The World is Ending Again: African Humanities in Times of Crisis

Thursday, 4 May 2023 - 9:00am

 

 

Programme

 

Kloofzicht Lodge & Spa

Magaliesburg

South Africa

 

3 to 7 May 2023

 


Thursday |  May 4  

 

9:30 Opening and Introductions

 

1 – 10:00  Museums 

 

Chair: Derek Peterson, University of Michigan. Email drpeters@umich.edu

 

  • Paul Farber, University of Michigan/Mellon Foundation. “After Permanence: A Provisional and Uncertain History of Empty Pedestals.” Email paul.farber@monumentlab.com
  • Bongani Ndhlovu, Iziko Museum. “Community voices, contestations, and public programming in a rural-museum space: The case of Ncome Museum and Monument Complex.” Email bndhlovu@iziko.org.za
  • Comfort Mtotha, University of Michigan. “Politics, repatriation, and national treasure: The Odyssey of Victor and Theodore Cox Collection in Museums of Malawi.” Email ctama@umich.edu
  • Hlonipha Mokoena, University of the Witwatersrand. “What is an ethnologist to do? The photographs of Nicolaas Jacobus Van Warmelo and the University as a ‘museum’.” Email Hlonipha.Mokoena@wits.ac.za
  • Shireen Hassim, Carleton University (Canada), with Frances Andrew. “Telling Tales: The Unruly Making of the Women’s Living History Museum in Gauteng.” Email ShireenHassim@cunet.carleton.ca 

 

12:30 Lunch

 

2 – 13:30  Archives: the politics of preservation and access

 

Chair: Derek  Peterson, University of Michigan. Email drpeters@umich.edu

 

  • Rachel Deblinger, University of California at Los Angeles. REMOTE (KB) 
  • Gabrielle Mohale, University of the Witwatersrand. “The World is ending again – But Archives are forever.” Email Gabriele.Mohale@wits.ac.za
  • David Wallace, University of Michigan. “SNAFU: Archives are everywhere and vulnerable.” Email davwal.davwal@gmail.com
  • Riley Linebaugh, Humboldt University. “Placing the Colonial Past: FCO 141 10 Years On.” Email riley.linebaugh@gmail.com
  • Angela Wachuka, Book Bunk, Nairobi. Email wachuka@bookbunk.org.

 

17:00 Drinks

 

 

Friday | May 5

 

3 – 9:00 Archives and the arts

 

Chair & discussant: Patricia Hayes, University of the Western Cape. Email phayes@uwc.ac.za

 

  • Valmont Layne, University of the Western Cape. “Archiving Otherwise. Sonic research potentials and limits at the institutional interface.” Email vlayne@uwc.ac.za
  • Candice Jansen, Cape Town. “Storied Grounds: Notes on Archival Re-presentation (Photography).” Email jansendonnah@gmail.com
  • Tiiseto Dladla, University of the Western Cape. “Virtual Unmasking: Archival Interpretations and Experiences (Immersive Media).” Email tiisetsod@gmail.com
  • Geraldine Frieslaar, Stellenbosch University. “Activist archiving and the politics of remembrance: Reflections on digitising Horst Kleinschmidt's personal archive (mixed media).” Email gfrieslaar@gmail.com

 

4 – 11:00 Saved by the City: The Myth and the Reality of Urban Life in Africa  

 

Chairs & discussants: Martin Murray and Anne Pitcher, University of Michigan. Email murraymj@umich.edu & pitchera@umich.edu

 

  • Sylvia Croese, University of the Witwatersrand, and Wilbard Kombe. “The World Bank in Tanzania and the limits of building urban consensus in Africa.” Email  sylvia.croese@wits.ac.za 
  • Patience Musasa, Nordic African Institute. “The biopolitics of DIY urbanism on the Zambian Copperbelt.” Email patience.mususa@nai.uu.se
  • Euclides Gonçalves, Kaleidoscopio (Mozambique). “‘Infrastructures of impermanence in Maputo.” Email  e.goncalves@kaleidoscopio.co.mz
  • Anesio Manhiça, Kaleidoscopio (Mozambique). “The social life of the plastic bag in Maputo and Matola cities.” Email a.manhica@kaleidoscopio.co.mz

