A series exploring African immigration, contemporary science/speculative fiction, and female empowerment through farming.
International House Davis, Thursday March 29, April 26, May 31, 2018. International House Davis, with support from the Davis Network for Africa, is pleased to present a 3-part conversation series, led by innovative thinkers and practitioners from, or working between, Northern California and Africa. Co-sponsored with Global Affairs at UC Davis, the series was born from a desire to bring to the public more substantive discourse around the diverse continent. The series is not meant to be comprehensive, but will include the following compelling topics: contemporary African Science/Speculative Fiction (confirmed speaker, Moradewun Adejunmobi); the unique role of farming and female empowerment through the work of Green Africa in Sierra Leone (confirmed speaker, Humphrey Fellow Martin Kailie; and notions of “Africa” and African/African-American identity in relation to movements and discourse in the U.S. (confirmed speaker Dr. Boatamo Mosupyoe).
6:30: Doors open
7pm: Program starts
Program Dates: March 29, April 26, May 31 2018
About the Speakers
March 29. Martin Kailie will discuss his work as founder and CEO of Green Africa Inc. Kailie, a farmer and social entrepreneur, has worked since 2009 with women farmers empowering them to fight increasing poverty in drought and flood-prone communities in his country, Sierra Leone. Kailie is currently a 2017-2018 Humphrey Fellow at UC Davis. His goal is to learn climate-smart farming and network with U.S. farmers to support 5,000 women farmers with appropriate irrigation technology, organic farming techniques, and links to markets. Kailie holds an MPhil in Linguistics from the University of Sierra Leone and taught in the same university for ten years before switching to sustainable agriculture and rural development. While documenting endangered languages in his native Sierra Leone, he witnessed the devastating effects of drought and floods on communities. Inspired by that experience, his dream is to use sustainable agriculture to tackle climate change to improve the lives of subsistence farmers at risk from climate change.
April 26. Dr. Boatamo Mosupyoe will speak from her vast research experience on the life, migration, success and failure trends of recent African immigrants in the United States, and its reflection in mainstream discourse and policy-making. Dr. Mosupyoe is Professor and Director of Pan African Studies in the Ethnic Studies Department at California State University, Sacramento. During her time in South Africa he worked with the Anti-Apartheid Movement and was also the chair of the South African International Student Organization and a member of its national executive. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in Social Cultural Anthropology with a focus on Ethnic Studies, African/African Americans, and is the recipient of the Pierce College Outstanding Faculty of the Year award as well as the A Roland Weis Award for her contribution to promoting awareness against genocide Her numerous publications include Development of Thought in Pan Africanism, Women’s Multicentric Ways of Knowing, Being and Thinking, Mediation of Patriarchy and Sexism by Women in South Africa, Institutions, Ideologies and Individuals: Feminist Perspectives on Gender, Race and Class, and Introduction to Ethnic Studies.
May 31. Moradewun Adejunmob i will be discussing contemporary African Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction. She recently edited the Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry’s special issue on African Speculative Fiction. An Associate Professor in the African American and African Studies Program of the University of California, Davis, she has also taught at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and the University of Botswana. Her current research interests are in questions of language and identity in African literature and popular culture. She has also worked on Malagasy literature in French and is the author of JJ Rabearivelo, Literature and Lingua Franca in Colonial Madagascar.
