Tag: History

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Ep. 87: A conversation with Marja Hinfelaar on Zambian politics, environment and energy, and more

This week’s episode has a brief newswrap because co-host Rachel Beatty Riedl had to phone in from Morocco. We quickly cover the World Bank-African Development Bank spat, the plague of locusts in East Africa, and more.

This week’s conversation is with Marja Hinfelaar, Director of Research and Programs at the Southern African Institute for Policy and Research (SAIPAR) in Lusaka, Zambia. Marja received her PhD in History in 2001 from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, and her dissertation focused on the history of women’s organizations in Zimbabwe. She is the co-editor of One Zambia, Many Histories and Democracy and Electoral Politics in Zambia. Rachel spoke with Marja when she was in Zambia earlier this year. They discuss Zambian politics, environment and energy, religious and traditional leaders, and more. Their conversation begins at 9:56. 

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Ep. 86: A conversation with Moïses Williams Pokam Kamdem about Africa’s energy sector, Cameroon’s political history, and more (French)

[FRENCH VERSION] In our second episode this Black History Month, Rachel speaks with Moïses WIlliams Pokam Kamdem, a lecturer and research at the University of Dschang and a fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study in Nantes, France. They talk about Africa’s energy sector, Cameroon’s political history, and more. Their conversation begins at 14:01.

Our news wrap covers the recent court ruling in Malawi nullifying the presidential election, the US travel restrictions imposed on Nigerians, the NYT photographic retrospective and collection of essays on 60 years of African independence, and more.

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Ep. 86: A conversation with Moïses Williams Pokam Kamdem about Africa’s energy sector, Cameroon’s political history, and more

In our second episode this Black History Month, Rachel speaks with Moïses WIlliams Pokam Kamdem, a lecturer and research at the University of Dschang and a fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study in Nantes, France. They talk about Africa’s energy sector, Cameroon’s political history, and more. Their conversation begins at 14:01.

Our news wrap covers the recent court ruling in Malawi nullifying the presidential election, the US travel restrictions imposed on Nigerians, the NYT photographic retrospective and collection of essays on 60 years of African independence, and more.

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Ep. 84: A Lunar New Year conversation with Jamie Monson on China-Africa relations, seeing technology from the user perspective, and more

To commemorate Lunar New Year, this week’s episode focuses on China-Africa relations. In the news wrap, we talk about China-Africa trade, some recommended reads and a podcast on China-Africa, as well as Russia-Africa relations, reports of an extended US travel ban for some African countries, Isabel Dos Santos’s Angolan assets seizure, and more. 

Our featured conversation is with Jamie Monson (@jmonson1), Professor of History and Director of the African Studies Center at Michigan State University (@MSUAfrica). Her research focuses on Chinese development assistance to Africa. She is a specialist on the TAZARA railway, a development project built in Tanzania and Zambia with Chinese development cooperation in the 1970s. We talk about her book, Africa’s Freedom Railway: How a Chinese Development Project Changed Lives and Livelihoods in Tanzania, and her related documentary, TAZARA stories. The new documentary film relies on oral history interviews to share people’s experiences with the introduction of the TAZARA railway. We also talk about seeing technology from the user’s perspective and inequalities in academic partnerships across regions. The segment with Jamie Monson begins at 13:42. 

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Ep. 58: A conversation with Wendell Marsh on the history (and modernity) of Islam and the African world

This week’s conversation is with Wendell Marsh (@theafrabian), an Assistant Professor of African American and African Studies at Rutgers University-Newark and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Buffet Institute for Global Studies at Northwestern University. He conducts research and teaches on the encounter of Islam and the African world as mediated in Arabic and vernacular texts. His segment begins at 12:21.

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Ep. 37: A conversation with Dr. George Karekwaivanane on the struggle for power in Zimbabwe

This week’s episode features a conversation with Dr. George Karekwaivanane (@ghkare). Dr. Karekwaivanane is a lecturer in African Studies at the University of Edinburgh and the author of The Struggle over State Power in Zimbabwe: Law and Politics Since 1950, recently published by Cambridge University Press. I spoke with George last week at the annual meeting of the African Studies Association in Chicago.

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Ep. 12: A conversation with Dr. Kavemuii Murangi on the Namibian genocide and reparations

In this week’s podcast, we speak with Dr. Kavemuii Murangi, a Namibian-born educator currently residing in the United States. He is a descendant of the victims of the Ovaherero genocide of 1904-1908 (his great-great grandfather died in 1904 during the genocide war) and co-founder of the U.S.-based OvaHerero, Mbanderu and Nama Genocides Institute. For background on the Read More…

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Ep. 6: A conversation with Dr. Melissa Graboyes on colonial medical experiments in East Africa

In the second week of Black History Month, we chat with historian Dr. Melissa Graboyes of the University of Oregon. She talks with us about her recently published book, The Experiment Must Continue: Medical Research and Ethics in East Africa, 1940–2014. Ahead of Valentine’s Day, we play singer songwriter Nicole Musoni’s beautiful song “Runaway Love” at the end of this week’s episode. You Read More…

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Ep. 5: A conversation with Dr. T.J. Tallie to kick off Black History Month

This week on Ufahamu Africa we commemorate the start of Black History Month with a conversation with historian Dr. T.J. Tallie of Washington and Lee University. He shares insights from his research on settler colonialism in South Africa in the 1800s, connecting ideas and themes to the contemporary period.  We’re very grateful to Zaza Kabayadondo for Read More…