@ed.ac.uk Dr Maria Frahm-Arp Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER) The University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg – South Africa. Email: frahm-arpm@wiser.wits.ac.za ]

– 21 a 26 de Abril de 2008 – International Conference on African Culture 2008 (Kumasi, Ghana). Outlined topics for the conference include: Culture and Governance: Modern Governance Structures and the Future of Traditional Governing Institutions. Culture and Conflict Resolution in Africa. Culture: Opportunities for Improving Livelihoods in Africa. Foreign Aid: Understanding the Situation and Achieving Targets in Africa. Culture and the African Economy. Culture for Development: Unveiling Critical factors in Africa’s Development. Call for Papers: The organizers of ICAD 2008 to be held in Kumasi, invite the submission of papers on the topics outlined and others falling within the scope of the meeting to be considered for inclusion in the conference. More information at: http://www.icacd.ccoghana.org/default.asp Contact: icacd@ccoghana.org

– 01 a 04 de Maio de 2008 – Reflecting on Africa’s Riches: Resources, Conflict and Exploitation. Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) Annual Conference. University of Alberta, Edmonton. Co-sponsered by the University of Calgary. [Conference theme: Why is it that Africa’s many resources – mineral, environmental, human – bring so few riches to so few people? Is it the case, as many economists would have it, that whatever those reasons may be, Africa is doomed? Is it inevitable that the long-term impact of the much celebrated 21^st Century “globalization” will be to replicate the pain and powerlessness brought to Africa by its 20^th Century predecessors, colonialism and “neo-colonialism”? Have the scourges of war and disease that in recent decades have made drug-addicted killers out of thousands of young children, and AIDS orphans and care-givers out of thousands more, irreversibly shaped Africa’s future by depriving it of the next generation? Is it possible for us, the West in general, Canadians in particular, to be part of “healthy development” in Africa – to partner rather than “aid”, to invest rather than “exploit”, to learn rather than “teach”? Conference key note speakers and participants will engage in many ways with these broad questions, taking as a starting point the observation that Africa’s considerable human and natural resources continue to generate conflict and exploitation where, nearly half a century after the promises of Independence swept the continent, peace and prosperity should prevail.

CAAS members are researchers, teachers, NGO and development workers, students (Canadian and African); between us we bring to this discussion the perspectives of social scientists, humanists, health workers, educationalists and “lived experiences” – the perspectives of local African communities and community-based organizations. The University of Alberta represents a good cross-section of these interests and areas of expertise, having teachers and students involved in Africa in most of its faculties: Arts, Education, Law, Nursing, Medicine, Agriculture & Forestry and Engineering; “Campus St Jean”, our francophone campus, is equally involved in interdisciplinary African projects. The University’s “Alberta International” office develops and supports partnerships, projects and student education abroad (as well as exchange opportunities) that provides infrastructure for many “African” initiatives across campus. Individual programmes like the Middle Eastern and African Studies programme and the Peace and Post-Conflict certificate, as well as individual student initiatives like “Engineers without Borders (Ghana, Malawi)” and “Students’ International Health Association” (Tanzanian) bring research, teaching and volunteer work together.

The co-host, University of Calgary, also has a strong Africanist presence, cutting across the Faculties of Communication and Culture, Social Sciences, Science, Medicine, Education, Engineering and Humanities. It supports an African Studies Minor Program, the African Studies Research Group, a summer Field School in Ghana and several African research and volunteer initiatives for students and faculty members.

Edmonton and Calgary are also home to many African communities. In Edmonton, some are of long duration such as the Ghanaians, Nigerians and East Africans whose founders arrived during times of political and economic turmoil in the first decades of “post-colonialism”. Others are more recent, such as the Somalis, Rwandans and Sierra Leonians. Local organizations engaging with these communities, as well as community-generated groups, are active in the city and with the University. Calgary’s African communities reflect Ghanaian, Nigerian, Somalian and Sudanese heritages; most recently, the city has welcomed immigrants from Zimbabwe. This conference will attempt to draw upon all of these resources to enrich our larger, Canadian understanding of Africa’s potential and our role – whatever that may be – in joining in its realization.] Chamada para comunicações (em inglês ou francês): até 17 de Janeiro de 2008. Mais informações em:

http://caas.concordia.ca/htm/conference-e.htm (inglês)

http://caas.concordia.ca/htm/conference-f.htm (francês)

– 07 a 09 de Maio de 2008 – VI Congresso Ibérico de Estudos Africanos, que se realizará em Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Já se iniciou o prazo para Propostas de apresentações a enviar até ao dia 31 de Janeiro para vicongresoafrica@ulpgc.es Vide a lista de todos os painéis. Painel 1. Oralidades, insularidades e história. Coordenador: Jacint Creus (UB) e Ana Lúcia Sá (U. Beira Interior); Painel 2. Guinea Ecuatorial y São Tomé y Príncipe. Coordenadores: Manuel Ennes Ferreira (ISEG) e Alicia Campos (UAM); Painel 3. Empresarios canarios en África; Painel 4. África en el espacio Atlántico. Coordenador: Juan Manuel Santana Pérez (ULPGC); Painel 5. A construção de um Observatório como referência para o estudo da democracia e desenvolvimento, numa perspectiva lusófona. Coordenadora: Olga Iglésias (ULHT); Painel 6. Mercados de trabajo y género: estrategias económicas locales. Coordenadores: Carlos Oya (SOAS) e Soledad Viéitez (UGr); Painel 7. Desarrollo endógeno, procesos de paz y autoridades tradicionales. Coordenadores: Albert Farré (ISCTE) e Jordi Tomás (ISCTE); Painel 8. Novas configurações políticas do Islão Subsahariano. Coordenador: Eduardo Costa Dias (ISCTE  Lisboa); Painel 9. África e o Ocidente: cooperação e ensino superior. Coordenadoras: Margarida Lima de Faria e Ana Bénard da Costa (Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical, Lisboa); Painel 10. Independentismos negro-africanos contemporâneos. Coordenador: Jordi Tomás (ISCTE); Painel 11. Conflictos armados en África Subsahariana. Coordenadores: Karlos Pérez de Armiño (HEGOA) e Itziar Ruiz-Giménez Arrieta (GEA); Painel 12: Recursos naturales y dinámicas políticas. Coordenadores: Alicia Campos (UAM) e Paulo Inglés; Painel 13. Migraciones en y desde África: ¿la construcción de un nuevo espacio geopolítico? Coordenadoras: Ana Planet e Alicia Campos (UAM); Painel 14. Pluralismo terapêutico entre migrantes africanos. Coordenadoras: Clara Carvalho (ISCTE) e Clara Saraiva (Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical, Lisboa); Painel 15: Actores políticos em universos rurais africanos. Coordenador: Fernando Florêncio (U. Coimbra); Painel 16. Percepciones del desarrollo, dentro y fuera del continente. Coordenadores: Soledad Viéitez Cerdeño (UGr) e Isabel Marín Sánchez; Painel 17. Angola em Movimento. Coordenadores: Marzia Grassi (Instituto de Ciências Sociais – U. Lisboa) e Carlos M. Lopes (CEA-ISCTE); Painel 18. Plan África y cooperación al desarrollo española. Coordenadores: Jokin Alberdi, Alberto Begué e Eduardo Bidaurrazaga (EHU); Painel 19. Agricultura y desarrollo. Coordenador: Antonio Santamaría (UAM); Painel 20. Painel Livre.

