September 21, 1999
LAWRENCE -- An acclaimed writer and activist from Kenya and a former U.S. senator from Kansas will be speaking at the Mid-America Alliance for African Studies Conference at the University of Kansas, Thursday through Saturday, Sept. 23 to 25, in the Kansas Union ballroom.
Ngugi wa Thiong'o (IN-goo-gee wah THEE-ong-o), an internationally known author living in the U.S. in exile from his native Kenya, will give the keynote address at a luncheon at noon Friday in the Kansas Union ballroom. The speech is free to the public.
Former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker will conclude the conference on Saturday with remarks related to her recent experiences in Africa and her advocacy work for Africa during her tenure in the U.S. Senate.
The conference will examine the impact of the wave of democracy that passed over Africa in the 1990s.
At 7 p.m. Thursday in the Kansas Union Centennial Room, Thiong'o will discuss his recent book, "Penpoints, Gunpoints and Dreams: Towards a Critical Theory of the Arts and the State in Africa." In his book, Thiong'o examines the relationship between art and political power in Africa, using the experiences of writers in contemporary Africa. The session is free and open to the public.
Friday and Saturday sessions include three speakers and seven panels featuring the work of scholars from universities such as KU, the University of Arizona and the Universite Gaston Berger in St. Louis, Senegal.
Featured speakers are M. Crawford Young of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an authority on the politics of Africa; E. Wayne Nafziger of Kansas State University, an expert on economics and development; and Mikael Karlstrom of the University of Chicago, who has done extensive field research on democracy in Uganda.
The Mid-America Alliance for African Studies promotes African studies in mid-America and seeks to encourage scholarship and teaching in African studies through seminars, conferences, faculty and student exchanges and cooperative exchanges between the region's libraries. This year's conference, "Africa and the Democratic Wave: Evaluating a Decade of Transformations in Politics, Economy, the Arts, and Society," is the fifth annual conference.
Sessions will begin at 8:30 a.m. Friday and at 9 a.m. Saturday. All of the sessions will take place in the Kansas Union.
More information about the conference and the speakers is available on the MAAAS Web site at http://www.ku.edu/~asrc/Demo99~1.htm.