For immediate release
Design, Media, Religion and China in Africa - open to all
The African Arts Institute (AFAI) is in its second week of the African Arts Campus
which runs from 4-25 May 2015 at the Homecoming Centre of the District Six
Museum and various other locations in Cape Town. The Campus offers 29 short
courses on African politics, arts, culture and other topics relevant for Africa month.
The Western Cape Government as well as the National Lottery Distribution Trust
Fund have made it possible for interested participants to join the Campus at no cost!
A request for a bursary can be made by sending a short motivation to:
info@afai.org.za, stating your name, contacts and course you would like to attend.
Download programme and to register visit: www.afai.org.za/events.
UPCOMING COURSES THIS WEEK (11 - 14 May 2015)
STARTING TUESDAY:
SMA:The State of the Media in Africa (Chris Kabwato)
Course Outline: This course will cover the following themes: Media and Society: an
examination of some of the key thinking on the role of the media in a democracy. It
will explore a short history of African media (print and broadcasting) from the colonial
era to post-independence. It will look at ‘Digital Migration’ and its Impact on
Broadcasting: more pipelines but where is the content? And finally at Social Media:
The rise of the former audience.
Dates: Tuesday 12 May, Wednesday 13 May and Thursday 14 May
Times: 17:30-19:00
Venue: District Six Museum Homecoming Centre
Biography: Chris Kabwato is Director of the Highway Africa programme run by the
School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South
Africa. Highway Africa convenes the largest annual gathering of African journalists.
Chris is also Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Zimbabwe in Pictures – an electronic
newsletter that tells the story of Zimbabwe in photographs. Kabwato has been
associated with Southern African film and video industry for a number of years. He
was Head of Education & Public Affairs at the British Council in Harare from 1998–
2000 before his appointment as Director of the Southern Africa Communications for
Development (SACOD).
CIA: China in Africa (Kwesi Dzapong Lwazi Sarkodee Prah)
Course Outline: The course will briefly outline the varying influences of Chinese
activity in Africa over a 500 year period. It will highlight the types of ideas, narratives,
perspectives and attitudes that have defined these relations. The course will then
make a case for innovative and radical approaches to understanding the nature of
Africa-China relations, and how to implement these approaches. Themes such as
Imperialism, Colonialism, Pan-Africanism, Humanism, Revolution, Socialism /
Communism / Capitalism / Democracy, will be used to analyze, debate and
understand these relations. By the end of the course, it is hoped that participants will
be able to contextualize Africa-China relations better, by placing their ideas,
narratives, perspectives and attitudes in African / Africanist Perspective.
Dates: Tuesday 12, Wednesday 13, Thursday 14 May
Times: 15:00- 17:00
Venue: District Six Museum Homecoming Centre
Biography: Dr. Kwesi D. L. S. Prah is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Thabo
Mbeki African Leadership Institute, and a Research associate with the Institute for
Global Dialogue, University of South Africa. He received his B.A in History and
Psychology from Fisk University where he was acting president of the African
Students Association (ASA) for two and a half years. In addition to that, he was part
of the CHANGE program for Oxfam America where he served as a youth leader. He
received his M.A from Lancaster University and his Ph.D in History (as a ChinaSouth Africa government scholar) from East China Normal University, Shanghai. His
research interests revolve around critical approaches to the science of history,
African and Asian History, African and Chinese philosophy.
RCA: Religion and Conflict in Africa (Dr. Asonzeh Ukah, Assoc Prof. Sa’diyya
Shaikh, Lee Scharnick and Dr. Andrea Brigaglia)
Course Outline: This course offers four separate lectures by a range of thinkers in
religious studies: 1) Dr. Asonzeh Ukah- Introduction to Religion and Conflict in
Africa; 2) Assoc Prof. Sa’diyya Shaikh - Gender Contestations and Muslim
Tradition; 3) Lee Scharnick - Constitution, Culture and Transformation: Negotiating
Religion in post-apartheid South Africa and 4) Dr. Andrea Brigaglia- Muslim
Scholars, War and Peace in West African History.