 

Lunch 13:00  

 

5 – 14:30 Print Cultures: African and diasporic epistemologies

 

Chair & discussant: Isabel Hofmeyr, University of the Witwatersrand. Email Isabel.Hofmeyr@wits.ac.za

 

  • Sanele kaNtishingana, University of Cape Town. “The praxis of political authority among amaXhosa through Tiyo Soga’s accounts in Indaba newspaper: 1862-1865.” Email sanele.ntshingana@uct.ac.za
  • Sibusiso Nkomo, University of Cape Town. “The roots of and routes to print culture in central South Africa and Lesotho in the mid-1800s.” Email sibusisonkomo@icloud.com
  • Khwezi Mkhize, University of Cape Town. “1936: Fascism and Liberal Belonging in South Africa.” Email Khwezi.Mkhize@uct.ac.za 
  • Madhumita Lahiri, University of Michigan. “The Property Plot.” Email mlahiri@umich.edu

 

 

 

Saturday, May 6

 

6 – 9:00 Music

 

Chair & discussant: Kholeka Shange, University of the Witwatersrand.

 

  • Thembela Vokwana, University of Fort Hare. “Sonic Lamentation and Outrage: Choral Music Responses to GBV in South Africa.” Email tvokwana@gmail.com
  • Kholeka Shange, University of the Witwatersrand. ““Uyephi Na?”: Remembering uMntwana uMagogo in Sibongile Khumalo’s Haya, mntwan' omkhulu! Sing, Princess! Songs of Princess Magogo KaDinuzulu (2003) and Zawadi Yamungu’s HRH Magogo School of Thought (2020).” Email Kholeka.Shange@wits.ac.za
  • Lindelwa Pepu, University of Zululand. “A Practically Effected Exclusion: A Shortage of Black Women in Visual Arts Education South Africa.”  Email pepul@unizulu.ac.za
  • Khanyisa Twani, University of Zululand. “The representation of female powerhouses in South African television and literature.” Email kisatwani@gmail.com

 

 

7 – 11:00 Infrastructure and Parastatals | Stephen Sparks

 

Chair & discussant :  Laura Phillips, North-West University (South Africa). Email laurap88@gmail.com

 

  • Maxim Bolt,  University of Oxford. Email “The legal field as public infrastructure: Johannesburg's deceased estates system,”  maxim.bolt@qeh.ox.ac.uk
  • Lumkile Mondi, University of the Witwatersrand. “The building and unbundling of a mission-oriented SOE - the case of Eskom,” Email  lumkile.mondi@wits.ac.za
  • Faeeza Ballim, University of Johannesburg.: “Corruption or Inefficiency? Democracy and Uncertainty in the Case of Eskom” Email fballim@uj.ac.za
  • Stephen Sparks, University of Johannesburg. “The Rise and Fall of 'South African Exceptionalism'” Email  sjwsparks@uj.ac.za

 

13:00 Lunch

 

8 – 14:00 African Capitalism

 

Chair: Faeeza Ballim, University of Johannesburg, email fballim@uj.ac.za

Discussant: Laura Phillips, North-West University (South Africa)

 

 

  • Keith Breckenridge, University of the Witwatersrand. “Rethinking the barbarous relic: the geopolitics of gold in the 20th century,”   Email keith@breckenridge.org.za
  • Howard Stein, University of Michigan. “Africa and the Global Financial System: Critical Perspectives” Email howstein@umich.edu
  • Niall Reddy, University of the Witwatersrand. “Shareholder value orientation, corporate cash piles and the myth of financial accumulation” Email niall.reddy@wits.ac.za
  • Jonathan Klaaren, University of the Witwatersrand “TBC”, jonathan.klaaren@wits.ac.za 
  • Jerome Lange, University of the Witwatersrand. “Searching for the History of African Economic Thought”  Email jerome.lange@wits.ac.za

 

 

16:00 Drinks & Wrap Up

WISER Research Theme: 
Sugarman