Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara: Customary Law and the Constitution in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara examines the future of the underdeveloped rural areas in the former homelands in South Africa, which are increasingly shaped by various conflicts and contradictions: between the Constitution and the official version of customary law; between custom and rights; between traditional councils and municipalities; between rural dwellers and tribal authorities; between rural women and patriarchal tribal institutions; and between imposed tribal institutions and local experiments with community-based systems.

 

francis nyamnjoh: fiction and reality of mobility in africa

Professor Francis Nyamnjoh speaks at the 2012 Stanford Forum on African Studies.  He is professor of anthropology at the University of Cape Town.

 

 

Boubacar Boris Diop: Arab Spring, A View from Sub-Saharan Africa

Professor Boubacar Boris Diop speaks at the 2012 Stanford Forum on African Studies.  He is a novelist and professor of literature and philosophy at the Universite Gaston Berger. 

 

 

2012 SFAS Faculty roundtable discussion: Mobile africa

A faculty roundtable discussion at the 2012 Stanford Forum for African Studies. Featuring Professor Aboubacar Boris Diop, Professor Charles Piot, Professor James Ferguson and Professor Francis Nyamnjoh.

 

tony blair: helping african leaders govern

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told a Stanford audience that much-needed economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa cannot go forward without improvements in governance. Blair is now the founder and patron of the African Governance Initiative, which works in Liberia, Guinea, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.

 

 

Bill Gates: Innovating Aid

Bill Gates visited Stanford to talk about innovation, but not the software kind. Scientists and engineers, he said, need to focus on products that help improve the lives of the world's poor even though the market directs people to help the wealthiest.

 

anthony bogues: "Emancipation and Freedom"

Anthony Bogues is currently the Harmon Family Professor of Africana Studies, and an affiliated Professor of Political Science and Modern Culture and Media at Brown University. He is currently the Marta Sutton Weeks Distinguished Visitor at the Stanford Humanities Center for 2012.

Bogues discusses the differences between human emancipation and freedom. Being emancipated does not necessarily make a former slave free; rather, the ability to create one's own freedom does.

 

Victor Gama: a live performance

Victor Gama is a creative musician, folklorist, instrument maker, and computer musician from Angola. His music addresses the relationship between technologies and artistic traditions with a particular focus on musical styles and histories of Africa and the diaspora. 

He performed at Stanford University on October 27, 2010.