Dates: Tuesday 12 May, Thursday 14 May and Tuesday 19 May and Thursday 21
May
Times: 17:30-19:00
Venue: District Six Museum Homecoming Centre
Biographies Dr. Andrea Brigaglia was born in Palermo (Italy). He has studied at
the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, where he has combined the study of Arabic
and Hausa languages with Islamic and African history. He has obtained a Laurea in
Islamic Studies in 2000 and a Doctorate in African Studies in 2005. In his doctoral
thesis, he looks at the history of the discipline of tafsir (qur’anic exegesis) in Hausaspeaking Northern Nigeria in the twentieth century, exploring it as a major arena
allowing for the interaction of ‘ulama’ (religious scholars) and society, and for the
articulation of intellectual and cultural change.
Lee Scharnick Udemans is a 2nd year PhD student at the University of Cape Town.
He plans to have his dissertation ready for submission by the end of 2015. Inspired
by Regis Debray’s idea of the” currentness of the past”,by foregrounding public
media in a study of religion he hopes to provide insight into how the “currentness of
the past” has shaped the ways in which the tensions between freedom of religion
and freedom of expression play out in the contemporary South African context.
Assoc Prof. Sa’diyya Shaikh: Working at the intersection of Islamic Studies and
Gender Studies, Dr Shaikh has an interest in Sufism and its implications for Islamic
feminism and feminist theory. Her book “Sufi Narratives of Intimacy: Ibn ʿArabī,
Gender and Sexuality” is published by the University of North Carolina Press (2012).
Her other areas of research cover issues of gender violence; feminist approaches to
hadith and Quran; contraception and abortion; theoretical debates on Islam and
feminism; Engaged Sufism and empirical research on South African Muslim women.
Dr. Asonzeh Ukah‘s interests are Religion and Globalisation; Transnational
Religion; Media and Material Culture of African Pentecostalism; Popular Culture of
Pentecostalism; Pentecostal Advertising; Faith and Films; Urbanism and Sacred
Space.
STARTING NEXT WEEK:
ADN: African Design Now (Mugendi M’Rithaa) (5 Bursaries available)
Course Outline: This introductory course gives an overview of developments in
design thinking, practice and innovation on the African continent. It will cover notions
of socially responsive and responsible design, including design for sustainability,
participatory design, and universal design. It will aim to equip participants with an
understanding of the role of design in advancing the developmental agenda on the
African continent.
Dates: Tuesday 19 May, Wednesday 20 May and Thursday 21 May
Times: 17:30-19:00
Venue: Artscape Resource Centre
Biography: Mugendi K M’Rithaa is an industrial designer, educator and researcher
at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He holds Postgraduate
qualifications in industrial design and higher education, as well as a doctorate in
universal design. Kenyan by birth, M’Rithaa has played an influential role in
promoting design and design education on the African continent. After completing his
Masters Degree in industrial design at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai,
he returned to Kenya, where he taught at and started both the industrial design and
interior design programmes at the University of Nairobi. He then went on to teach at
the University of Botswana, where again he helped launch the industrial design
programme. He is associated with a number of international networks focusing on
design within industriallydeveloping/majority world contexts, and is currently serving
a second term on the executive board of the International Council of Societies of
Industrial Design (ICSID).
Download programme and to register visit: www.afai.org.za/events.
Seats are limited per class, booking is therefore essential. African Arts Institute: 021
465 9027 or email info@afai.org.za.
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The African Arts Institute intends running the African Arts Campus as a selfsustaining annual project and is grateful for the support of its main funder the
National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF). Bursaries to attend the Campus
are also available upon request. Registration is online: www.afai.org.za/events.
The NLDTF relies on funds from the proceeds of the National
Lottery. The Lotteries Act guides the way in which NLDTF
funding may be allocated. The NLDTF wants the grants to make
a difference to the lives of all South Africans, especially those
more vulnerable and to improve the sustainability of the
beneficiary organisations. Available funds are distributed to
registered and qualifying non-profit organisations in the fields of
charities; arts; culture and national heritage; and sport and recreation. By placing its
emphasis on areas of greatest need and potential, the NLDTF contributes to South
Africa's development.
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For more information about the campus please contact:
Sophia Sanan
African Arts Campus Course Convenor
sophia@afai.org.za
Other queries including bursaries please contact:
African Arts Institute
www.afai.org.za
info@afai.org.za
+27 21 465 9027