– 09 de Maio a 09 de Junho de 2008 – Dak'Art 2008, 8th edition of the Biennale of Contemporary African Art will take place in Dakar.

– 12 a 14 de Maio de 2008 – Europa a preto e branco. Colóquio inserido no projecto Dislocating Europe. Centro de Estudos Comparatistas da Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa. [“O colóquio Europa a preto e branco tem como objectivo analisar definições contraditórias e complementares daquilo que a Europa é, foi e deve ser.

            Parte-se do pressuposto de que a Europa não pode ignorar as suas histórias coloniais a nível nacional e transnacional. Consequentemente, há que redefinir prioridades e identidades num espaço crescentemente multicultural, tomando simultaneamente em conta os conflitos que permeiam as interacções na contemporaneidade que não podem ser entendidas como um mero ‘choque de civilizações’, mas como lugares complexos de convivialidade (Gilroy) ou zonas de contacto (Pratt), em que a desigualdade de anteriores dependências é prolongada e contestada.

            Estas questões não podem ser dissociadas dos debates em torno das possibilidades e dos limites da teoria pós-colonial, como o demonstram os desenvolvimentos mais recentes nos estudos pós-coloniais, e o modo como aquela tem sido analisada por disciplinas distintas com diferentes ênfases e objectivos.

            São estas as questões que pretendemos discutir, reunindo especialistas de diferentes disciplinas e áreas, localizados em diferentes países e continentes, esperando assim contribuir para um debate aprofundado, numa perspectiva comparada, com o objectivo de testar as possibilidades e as limites das abordagens pós-coloniais a contextos disciplinares e geográficos específicos.

            – Qual a relevância de conceitos como os de identidade e diferença, raça e etnicidade ou de hibridez, quando aplicados em contextos sociais e geográficos, campos disciplinares específicos e a questões relacionadas com as políticas de representação?

            – Como articular os discursos sobre a diferença e a produção da mesma (Gupta / Ferguson) com o papel dos universais nos direitos humanos e as reivindicações em torno da cidadania?

            – Como analisar as representações da religião e do secularismo segundo a especificidade dos contextos locais na Europa contemporânea? Como ler os discursos correspondentes segundo a especificidade das histórias coloniais?

            – Qual o papel de formas emergentes de culturas expressivas na música, cinema e artes visuais? Como deverão estas ser avaliadas, quando se consideram outras narrativas em torno da identidade, tal como as que foram tradicionalmente propostas pela literatura, história ou antropologia?

            – Até que ponto poderão estas tendências contribuir para se ‘despensar’ a Europa (Stam/ Shohat)?

            Os interessados deverão enviar as suas propostas, incluindo um resumo, EM PORTUGUÊS OU INGLÊS (máximo 2000 caracteres, com espaço), para blackandwhite@fl.ul.pt até 31 de Janeiro de 2008. Comissão Organizadora: Manuela Ribeiro Sanches, João Ferreira Duarte, Fernando Clara

            Secretariado: Rita Maia”]

– 13 a 14 de Maio de 2008 – Analytic Abstractions, Lived Realities: Politics, Law and Economy in Africa. International interdisciplinary research conference in Trondheim, 13-14 May 2008, Africa Network Norway. Keynote speakers: David Anderson, Harri Englund. Organisers: Knut Myhre (Nordic Africa Institute – NAI), Todd Sanders (U. of Toronto/NTNU), Sigrid Damman (Africa Network Norway – ANN). [Africanists have long interpreted notions and practices from the African continent in terms of their political, legal and economic effects. For instance, witchcraft and other so-called occult phenomena have been understood as local responses to global intrusions, be they colonial conquests or the spread of neo-liberal institutions and ideologies. Meanwhile, kinship notions have been examined as local attempts at solving putatively universal governmental challenges, thus rendering “stateless societies” capable of performing state-like functions.

These approaches require that the complexities of social life in different African contexts be translated and reduced to “politics”, “law” and “economics”, as defined by western liberal-democratic standards. This ascendancy of western analytics not only threatens to eclipse the meaning of the phenomena distilled and translated in this manner; it also occludes the complex ways local notions and practices configure political, legal and economic fields in particular and possibly unique ways. This, in turn, threatens to hide the possible relevance of local phenomena for addressing the particular legal, political and economic requirements of specific locales.

The problem is perhaps most striking in post-conflict situations, where the international community insists on peace and reconciliation processes defined according to western judicial standards and procedures, even though these may in some instances threaten to prolong the conflicts. At the same time, local initiatives based on vernacular practices and procedures, such as mato oput in northern Uganda, are dismissed despite some positive precedents, like the gachacha trials in Rwanda.

This raises crucial questions about why, and for whom, these processes occur: peace and reconciliation for the local population or formalised justice for the international community.

This conference will explore some of the issues pertaining to this complex field. It seeks to bring together Africanist scholars from different disciplines to illuminate questions and possible solutions based on concrete historical or contemporary empirical cases from Africa. Participants are invited to explore the relationships between local notions and practices, on the one hand, and the fields of politics, law, and economy, on the other. More specific lines of enquiry might include, but are not limited to: the neglected potential of specific local notions and practices for addressing local political, legal or economic requirements; the relationship between human rights and local African phenomena; the workings of “tradition” and “civil society” vis-à-vis the modern nation-state; different notions and practices found at different levels of scale surrounding land disputes and natural resource management; global HIV/AIDS discourses and local aetiologies; the interstices of truth and reconciliation commissions and everyday practices; citizens and subjects and their real-world complications; among others. Such studies may serve both to highlight new aspects of local practices and notions, as well as to reveal hidden assumptions and effects that western categories and concerns have when transplanted to new contexts. As a whole, the aim of the conference is to render problematic – and possibly retool – some of the commonplace Western analytics that have fundamentally shaped our varied empirical projects on the continent.

