Two-day conference explores African nationalism

African nationalism posterA conference running Nov. 5 and 6 at York University will explore the topic of “African Nationalisms, History and Development.”

The event, which takes place at Founders College on the Keele campus, will feature guest speakers Gillian Hart (University of California Berkeley), Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja (University of North Carolina), Ama Biney (Pambazuka), Nakanyike Musisi (University of Toronto), John S. Saul (York University), Robert Shenton (Queen’s University) and David Moore (U of J), among others.

The two-day conference will look at Africa’s national development and its relationship to a political economy of integration and transformation.

Discussions will be focused on the inception of African independence and the paths of development taken since, including: the evocation of long historical processes of transformatory and rapid social change; intentional efforts aimed at improvement by various agencies, including governments, markets, and various kinds of organizations and social movements; and a description, vision and measure of a desirable society that has overcome poverty.

The conference will aim to understand both the general and specific historical roots entering into Africa’s heterogeneous nationalism, and the legacies that continue to shape or constrain developmental trajectories.

For more information on the conference, contact natdev1@yorku.ca or visit anhd.info.yorku.ca.

The event is sponsored by the Office of the Master, Founders College; the Office of the Dean, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies; Department of History; Department of Social Science; Department of Political Science; Department of Sociology; Department of Anthropology; and the Tubman Institute.