CBAAC and PANAFSTRAG In collaboration with The University of the West Indies, Mona Kingston, Jamaica Presents

CBAAC Colloquium 2013 TOWARD A NEW PAN-AFRICANISM: DEPLOYING ANTHROPOLOGY, ARCHAEOLOGY, HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY IN THE SERVICE OF AFRICA AND THE DIASPORA At THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES, MONA CAMPUS, KINGSTON JAMAICA OCTOBER 30 – NOVEMBER 3, 2013 CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS Background Historians are still debating the demographic, economic, social, cultural and religio-metaphysical consequences of enslavement, the slave trade, and the “middle passage” on/for Africa, Africans, and people of African descent in the Caribbean, the Americas and elsewhere. It is extremely difficult to settle the debate with population figures everybody will agree with. However, the long term psycho-behavioral consequences on the survivors, both in Africa and the Diaspora, have never been addressed systematically.

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Frantz Fanon’s insight in The wretched of the earth can be relied on to suggest a profound psychological adjustment to constant threat and uncertainty. This idea is now vigorously explored by the new emerging field of “behavioral epigenetic” (G. Miller 2010). This development can have significant impact on our understanding of the systemic problems faced by Africans today in Africa and elsewhere. Intellectuals and activists from the Caribbean and North America, like Blyden, DuBois, Garvey, and Padmore, to mention but a few, were instrumental in the emergence and consolidation of the idea of Pan-Africanism and forging a sense of common origins and common destiny. The new push of the African Union, toward the goal of “United States of Africa” is a particularly exciting and timely move. The proposed conference aims to take advantage of this momentum to jumpstart a New Pan-Africanism upon a template deriving from such vantage points situated in the disciplines of anthropology, archaeology, history and philosophy. 1:

Anthropological, Archaeological, and historical investigations of the areas of origins and contemporary domicile of the African Diaspora

Where did enslavement take place? How was it organized? What were its demographic, psychological, economic, cultural and religio-metaphysical consequences? The Gold Coast hinterland and Ghana slaves’ castles, the Yoruba-Edo hinterland, the Bight of Benin, the Bight of Biafra, the Senegal Valley, the Northern Yoruba land, the Eastern Africa coastal cities, and the West coast of Central Africa (often collectively known as the Gulf of Guinea – Warner-Lewis 1991, 2003), were particularly active areas, involved one way or the other in the Atlantic trade systems in the time frame under consideration which ranges from 500 to 100 years. In the 17th - 18th centuries, the settlement of Okun in the Yoruba-Edo hinterland, for example, supplied the Atlantic Trade systems not only with captives but also commodities from the hinterland. It received in exchange a range of goods from the coastal areas. House shape, size, and arrangement indicate patterns of change congruent with larger size households and sharpened social hierarchies. There is nonetheless a problem: evidence of enslavement is lacking. The suggestion is based exclusively on historical and oral sources. Okun took advantage of its geographic location in the hinterland to accumulate wealth and insured the transfer of “caravans” to the coastal sea ports. Two enslavement systems, one Arabo-Berber and the other European, overlap in the Senegal valley. The Arabo-Berber slavery system operated from the 8th-9th centuries to only a few years ago. The European Slave Trade, through Saint-Louis harbor and the river Senegal, was superimposed on the previous one. In all cases, this convergence led to the “militarization” of the societies, with rival war-lords, and “warring” marabouts. 2:

Anthropological, Archaeological, and Historical investigations of African and African Diaspora Resistance and Resilience

Signs of resistance and resilience can be found in the landscape, as architectural devices for

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protection, in the daily life under bondage by theft or sabotage, in songs, and withdrawal. Resistance and resilience are epitomized by the Maroon: a runaway slave rebellious to servitude and fighting for freedom and dignity. Maroon communities were found almost everywhere in the Caribbean and the Americas, particularly in Suriname, Brasil, Jamaica, Mexico, and the Southern United States. Maroons settlement systems were made to be deceptive and hard to find. In Jamaica, for example, and before the signature of the peace treaties, these settlements located in wooded areas had to be elusive and concealed from view. The erasure of the African runaway presence in Brasil historiography is weakening today. There is an increasing academic and popular interest in research on the African Diaspora. In contrast to the Brasilian situation, there is an interesting case of virtually complete erasure of the presence of enslaved Africans in Buenos Ayres, the Argentine capital. The material excavated from pits found in two distinct spots provide a pale light on the presence of African slaves in the late 18 th and early 19th century in Argentine. 3:

Anthropological, Archaeological, and Historical investigations of Material Culture and Technology of African Diaspora