A conference webpage will be put up shortly under www.svt.ntnu.no/africanetwork/

Those interested should submit a 250-word abstract by 11 January 2008, either through the webpage or by e-mail to Sigrid Damman at SigridD@SVT.NTNU.NO . Early registration is highly recommended since spaces are limited.]

– 14 a 17 de Maio de 2008 – Conferência sobre Frontiers and Passages, organizada por  Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institut Freiburg e.V. e Centre for African Studies Base, em Basileia e Friburgo, cujas temáticas podem ser vistas em:

http://www.unibas-zasb.ch/english/events/2007/02/vad_tagung_e.php. [For the first time the African Studies Association in Germany (VAD) and the Swiss Society for African Studies (SGAS) co-organise a conference, which is to discuss the current developments in Africa and the state of research on the continent. The conference will be held in Freiburg i.Br. and Basel, in the Upper Rhine triangle where Germany, Switzerland and France meet, in May 2008. It is concerned with the economic, political, social and cultural significance of frontiers and passages. The sessions are structured in four thematic sections: (1) Environmental change: global processes, local effects; (2) Between times and spaces: the negotiation of culture; (3) Passages and transitions: the re-configuration of the social; (4) Barriers and frontiers: the transformation of politics. For detailed information on the conference and the provisional call for panels please refer to the download section of this webpage. The deadline for the submission of proposals for papers is 31 July 2007.] Contactos: E-Mail: nfo@arnold-bergstraesser.de; zasb@unibas.ch Internet: www.unibas-zasb.ch www.arnold-bergstraesser.de

– 16 a 18 de Maio de 2008 – Annual Meeting of the German Society for Overseas History (Gesellschaft für Überseegeschichte) in Bamberg. Language Barriers, Linguistic Contacts and Cultural Brokers in the History of Europe’s Encounter with the Extra-European World [The process of European expansion brought voyagers, merchants, missionaries, scientists and settlers from Europe into contact with a multitude of language groups, most of which had been unknown before. Likewise, diplomatic missions coming to Europe, e.g. those sent by African rulers, had to cope with similar language problems. In initial contact situations between members of European and non-European societies, both sides relied on simple forms of gift exchange and communication through sign and body language. To engage in more complex negotiations, however, Europeans had to employ bilingual or multilingual brokers, or they had to train such intermediaries themselves. On the one hand, cultural brokers were part of local social, economic and political networks in the areas of contact. On the other hand, they were able to cross geographic and cultural borders and link local communities to larger regional or even international systems. To carry out their role, those intermediaries had to be able to use language in order to transmit knowledge about different rituals, political and social forms of organisation, and world views. Anglo-American colonial historians and students of the early modern Atlantic system and its trade networks have examined groups of “cultural brokers” since the 1980s. From early on, European missionaries also engaged in philological studies in order to systematise extra-European languages in grammars and dictionaries. In the course of the 19^th century, in a process that partly paralleled the extension of colonial rule over the non-European world, colonial administrations sought to intensify their control over language use and linguistic exchanges at the expense of local intermediaries. Knowledge about languages and communication was an essential instrument of colonial rule. Recent historiography has explored the efforts to classify extra-European languages in the context of changing scholarly practice. Studies of those processes not only focus on specific scholarly endeavours, but analyse their contribution to the establishment and stabilisation of colonial rule. Moreover, the field includes aspects like the language policies of the European colonial powers and the extent and limits of linguistic persistence of migrant groups, minorities and diaspora communities. Following up on those recent trends in scholarship, the 2008 annual meeting of the German Society for Overseas History will focus on problems of linguistic exchange and intercultural communication in the relations between Europe and the extra-European world. The conference will cover the whole period from the Middle Ages to the 20^th century. The meeting will take place in Bamberg, Germany, from 16 to 18 May 2008 and will be organised by Prof. Dr. Mark Häberlein (Bamberg) and Dr. Alexander Keese (Berne/Porto). Through this call, we request proposals for papers of 30 minutes length. We are particularly interested in papers that focus on one or more of the following aspects:

– non-verbal communication in encounters between Europeans and non-Europeans (sign and body language, pictograms…); pidgin and trading languages; groups of cultural brokers: translators, prisoners-of-war, clergymen, traders; male and female cultural brokers; forms and problems of communication in multilingual communities and regions (e.g. urban centres settled by different diaspora groups); philological studies by European missionaries and scholars in extra-European regions; change and persistence of linguistic practices during (voluntary and forced) migrations; language policies of different European colonial powers; language as a means of identity formation and as a factor in processes of political emancipation and decolonisation

Potential contributors should send their proposals (title plus an abstract of half a page) to: Prof. Dr. Mark Häberlein, Lehrstuhl für Neuere Geschichte, Universität Bamberg, Fischstr. 5-7, D-96047 Bamberg, email: Mark.Haeberlein@ggeo.uni-bamberg.de ]

– 16 a 20 de Junho de 2008 – Remains of the Empire: Ruins of Europe Abroad. 9th SIEF Congress, at the University of Ulster. Call for papers: online form provided on the SIEF2008 website http://www.ulster.ac.uk/sief2008 Organisers: Maria Cardeira da Silva smamc@fcsh.unl.pt  Paulo Raposo pjpr@iscte.pt  Contact address: Maria Cardeira da Silva, Departamento de Antropologia FCSH – UNL, Av. Berna 26 C Lisboa [Colonial history spread out vestiges of European presence all over different continents. Part of this remnants have been subjected to patrimonialisation and monumentalisation processes, under cooperation programmes legitimized by rhetoric which emphasises ideas of a shared past and its importance for a sustainable development. If we look at heritage practices that have inspired this kind of cooperation we come across a universe of imagined communities defining and articulating a past determined by diplomatic logic, with evident ethnic and nationalistic connotations. But in most cases it appears to exists a mutual interest in official terms, to rehabilitate that heritage: for European governments it is seen as an economically viable way of attesting to a certain cultural visibility, permanence and materiality that archaeology and tourism are obviously effective in legitimising and assuring; for local people it is often understood as a resource to add to the other tourist attractions and heritage that help attract external financing of international organisations. Concurrently, patrimonialisation and tourism re-enact and re-create scripts of cultural identity, very often performed by an emotional and sensorial relation between hosts and guests, tourists and sites. This panel aims to gather papers that follow these contemporary patrimonialisation and touristification processes and that can contribute to a) a better ethnographic based knowledge of the singular ways of social, cultural and economic management of these new recourses taking into account ethnicity, class, gender and race; b) the emergent touristic and identitary itineraries grounded in historical routes and performances that they are now inspiring;  c) the arguments put forward in the rethorics of the official protocols that support them (candidature dossiers to the UNESCO; international cooperation agreements and networks etc.); and d) the significance of politics and identity of tourism advertising which promote them. The papers are expected to demonstrate how ethnographic approach is especially effective in showing the relevance of these «peripheral» sites to understand the local and particular effects of European international politics, networks and agreements or, conversely, how local social and cultural configurations can affect transnational investment and movements.]

