Workshop Reimagining contemporary Africa: Circulations of objects, knowledges & spiritual practices
This workshop will investigate contemporary transformations of practices and discourses on and in Africa in a global perspective. People and multiple social and political institutions in Africa and the African diaspora have made efforts of re-appropriating the past for the present, and the future, particularly regarding the transformation of ritual practices, imaginaries and discourses of spirituality, religion and identity in Africa, considered within global perspectives. Such efforts of employing notions of ‘tradition’ in postcolonial contexts have been productive in re-imagining Africa, particularly through exchanges between African societies and between African societies and the rest of the world. Thus, this workshop aims to emphasise permeability and rethink transformation both in Africa and, as connected with and part of the global.
Convenors:
Heike Becker, University of the Western Cape
Agnes Kedzierska-Manzon, EPHE Paris Sciences Lettres
Dates: 24 and 25 January 2024
Venue: University of the Western Cape, Seminar Room, Department of Anthropology