Naval technology was the key element in the formation of the African diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean. The structures of the vessels were engineered to maximize the loading capacity. The “Middle Passage” - the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, resonates in all the narratives of people of African descent in the “New world”. “Maritime Archaeology, underwater archaeology - and the history of naval technology can bring to light the ranges of options devised by trading companies and rival European powers to achieve their goals. A significant technological transfer took place with the shipping of millions of Africans to the New World. As shown by archaeological and historical research conducted at the John Reader foundry at St Thomas, Jamaica, African blacksmiths and metal workers were in high demand and performed highly skilled works. An interesting window on the silent transfer of skills that took place through the Slave trade needs interrogation. 4:

Anthropological, Archaeological, and Historical investigations on the construction of Social Space and Identity of Global and Diaspora Africa

The construction of social space is in most cases a dialectical process. The “bounded space” enhances the cultural expression of self vis a vis others, and this process takes place in a multitude of contexts. The management of heritage sites is also fraught with difficulties. There are conflicting views on the management of cultural resources. This is particularly salient in cases concerning the architectural signatures of the slave trade. In Ghana, for example, a number of “slave castles” have been restored by the Ghana Foundation for the Preservation of Castles and Forts. The restored buildings were turned into tourist sites, with all the commercial installations with an eye on American and Caribbean visitors. Americans of African descent see this move as the “commoditization of Sacred monuments”. They view these places very differently. These

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contrasted views bring to the fore issues of control and “ownership” that result from the distinctive historical trajectories of Africans and African-Americans. 5:

Philosophy, Religions, and Ritual Practices of Global Africa for Empowerment

How did the up-rooted Africans manage to create a sense of cultural identity in the new world? There are different approaches to this difficult problem. The “middle passage’ did not erase their cultural memory, but life circumstances strongly constrained what was feasible. Slaves’ owners were careful enough not to have large number of individuals from the same area, who could use the mother language. While many researchers consider the new identities as the result of a “creative cultural bricolage”, others advocate the possibility for the preservation of “recognizable” cultural practices. 6:

Culture, Education and Leadership and Global African Development

There is no doubt that the nature, extent and ramifications of the irruptions that took place on the continent of Africa deriving from the Arabo-Berber Slavery and Atlantic Slavery have not been given proper intellectual attention and appreciation. Questions such as why societies with complex democratic, highly sophisticated juridical culture based on evidence, precedence and justice, indigenous science and culture, have now become dependent on external ideologies and knowledge systems have yet to be fully explored. Even more significant has been the suggestion that the Africana global educational curriculum does not include enough material on aspects of indigenous African culture, knowledge systems, leadership traditions and religio-metaphysical ideas, so that the better part of our educational process is suffused with so much emptiness, by way of purely instrumental material, without attention to what Africa means or should mean in the world, nor even attention to where Africa has been, is coming from and where it may be heading – especially in the light of the contemporary pauperized leadership hell-bent on ensuring that Africa remains permanently on the mendicancy trail. There is need to embrace a whole project that is clearly cultural and educational and framed to be part of the New African world under construction. Given the above background, CBAAC in conjunction with PANAFSTRAG, and Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus Kingston, Jamaica, is organising its Ninth International Colloquium on the theme: “Toward a New PanAfricanism – Deploying Anthropology, Archaeology, History and Philosophy in the Service of Africa and the Diaspora”. The colloquium, to be held at The University of the West Indies Mona Campus, Kingston Jamaica from October 30 to November 3, 2013, is expected to bring together Pan-Africanists, historians, academics, archaeologists, anthropologists, philosophers, activists and other experts within Africa and the Diaspora. Leading scholars, intellectuals and organizations are to be invited to provide lead papers, plenaries and perspectives on the Six Thematic areas identified above, as framework for critical reflection. The general public is invited to participate and, as participants, propose contributions of papers that bear relevance, provide insight and illuminate them:

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1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Anthropological, Archaeological, and historical investigations of the areas of origins and contemporary domicile of the African Diaspora Anthropological, Archaeological, and Historical investigations of African and African Diaspora Resistance and Resilience Anthropological, Archaeological, and Historical investigations of Material Culture and Technology of African Diaspora Anthropological, Archaeological, and Historical investigations on the construction of Social Space and Identity of Global and Diaspora Africa Philosophy, Religions, and Ritual Practices of Global Africa for Empowerment Culture, Education and Leadership and Global African Development African and African Diaspora Political Economy Old and New Configurations of Dependency in Africa and the Diaspora Globalization and Information Super-highway and Africa Union Rediscovering Africana Renaissance Other themes creatively related to, expanding and transcending the above are welcome

All abstracts should include title, the author(s) name, institutional affiliation, address, telephone number and email address. All abstracts must not be more than 300 words. Abstracts for consideration which must be in electronic format should be received not later than 9th April, 2013 by all of the following individuals: 1. [email protected] 2. [email protected] Authors whose abstracts are accepted would be notified not later than 15th of May, 2013, while all papers for presentation must be received in electronic format not later than 15th July, 2013. CBAAC is not in a position to provide sponsorship for participants in this year’s Colloquium. Consequently, participants are encouraged to seek funding from other sources. The official languages of the Conference are: English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

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