– 16 a 22 de Junho de 2008. Borders and Border-Crossings in Africa. AEGIS (Africa-Europe Group of Interdisciplinary Studies) [Cortona Summer School in African Studies. a summer school designed for advanced Ph.D. students in African Studies (social sciences and humanities) aiming to take part in the Third AEGIS European Conference of African Studies (ECAS 3, Leipzig, July 2009) will be held in Italy at Cortona, Tuscany, 16-22 June 2008. The 2008 summer school will focus on Borders and Border-Crossings in Africa. It will be sponsored by AEGIS-Naples in collaboration with the AEGIS Centres of Bayreuth, Edinburgh, and Leiden. The aim of the summer school is: a) to bring together advanced Ph.D. students and teaching staff from AEGIS Centres in order to exchange field and research experience; b) to improve the students’ ability to prepare and present their research in an international context; c) to promote graduate training within AEGIS and stimulate African-European inter-university cooperation. Both students and senior researchers are expected to present papers on their current research. The emphasis will be on field methodology and comparative research results, both in writing and the oral presentation.

The workshop is open to 20 Ph.D. students and young researchers coming from AEGIS Centres and their affiliates in Europe and Africa. Applicants are invited to submit proposals that address the topic of borderlands as open spaces where peoples and states interact (e.g. issues relating to trade or protest) or the wider phenomena of border-crossing (e.g. labour migration, refugees, etc). Applicants are asked to send a 500-word abstract of their papers within the general topic of the summer school, or in any way relevant to these issues, as well as a one-page outline of their Ph.D. status and current research. Papers that apply and/or refine conceptual and theoretical approaches to the subject matter, as well as presenting fresh empirical information will be especially welcome. Applicants will be selected on the basis of their research outline and their ability to engage with wider issues in African Studies today. Priority will be given to students and researchers with recent field experience and fresh research results. Application by research students coming from African Universities is encouraged; subsidies for the participation of a limited number of successful applicants are being sought for. The deadline for submitting proposals is 31 January 2008. Participants will be informed of acceptance by 31 March 2008.] Mais informações:

http://www.aegis-eu.org/AEGIS-summerschool.htm

– 02 a 04 de Setembro de 2008 – 5.º Congresso Luso-Moçambicano de Engenharia (LSME 2008), subordinado ao tema “A Engenharia no Combate à Pobreza, pelo Desenvolvimento e Competitividade”, em Maputo. Organização conjunta da Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP), Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (FEUEM) e Ordens dos Engenheiros de Portugal e de Moçambique. [Chamada para comunicações para o Simpósio “Processamento de Imagem e Visualização”: “trabalhos nas áreas do Processamento e Análise de Imagem e da Visualização Científica. Como exemplos de tópicos a considerar no Simpósio ‘Processamento de Imagem e Visualização’ podem ser considerados os seguintes: Processamento de Imagem, Análise de Imagem, Segmentação de Imagem, Reconstrução de Imagem, Análise de Movimento, Registo de Imagem, Reconhecimento de Objectos, Desenvolvimento de Algoritmos de Processamento e Análise de Imagem, Imagem Médica, Visão Computacional, Aplicações de Processamento e Análise de Imagem, Processamento de Dados, Visualização de Dados, Interfaces Homem/Máquina, Usabilidade, Visualização Científica, Interfaces e Sistemas de Visualização. Resumos alargados dos artigos, até duas páginas A4, devem ser submetidos em ficheiro electrónico no formato indicado no site do Congresso ( http://paginas.fe.up.pt/clme/2008 ) e segundo o exemplo disponível para download em http://paginas.fe.up.pt/clme/2008/Modelo_Resumos.doc , indicando Simpósio ‘Processamento de Imagem e Visualização’. A data limite para a recepção dos Resumos é 18 de Janeiro 2008. Os resumos aceites serão publicados num Livro de Resumos para distribuição a todos os participantes durante o Congresso, e os Artigos completos serão compilados em CD-ROM.” Organização do Simpósio: João Manuel R. S. Tavares, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, tavares@fe.up.pt , www.fe.up.pt/~tavares , R. M. Natal Jorge, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, rnatal@fe.up.pt ]

– 03 a 05 de Setembro de 2008 – Pensar a República: Estado, Governo e Contrato Social na África. Congresso de Análise Política sobre a África para o Cinquentenário do CEAN (Centre d’étude d’Afrique noire, 1958-2008). Institut d’études politiques de Bordeaux, Université Montesquieu-Bordeaux IV.

Chamada para comunicações: http://www.cean.cinquantenaire.sciencespobordeaux.fr/

– 11 a 13 de Setembro de 2008 – The Presence of the Past? Africa in the 21st Century. African Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK) biennial conference. University of Central Lancashire, Preston. [The ASAUK Conference always seeks to facilitate discussions between Africanist scholars who ordinarily would have few opportunities to talk, despite working on similar themes, either because they are working on different geographical areas or within different academic disciplines. The conference aims to bring together Africanists from all over the world and from various disciplines to discuss the past and current developments in Africa and African Studies. The conference organisers would particularly welcome postgraduate presentations on their current or recently completed research. Papers are invited on all themes relating to the continent, inclusive of time, period and space parameters as well as interdisciplinary perspectives. Though not seeking to limit contributions on new areas of research, themes of particular interest include Popular Culture and Cultural Production; African Urban Culture, Social Movements and Popular Culture; Contesting Local Knowledge; Mining and African Development; Contesting the State: Africa and the International Financial Institutions; The African Diaspora; Childhood and Youth; Human Rights and Citizenship; Colonialism, Rural  Transformation and African Resistance; Gender and African Development; The African Union and African Security; Conflict and Conflict Resolution; Africa and the Challenge of the Developmental State; The Land Question; Africa and Globalisation; Education and Development; Politics and Democratic Renewal; and Africa 200 Years after the Abolition of Atlantic Slavery. ABSTRACT GUIDELINES. Please send proposals for panels of three papers, or abstracts for individual papers, of up to 250 words by 11 January 2008 to Emma Kelly: eakelly1@uclan.ac.uk or via the ASAUK websites: www.asauk.net

