Empire, Slave Trade and Slavery: Rebuilding Civil Society in Sierra
Leone, Past and Present.
26-28 September 2008
An international conference sponsored by The Wilberforce Institute for
the study of Slavery and Emancipation, the University of Hull; Liverpool
Hope University; and The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the
Global Migrations of African Peoples.
Provisional programme
The venue for the conference is the University of Hull’s Wilberforce
Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE), located in
Oriel Chambers, High Street, Hull. WISE is located next to Wilberforce
House in the City of Hull’s Museums Quarter. Except for the conference
dinner on Friday, all sessions take place at WISE.
Friday 26 September 2008
Registration opens 8.30am
Refreshments available
WISE reception
10am Keynote
Questions and discussion
Suzanne Schwarz (Liverpool Hope)
11am Refreshment break
Boardroom, WISE
11.20am Panel session 1 - Slaving and Trade Networks
Lecture Room, WISE
Carlos F. Liberato (Sergipe, Brazil): Sierra Leone and the rivers of Guine in the
eighteenth century
Denise Jones (Liverpool Hope): The British slave trade in Sierra Leone: a case study
of Robert Bostock, 1769-92
Sean Kelley (Hartwick College, New York): Panyarring and palaver: violence and the
slave trade at Sierra Leone and the Windward Coast in the eighteenth century
Kenneth Morgan (Brunel): British merchants and the slave trade from Sierra Leone,
1750-1807
Karlee-Anne Sapoznik (York): Revisiting the Sierra Leone scheme through the lens
of Gustavus Vasa or Olaudah Equiano
1pm Lunch
Streetlife Museum, Museum Quarter
2pm Panel session 2 - Sierra Leone and African Diasporas
Lecture Room, WISE
Celine Flory (Paris), From Sierra Leone to French Guiana and Martinique: Sierra
Leone travellers in the mid-nineteenth century
Paul Lovejoy and David Trotman (York): Liberated slaves in Trinidad and Sierra
Leone: some comparative data
Philip Misevich (Emory): Freetown and the escape of slaves from the Sierra Leone
hinterland
Carolyn Brown (Rutgers): Sierra Leone and returnees to Igboland
3.40pm Refreshment break
Boardroom, WISE
4pm Panel session 3 – Building a new society: Sierra Leone in the 19th Century
Lecture Room, WISE
Tunde Zack-Williams (Central Lancashire): The legacy of the slave trade in Sierra
Leone
Gibril R. Cole (Louisiana State): Edward Wilmot Blyden and the education of Muslim
Krio on colonial Sierra Leone
David Skinner (Santa Clara and Edinburgh): From company to colony to nation state:
the Islamic factor in the development of Sierra Leone
Andrew Walls (Liverpool Hope): ‘The Morning Star of Africa’: Sierra Leone in
Evangelical and Humanitarian Discourse
5.40pm Free time
7.30pm for 8pm Conference Dinner
Lindsey Suite, Staff House, University of Hull campus, Cottingham Road, Hull,.
Joseph Opala (James Madison, Virginia) will introduce a video on Bunce Island,
Sierra Leone.
Saturday 27 September 2008
9am Refreshments available
Boardroom, WISE
9.30am Keynote
Questions and discussion
Milli Akinsulure
10.30am Refreshment break
Boardroom, WISE
10.50am Panel session 4 – Politics and social Inclusion in Sierra Leone in 19th and
20th century Sierra Leone
Lecture Room, WISE
Trina Hogg (New York): The ‘Human Leopard Society’: pacification, policing and
prosecution on the Sherbro Coast 1880-1915
Silke Strickrodt (Humboldt, Berlin): ‘Lights shining in a dark place’: female education
and African initiative in nineteenth-century Sierra Leone
Christine Whyte (LSE), From servile marriage to slave revolt: the exploitation of
women in Sierra Leone
Chalen Westaby (Liverpool Hope), Imperial lethargy: self-determination and the decolonisation of Sierra Leone 1954-1961
12.30pm Lunch
Streetlife Museum
1.30pm Panel session 5 - Rebuilding Society
Lecture Room, WISE
Richard Fanthorpe (Sussex): Indirect rule in the 21st century? The Biriwa chieftancy
election crisis of 2006
Ibrahim Seaga Shaw (West of England): The politics of humanitarian intervention: a
critical analogy of Britain’s response to the end of the slave trade and the civil war in
Sierra Leone
Mélanie Torrent (Paris Diderot): The Commonwealth contribution to rebuilding civil
society in Sierra Leone: achievements and challenges
Fredline M’Cormack (Florida): Can foreign aid promote democracy? The role of
NGOs in civil-society building in post-conflict Sierra Leone
3.10pm Refreshment break
Boardroom, WISE
3.30pm Panel session 6 - Culture and Identity
Lecture Room, WISE
Prince Kwame Adika (Illinois State): Voodoo child in search of umbilical cord: the
trans-national healing aesthetics of Syl Cheney-Coker
Jacqueline Knörr (Max Planck Institute): ‘Out of hiding’: reconstruction of Krio identity
in post-war Sierra Leone
Theodore Rose (Chicago): African civil development and British colonial expansion in
Sierra Leone: a cultural enquiry
4.50pm Close of day
Delegates are free to make their own dining arrangements. A list of local restaurants
and eateries will be available.