Please send an abstract with title of proposed paper, on disc or as an email attachment, listing name, organisation, contact address, telephone and email address.  All papers should be presented in English and all paper presenters will need to register for the conference and pay the registration fee. Please address all abstracts and enquiries to: Emma Kelly, Conference Officer, Conference and Events Management Office, University of Central Lancashire, Foster Room 10, Preston PR1 2HE, UK. Tel:  +44 (0) 1772 892654 Fax: +44 (0) 1772 892977 Email: eakelly1@uclan.ac.uk ]

– 17 a 19 de Setembro de 2008 – Mapping Integration and Regionalism in a Global World: the EU and Regional Governance outside the EU. 3^rd Annual Meeting of the GARNET network. Sciences Po Bordeaux, University of Bordeaux. [The GARNET network, Sciences Po Bordeaux and the CIGI are convening an international conference on Mapping Integration and Regionalism in a Global World. The conference seeks to address how, in numerous parts of the world, regionalism, regionalisation and inter-regionalism proceed from patterns and processes that have little to do with the European template. What are their implications and how are they conceptualised? Has integration theory any relevance and if so how outside Europe? What are the theoretical implications of the “landscapes” associated with regionalism/regionalisation in Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe? How are patterns observed accounted for by mainstream theories of integration and European integration theory itself?

The EU still features as the standard model for region-building, explicitly or implicitly providing benchmarks for the assessment of regionalism and regionalisation. Regionalism, with its expanding agendas, loose institutionalisation and the frequent disconnect between regionalist projects and de facto regionalisation processes challenges a number of conventional assumptions. In Europe too, the norms and practices associated with region-building also are being confronted to pressure for re-adjustment that invite to broader and more comparative perspectives. What are the key components of the EU as a contemporary model for integration, and how have theoretical attempts to account for its global relevance been evolving? How does the EU contribute to shape regionalism, global norms, institutions and standards with respect to what integration entails (or should entail)? What are the stakes and implications associated with bloc-building through inter-regional and inter-hemispheric agreements? How successful can the EU to be claim with respect to the diffusion of its own experience in the case of the Economic Partnership Agreements?

Much of the analysis of the EU as a prototype for regional integration stems from the combination of proactive policies towards the export of its own experience with chronological anteriority – the experience of US federalism and such cases of coerced integration as imperial federations left aside. Empirical patterns and normative processes associated with European construction are still commonly viewed as standard features for the study of integration in general. To what extent and why do regionalism and regionalisation outside Europe provide a counterpoint, comfort or rejuvenate representations of the EU as a model?

Some of the cross-cutting issues that will be addressed by the conference include: Inter-regionalism and regionalisation (Caribbean Basin Initiative, Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, Economic Partnership Agreements). Regional parliaments and national parliaments within regions. Security and regional governance. EU contribution to global environment governance. Europe as a model for monetary governance? (monetary unions, inflation targeting, euroisation, currency boards). Human rights, migration and asylum. Neighborhood policies.

This list is not exclusive. The conference aims to integrate research and expertise by bringing together scholars, policy makers, private sector representatives, and NGOs. Contributions are invited from multiple disciplines, including Business Studies, Economics, Geography, History, International Relations, Law, Philosophy, Politics, and Sociology. Thanks to specific funding made available, participants from Africa, Asia, the Americas are specially encouraged to attend and contribute to the build up of a truly comparative perspective. Please submit paper and panel abstracts (maximum 300 words) together with full contact details by 31 March 2008 at: 2008garnetconf@sciencespobordeaux.fr

Conference support funds may be available for some paper presenters. Please indicate in your submission whether you wish to be considered for such support. Some conference papers may be invited for publication in the CSGR/Routledge “Globalisation” series or the GARNET/Routledge “Europe in The World” series.

GARNET Conference Website http://www.garnet.sciencespobordeaux.fr ]

– 26 a 28 de Setembro de 2008 – Empire, Slave Trade and Slavery: Rebuilding Civil Society in Sierra Leone / Past and Present. An International Interdisciplinary Conference to be held at the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation, University of Hull. This conference will mark the bicentenary of the establishment of Sierra Leone as a British Crown colony in 1808. Sponsors: Liverpool Hope University, The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples (York University), Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation, (University of Hull).

            [In 1808, two hundred years ago, Sierra Leone became a British Crown colony. The bicentennial presents the opportunity to re-examine the history of Sierra Leone. The conference will bring together academics from different disciplines, museum professionals, archivists, policy makers concerned with contemporary issues, and individuals interested in human rights and the reconstruction of modern day Sierra Leone.

British influence in Sierra Leone is long standing and took a variety of forms in the transition from slavery to civil society from the eighteenth century to the present day. This part of West Africa was not only a slave supply region on the upper Guinea Coast but also the location for a number of abolitionist experiments in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Leading British abolitionists, including Granville Sharp and William Wilberforce, regarded Sierra Leone as a “Province of Freedom” that would transform Africa. It was hoped that the utopian vision of a settlement governed by former slaves would demonstrate African capacity for cultural, moral and economic improvement. To that end, the aims of the Sierra Leone Company, incorporated in 1791, were the destruction of the slave trade and the regeneration of Africa. The development of Freetown in a slave trading region was a bold and ambitious experiment in the implementation of morality and abolitionist economics. Although the Company aimed to develop “legitimate” forms of trade as alternatives to the transatlantic slave trade, it failed to achieve its aims, and in 1808 the settlement was formally transferred to the British Crown. Sierra Leone experienced a number of phases of resettlement by people of African descent. In 1792 over 1,100 former slaves from Nova Scotia resettled in Freetown with the intention of making their “children free and happy”, and some 550 Maroons from Jamaica arrived in Sierra Leone in 1800. After 1807, anti-slavery squadrons disembarked tens of thousands of “recaptives” from various parts of West Africa at Freetown. These immigrant groups constituted a “great mixture of Africans … (who) had to rebuild identities and communities in an alien land controlled by Europeans”, as David Northrup has recognized. Through their missionary and commercial endeavours, the “recaptives” also influenced economic, social, and religious development in other areas of West Africa.

This conference offers scope to examine the legacies of slavery, abolition, and colonial rule in Sierra Leone. The conference will explore British interaction with indigenous groups, the influence of European administrators on economic and cultural policy, and the activities of immigrants in establishing a unique cultural, religious and social identity. Moreover, the legacy of this past will be explored in the context of the long history of colonial rule in Sierra Leone and the subsequent difficulties of establishing a civil society in the post-colonial era.

The Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation is a particularly appropriate venue for the conference because Freetown, Sierra Leone, and the City of Hull have been twin cities since 1980. The visit of former P.M. Tony Blair to Sierra Leone in May 2007 highlighted the ongoing links between Britain and Sierra Leone and the difficulties of reconstructing civil society in the aftermath of brutal civil war. 

With the return to peace in 2002, Britain agreed to provide development aid to rebuild Sierra Leone, which had become one of the world’s poorest countries. Hence, the conference will focus on the reconstruction of civil society, both in the context of slavery and abolition and in the context of civil war and its aftermath. In recognition of the historic reasons that Hull and Freetown have been twin cities, the conference will provide a forum to discuss past and present issues of social justice and civil development. Information on local hotel accommodation can be arranged through the City of Hull tourist bureau; details to be supplied upon registration. An edited collection of papers presented at the conference will be published. Direct all correspondence to: Jane Ellison / Conference Manager / WISE (Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation) University of Hull. Oriel Chambers / 27 High Street / Hull, HU1 1NE / Fax: 01482 305184. Email: j.ellison@hull.ac.uk  http://www.hull.ac.uk/wise

http://www.yorku.ca/tubman/Events/Conferences/Hull2007/index.html ]

– 02 e 03 de Outubro de 2008 – Colóquio Internacional “Água em África: Hidropessimismo ou Hidrooptimismo?”. Organização: Centro de Estudos Africanos da Universidade do Porto (CEAUP). [Como são geridos os recursos hídricos em África? Quais são os principais desafios em termos de acesso, distribuição e afectação de recursos hídricos no continente? Quais são os principais factores a influenciar a procura de água no presente e no futuro próximo? Quais são as soluções que estão a ser desenvolvidas pelas diferentes comunidades, decisores políticos, sector privado e activistas ambientais? Quais são as contribuições dos cientistas e das organizações internacionais? Estas serão algumas das questões sobre as quais convidamos a reflectir e a debater.

Vários analistas chamam a atenção para questões de escassez e insegurança hídrica, desigualdades no acesso à água e propensão para conflitos aos níveis local e regional. Os hidropessimistas prevêem um futuro hídrico nebuloso para o continente africano. Outros autores destacam o potencial para novas práticas de gestão hídrica e a promoção de reformas no sector que incluam políticas social, económica e ambientalmente sustentáveis.

Estes consideram que as capacidades adaptativas ao nível local podem ser melhoradas e que a cooperação hidropolítica regional pode ser estabelecida. Os hidrooptimistas acreditam que existem várias “janelas de oportunidade” para melhorar a gestão dos recursos no continente e que a crise hídrica em África pode ser evitada. Como podem estas diferentes perspectivas contribuir para o estudo da gestão da água no continente africano?

O Centro de Estudos Africanos da Universidade do Porto convida académicos, investigadores e quadros técnicos a partilhar experiências e casos de estudo de gestão de recursos hídricos nas diversas regiões de África e a participar neste debate. Chamada de Comunicações: Os participantes deverão submeter as propostas de 250 palavras até 30 de Abril de 2008,com as seguintes informações: – Título – Nomes do(s) autor(es) – Contactos (instituição, e-mail e telefone) – Proposta – Palavras-chave. As apresentações poderão ser submetidas em inglês, francês ou português. As propostas serão avaliadas pela Comissão Científica e os autores serão notificados da aceitação ou recusa das suas propostas, por e-mail, até ao final de Julho de 2008. Os artigos poderão ser publicados posteriormente nas Actas do Colóquio (em formato papel e CD/ROM). Não existem inscrições pagas. Todas as comunicações deverão ser submetidas por e-mail para: ana.cascao@kcl.ac.uk Para informações adicionais contactar: Centro de Estudos Africanos – U.P., Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, Via Panorâmica s/n, 4150-564 Porto – Portugal

Email: ceaup@letras.up.pt   Website: http://www.africanos.eu Tel./Fax: +351 22 607 71 41]

– 27 e 28 de Novembro de 2008 – An international conference is to be held on all aspects of child slavery at the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE), University of Hull, UK in association with AntiSlavery International, Gilder Lehrman Center, Yale University and Free the Slaves. Call for expressions of interest. [Following our highly successful conferences on Modern Slavery (November 2006), and Unfinished Business (May 2007), WISE is now organising a conference, in conjunction with partner organisations, to examine all aspects of child slavery worldwide, including bonded labour, trafficking, domestic servitude and child labour more generally. This is a first call for expressions of interest in attending and in giving workshop papers. Also visit WISE's website www.hull.ac.uk/WISE . Child slavery is now becoming a focus of considerable international concern. Despite the creation during the late 20th century of a series of Conventions and Protocols, banning the use of children in trafficking and forced labour and despite more wide-ranging international legislation defining the Rights of the Child, the extent and variety of forms of child slavery appears to be growing worldwide. The ILO – which marks the 10th anniversary of its Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention in 2009 – estimates that there may be 218 million children trapped in child labour worldwide of whom 126 million children were engaged in hazardous work. Many are in situations of modern slavery, working in clothing and shoe sweatshops, as child soldiers, in agriculture, brickmaking, fishing, domestic service, or as child sex workers.  This conference will examine all these forms of child slavery and will be focused in particular on the need for further political and policy action, as well as the further development of services to support and rehabilitate children who are freed from slavery. Speakers from international organisations, policy contexts and campaigning and NGO backgrounds across the world will set the scene for discussions and there will be a series of workshops at which a range of presentations will be made. Those attending will be given a copy of the Special issue of the journal Children and Society on child slavery, due to be published in the Spring of 2008. Those attending will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation arrangements but the cost of the conference will include papers, refreshments, lunch on each day and a conference dinner on the first evening. If you are interested in attending, giving a paper, or making a presentation, please contact Jane Ellison at j.ellison@hull.ac.uk as soon as possible. Those interested in giving a paper or making a presentation in a workshop should indicate when writing to us (in no more than fifty words) what the focus of their presentation will be. We will be sending out further details early in 2008 with a call for firm bookings. This event is likely to be well-attended and you are urged to make your interest known as soon as possible as it is likely that we will have to limit the numbers attending.  All events will take place in the WISE building in the centre of Hull. The total attendance will be limited to 80 and the three parallel workshop sessions will (unless demand is particularly high) hear one paper or presentation only in each workshop. There will thus be space for at least 12 presentations but possibly more. Each presentation will last 45 minutes with time for questions and discussion. Contact: Jane Ellison, Conference Manager, WISE (Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation) University of Hull Oriel Chambers, 27 High Street Hull, HU1 1NE T: 01482 305182 F: 01482 305184 E: j.ellison@hull.ac.uk www.hull.ac.uk/wise ]