Sunday 28 September 2008
9.00am Refreshments available
Boardroom, WISE
9.30am Panel 7: Imagining Connections: Freetown - then and now
Lecture Room, WISE
James Sidbury (Texas, Austen), ‘African’ settlers in the founding of Freetown
Emma Christopher (Sydney) and Maree Defolski (Macquarie): Sydney and Freetown:
reclaiming a vanished twin
Lydia Saul (Wilberforce House): Hull’s relationship with Sierra Leone as seen through
the Wilberforce House collections
11.10am Refreshment break
Boardroom, WISE
11.30am Panel session 8: Roundtable on Archaeology, Archives, Memory and
Tourism
Lecture Room, WISE
Joseph Opala (James Madison, Virginia), convenor
Paul Basu (Sussex), David Gundry (World Monuments Fund), Sir Roland Jackson
(Bunce Island Coalition (UK) and British Association for the Advancement of
Science), and Ibrahim Abdullah (Sierra Leone Archives) will lead a discussion on
Bunce Island, archival and other heritage issues in Sierra Leone today.
1.10pm Concluding remarks: Paul Lovejoy (York), David Richardson (WISE), and
Suzanne Schwarz (Liverpool Hope)
1.30pm Lunch
Streetlife Museum
2.30pm Close of Conference and departure
Provisional Registration Form
Please note. The higher charge below is for those with
academic or full time posts, the lower for students and
unwaged. Please be sure to specify in which category you
fall.
We shall post details of accommodation in Hull for the period
of the conference on our website by 27 June. These will offer
special rates by the hotels listed for the conference. You are
expected to reserve accommodation directly with hotels,
noting that you are attending the conference when booking.
Most hotels will be within walking distance of the conference
venue, unless otherwise stated.
Empire, Slave Trade and Slavery: Rebuilding Civil Society in Sierra Leone.
Past and Present.
26-28 September 2008
Personal details
Name and title:
Organisation or institution:
Postal address:
Contact phone number:
Email address:
Booking details
Full conference fees - including
the conference dinner
(please circle as appropriate)
£110 £150
Are you attending the conference
dinner on 26 September 2008?
(please circle as appropriate)
Yes/No
You will be accompanied by a
guest at the conference dinner
(please tick as appropriate and
provide the name of the guest)
£35
Do you wish to attend the
conference for 1 day only?
(please circle as appropriate)
Yes/no
Payment method
Cheque
I am sending a cheque made payable to University of Hull
for the following amount £______
No, means a £30 reduction in the fee.
26th
27th
28th
Yes, means you will be added to a
reserve list.
Friday fees and dinner = £90/80
Friday fees only = £60/50
Saturday fees = £60/50
Sunday fees = £40/30
Credit Card
Name_________________________
Card Type Visa/Mastercard (please circle)
Card Number___________________________________
Expiry date_________
Are you a paper giver?
Please detail any dietary
requirements
Please detail any access and
mobility requirements
Amount: £_____
Yes / No
Please return to Heidi Lovell: email h.lovell@hull.ac.uk or fax to +44 (0)1482 305184 c/o Heidi
Lovell or post to WISE, Oriel Chambers, 27 High Street, Hull, HU1 1NE, UK