2. Notícias

– Na perspectiva da realização, em Angola, no mês de Fevereiro de 2008, da Segunda Conferência Nacional sobre as Autoridades Tradicionais, o historiador Simão Souindoula, director do Museu Nacional da Escravatura, apresentou, na cidade de Uíje, uma comunicação intitulada A Autoridade Tradicional e o Desenvolvimento do Estado em Angola, na sala de conferências, renovada, da antiga Câmara Municipal de Carmona. Outros participantes debruçaram-se, também eles, sobre a política e culturas bantu. Notou-se a presença de responsáveis políticos e administrativos da região, especialistas e consultores em ciências sociais, líderes religiosos e uma centena de chefes costumeiros que aí se deslocaram, expressamente, para o efeito.

            Os participantes abordaram questões tão essenciais como “a difícil coexistência entre os direitos moderno e costumeiro, as orientações dos novos textos legislativos sobre esses dignitários, a definição do espaço territorial dos chefes de terra (nfumu nsi), as áleas actuais nas sucessões, a obrigação, eventual, do recurso às eleições, os domínios de competência judiciária dos chefes de aldeia (nfumu nvata), a aceitação pelos ntumini da nova Lei de Terra e a sua implicação nos programas de desenvolvimento de base.

            Na sua intervenção, Simão Souindoula recordou, logo de início, a importância desses mbuta à luz do conjunto dos seus trabalhos anteriores (…) efectuados no quadro de diversas iniciativas multilaterais e relacionados com a existência e a aplicação de princípios tradicionais na resolução de uma série de conflitos na África bantu. Prosseguindo a sua retrospectiva, este especialista, antigo investigador no Centro Internacional das Civilizações Bantu, realçou o papel dos ntinu no processo actual de transição democrática à luz da sua contribuição – sempre baseada no bantu comum – na Primeira Conferência Nacional sobre a Autoridade Tradicional, realizada em 2002.

            Abordando a substância da sua exposição, o orador sublinhou o facto de (a reunião supramencionada – cujas recomendações, estão, justamente, em curso de avaliação, em termos de aplicabilidade e implementação no conjunto do território nacional – ter confirmado) a atenção que o Governo angolano sempre acordou a uma boa articulação e (à dinâmica interactiva) entre a administração do Estado e o poder tradicional. Com efeito, para Souindoula, o modelo adoptado após a independência do país permitiu a plena colaboração, e até mesmo a integração, desses nduki em quase todos níveis do sistema administrativo e politico, a partir da sua base, a aldeia, passando pela comuna, o município, a província e as estruturas de representação nacional, tais como o Parlamento. (Esta) tomada em conta obrigou, aliás, à promulgação de um conjunto de medidas legislativas ou regulamentares.

            Em suma, para o historiador-conferencista, o poder moderno em Luanda mostrou-se, naturalmente, a imagem dos outros países africanos, atento a uma articulação das chefaturas com o aparelho do Estado, facto que ilustrou a sua tomada em consideração da complexidade de todas as componentes étnicas do pais, sob as vertentes histórica, antropológica, sociológica e linguística. Para ele, esses núcleos políticos tradicionais eram vestígios de dezenas de formações históricas que emergiram no início do segundo milénio da nossa era até ao estabilizador século XIX, (no) actual território angolano.

            Convidado a dar a sua apreciação sobre a reunião de Uíge, Simão Souindoula mostrou-se satisfeito com a sábia convergência de pontos de vista que se estabeleceu, a qual permitiu a elaboração de um conjunto de sugestões sobre um novo posicionamento das autoridades tradicionais, no quadro da delicada mas necessária descentralização. (Quanto à) contribuição do antigo Estado de Mbata, um dos pilares do Reino do Kongo, será, sem dúvida, como as das outras províncias, validada em Fevereiro próximo, durante o segundo reagrupamento desses respeitáveis nkuluntu. Essas propostas, cujo objectivo principal é o desenvolvimento harmonioso de Angola, serão feitas (num) contexto político totalmente pacificado, um quadro marcado por uma nítida estabilização social, que ostentou, (nesses) últimos anos, um espectacular crescimento económico e (com) a perspectiva da realização, em condições menos dramáticas, provavelmente, durante o segundo semestre de 2008, das próximas eleições multipartidárias. 

            Enfim, Souindoula, consultor da União Africana, fez notar que as recomendações que serão tomadas, em algumas semanas, na capital angolana, inspirarão, sem duvida, os países limítrofes ou próximos (os dois Congo, a Zâmbia e a Namíbia), que partilham com Angola as heranças das chefaturas kongo, lunda-cokwé, luvalé, nganguela, oshindonga e ovambo.”

– O Núcleo de Estudos para a Paz do Centro de Estudos Sociais (CES) da Universidade de Coimbra exibiu, em 4 de Dezembro de 2007, o filme documental As Duas Faces da Guerra, de Diana Andringa e Flora Gomes, no Auditório da Faculdade de Economia. O documentário cinematográfico, rodado na Guiné-Bissau, Cabo Verde e Portugal, integra um conjunto de entrevistas e depoimentos de pessoas que viveram o período da guerra de libertação na Guiné-Bissau. Seguiram-se comentários e um debate em torno dos temas da reconciliação, memória histórica e pós-conflito, com Diana Andringa, Pedro Pezarat Correia, Fernando Barata e Sílvia Roque. 

– O Instituto Português de Relações Internacionais da Universidade Nova de Lisboa (IPRI-UNL) organizou, também a 4 de Dezembro, na loja da Livraria Almedina no Atrium Saldanha, em Lisboa, um debate sobre A Cimeira Africana. O evento, inserido no âmbito do Ciclo “Relações Internacionais: Os Desafios da Presidência Portuguesa”, contou com a presença de Bernardo Pires de Lima (investigador do Instituto de Defesa Nacional – IDN – e editor da revista Atlântico) e João Pedro Martins (economista e coordenador nacional do Desafio Miqueias). O tema em debate era, obviamente, a 2.ª Cimeira Europa-África, promovida pela presidência portuguesa do Conselho da União Europeia, e agendada para ocorrer a 8 e 9 de Dezembro, na mesma cidade.

– No âmbito do programa alusivo ao 5.º aniversário do Instituto de Ensino Superior Isidoro da Graça (IESIG), em Cabo Verde, realizaram-se, no Centro Cultural do Mindelo, duas conferências, nos dias 4 e 5 de Dezembro de 2007, respectivamente. A primeira palestra, da responsabilidade do jurista e sociólogo português Adriano Moreira, tratava o tema do “ensino superior, a iniciativa privada, a democracia e o desenvolvimento”, enquanto a segunda conferência, a cargo do antigo presidente da República Portuguesa, Mário Soares, se debruçava sobre as relações Cabo Verde-Europa, com o título de Cabo Verde e a Europa na encruzilhada dos destinos: ontem, hoje e amanhã. O evento foi presidido por Pedro Pires, presidente da República de Cabo Verde, numa altura em que o país logrou alcançar a posição de “parceiro estratégico especial” da União Europeia. Tanto Adriano Moreira quanto Mário Soares são, desde longa data, apoiantes de uma aproximação de Cabo Verde à UE. 

– O Centro de Estudos Africanos da Universidade do Porto (CEAUP) organizou, a 5 de Dezembro, a 1.ª Mostra de Cinema Documental sobre África, na Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto. Foi projectada uma série de documentários sobre a Guiné no período colonial português. À projecção dos filmes, da propriedade do Arquivo Militar do Porto, seguiu-se um debate com a participação de investigadores do CEAUP.

– De 5 a 9 de Dezembro de 2007, realizou-se uma série de eventos em Lisboa, no âmbito da 2.ª Cimeira UE-África, cujas sessões começaram no dia 8. De todos esses encontros, destacaremos os seguintes: a Cimeira da Juventude África-Europa, que reuniu cerca de 250 jovens de ambos os continentes entre os dias 5 e 7; o Fórum Empresarial UE-África, no dia 7; a cimeira alternativa «África-Europa: que Alternativas?», organizada pela ATTAC, e efectuada entre os dias 7 e 9 de Dezembro. Entretanto, no dia 9, a Declaração Política do Fórum da Sociedade Civil Euro-Africana (15-17 de Novembro de 2007), bem como o texto equivalente da 1.ª Conferência Sindical UE-África (26-27 de Outubro de 2007), foram apresentados aos chefes de Estado e de Governo presentes na Cimeira (as informações oficiais relativas a esta última estão disponíveis em:

            http://www.eu2007.pt/UE/vPT/Reunioes_Eventos/ChefesEstado/UE_Africa.htm ;

            já a Declaração Final da Cimeira Alternativa, pode ser consultada, assim como muitas outras informações, em: http://africa-europa-alternativas.blogspot.com/2007/12/declarao-final.html ; quanto às declarações políticas do Fórum da Sociedade Civil, da Cimeira da Juventude, do Fórum Empresarial e da Conferência Sindical, todas elas apresentadas à Cimeira UE-África, encontram-se disponíveis em formato PDF, no seguinte endereço:

            http://www.dialogoeuropafrica.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=58&Itemid=63 ).

– No dia 7 de Dezembro de 2007, o dirigente líbio, Coronel Muammar al Kadhafi, foi o orador único do Seminário Problemas da Sociedade Contemporânea, que teve lugar no Salão Nobre da Reitoria da Universidade de Lisboa. A sessão foi organizada pelo Centro de História da Universidade de Lisboa, em colaboração com a Reitoria da UL e com o Instituto Luso-Árabe para a Cooperação, e nela estiveram presentes os Professores Doutores António Ventura, António Dias Farinha e Pedro Barbosa (todos eles do Centro de História da UL), bem como Manuel Pechirra, Presidente do Instituto Luso-Árabe. Embora inicialmente tivesse sido adiantado à imprensa que o seminário versaria sobre questões relativas ao papel da educação e da mulher no mundo contemporâneo, o orador preferiu dissertar acerca do terrorismo internacional. Segundo apontou Kadhafi, o actual surto terrorista radica, por um lado, no agravamento das desigualdades no mundo (especialmente em África), bem como no facto de certas potências recorrerem sistematicamente a intervenções militares nos assuntos internos de outros países, o que leva os “fracos” a quererem “vingar-se”. A solução estaria, assim, quer na mudança da estrutura parlamentar da ONU (fim do Conselho de Segurança, que alegadamente configura uma “ditadura” das grandes potências, no seio das Nações Unidas), quer na diminuição das desigualdades. Nesse sentido, Kadhafi anunciou às cerca de 200 pessoas presentes que proporia, durante a Cimeira UE-África, o pagamento, pela Europa, de uma indemnização ao países africanos, pelas “dívidas do colonialismo”, promessa essa efectivamente cumprida logo no dia seguinte.

– Na Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, teve lugar, em 11 de Dezembro de 2007, a conferência Segurança Alimentar e Bem-Estar na Guiné-Bissau, proferida pela socióloga Brígida Rocha Brito (do Centro de Estudos Africanos do ISCTE), no âmbito do Ciclo de Conferências “Desafios da África Contemporânea”, organizado pelos geógrafos Maria José Aurindo e Francisco Roque de Oliveira, professores do Departamento de Geografia da Universidade de Lisboa, e promovido por esse mesmo Departamento.

– Ainda a 11 de Dezembro de 2007, no Basler Afrika Bibliographien, em Klosterberg (Áustria), realizou-se a conferência The Battle for Cassinga: Conflicting Narratives and Contested Meanings, a cargo do Dr. Gary Baines (Department of History, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa) [The brutal bombing of the Namibian refugee camp Cassinga in southern Angola in early May 1978 by the South African army caused the deaths of hundreds of civilians, many of them children. Cassinga quickly came to stand not only as a symbol for a brutal war between the Apartheid Regime and the Namibian liberation movement SWAPO, but also became a globally publicised media “event”. As such the disaster was inscribed into various official narratives which underpin discourses in (post-colonial) Namibia and South Africa until today. Gary Baines analyses these conflicting narratives and the contested (visual) meanings of Cassinga. Lecture language: Engli