Spring 2008 Schedule

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
REVISITING THE HEART OF DARKNESS:
TOWARDS AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF WHITE MAN IN AFRICA
by Mr. Keith Harmon Snow
12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
CUE Room 122
University of Connecticut, Storrs

Africa is undergoing crises on a revolutionary scale. Some of the crises are attributable to internal factors within the continent. But to a large extent, most are due to a series of massive and contiguous attacks by agents of white supremacy ideology and projects. The attacks on Africa that exacerbate crises on the continent, though orchestrated by an elite white power establishment, is also buttressed by a rather passive and conditioned white power public. In the grand scheme of the white supremacist projects, the media have played a critical role in masking the agents of violence against African people.

In the lecture I shall disclose not only the types of violence, structural and otherwise, that perpetuate white privilege, arrogance, superiority and ignorance but also black African functionaries who facilitate the exploitation and dehumanization of Africa and her people. I shall outline how white violence perpetuated against Africans began with the commerce in Africans by Europeans (the Slave Trade) and has continued through both overt and covert military, economic, political and ideological violence. As a white person myself, I shall argue that what is urgently needed to understand and deal with structural violence against Africans is to delve into the anthropology of whites in Africa and how they foster genocidal conflicts in the continent. The lecture is based on my experiences in 17 countries in Africa, where I documented wars and slavery in the Great Lakes Region (Uganda, Congo, Rwanda) and investigated for the United Nations genocide wars in Ethiopia and Southern Sudan. This multimedia presentation will provide an overview of the ways and means that whiteness lords its power over Africa while always excusing itself and dismissing its interests.

Keith Harmon Snow is an independent (non-corporate) freelance journalist and investigator whose work revolves around truth, freedom and equality. Entirely dependent on individual donations and voluntary contributions to sustain this work, he has lived under the poverty line for over a decade, while continuing to work as a volunteer for three non-profit humanitarian organizations. On his missions to Africa, Keith has provided food, medical supplies and basic health necessities to many, many indigent and suffering people. He is a believer in direct action, non-violent social protest, and civil disobedience.


Past Lectures

Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Developments in the Interpretation of Human Rights by the
United Nations Human Rights Committee
by Dr. Zonke Majodina
12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
Student Union Room 304B
University of Connecticut, Storrs

The UNESCO Chair is honored to announce a public lecture by Dr. Zonke Majodina, Deputy Chairperson and Commissioner of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC). Dr. Majodina will highlight the South African Commission’s approach to Human Rights education, as well as her work with the United Nations Human Rights Council.

In addition to holding the position of deputy chairperson, Dr. Majodina has the responsibility for the Rights to Equality, the Rights of Non-Nationals and monitors human rights issues in the Northern and Western Cape Provinces of South Africa. The various positions she holds entail governance and the utilization of acquired expertise in advancing the human rights agenda.

Dr. Majodina has a psychology degree from Fort Hare University in South Africa, a Masters degree from London University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cape Town. She began her career as a clinical psychologist at the University of Ghana Medical School where she worked for sixteen years. Prior to returning to her native South Africa, she was a visiting fellow at the Refugee Studies Center of Oxford University.

On her return to South Africa, Dr. Majodina was appointed senior lecturer at the Graduate School for the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Witswatersrand where she was involved in setting up a new Master’s degree programme in Forced Migration.

Dr. Majodina’s special focus is the rights of refugees, asylum-seekers and migration policy. She has published and presented many papers on applied psychology, forced displacement, migration, child abuse, and general human rights issues.

March 25
Kenya's Rural Women:
Education, Climate Change and Sustainability
Dr. Agnes Wakesho Mwang’ombe

Tuesday, March 25, 2008
12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
Student Union Room 304B
University of Connecticut, Storrs

Dr. Agnes Wakesho Mwang'ombe, feminist, scholar, and activist, founded the Kenya-based NGO, the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands Foundation (ASALFO) in 2000, and serves as its Director.  ASALFO focuses on Agriculture and natural resource management, education and health. The overall goal, to identify and promote projects that will specifically reduce food insecurity, eliminate famine and poverty through sustainable agricultural and environmental strategies and in the process eliminate gender bias in education through promotion of girl child education in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL).

She is Principal of the University of Nairobi College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences.  Trained as a botanist, her scientific research is in plant pathology, agricultural development, and arid lands sustainability.  She has published in numerous scientific journals, including the Kenya Journal of Sciences, European Journal of Plant Pathology, and the East African Agriculture and Forestry Journal.  She has served as Officer, Director, and Board Member of many Kenyan and African professional societies and organizations, including the Kenya Professional Association of Women in Agriculture and Environment (KEPAWAE), of which she was its first Chairperson.  She also serves as consultant to NGOs related to agriculture technology transfer, higher education program development and access, climate change in Africa, AIDS impact assessment on agriculture; and indigenous farming initiatives.  She is particularly interested in connecting women's issues--higher education access, health, and welfare--with development and sustainability issues.    

Programs implemented under ASALFO include working with women groups to raise local funds to purchase a maize mill in Taita as an income generating activity; a tertiary education program which currently has 16 students from resource poor families pursuing tertiary education; secured funds for women groups in Taita and Malindi to start cultivation of indigenous vegetable for HIV/AIDs infected and affected families. The project focused on food nutrition and income generation through sales of indigenous vegetables.

Dr. Wakesho Mwamg’ombe’s lecture is co-sponsored by Bridgewater State College. She can be contacted via e-mail: Mwangombe@kenyaweb.co.ke

Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Human Rights and Sierra Leone
Eugene Harkins
Time: 12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
CUE Room 122
University of Connecticut, Storrs

The conflict in Sierra Leone gained extensive publicity due to the RUF’s brutal practice of chopping off the arms, legs, and even noses, of thousands of innocent victims. These hapless amputees populate and haunt present-day Freetown and the surrounding provinces. The RUF also conscripted thousands of child soldiers and sex slaves, some as young as eight-years-old. These youngsters, who are now entering their adolescence, are all suffering from a terrible post traumatic stress syndrome. The country is likely to generate further publicity due to the ongoing UN War Crimes Tribunal investigations and global efforts to combat the illicit trade in “blood diamonds.” In that regard there is clear evidence of an Al Qaeda presence in Sierra Leone set up to launder dollars derived from illicit diamond sales, and the FBI has opened an office in Freetown to deal with that.

In his novel, Where Witch Birds Fly (http://www.bookmasters.com/clarity/b0031.htm) Eugene Harkins shines a spotlight on the glamorous world of diamonds, revealing the sordid history that surrounds the bloody and circuitous transmission of diamonds from destitute African homelands to their largely ignorant or indifferent yet elegant purchasers.

Eugene Harkins’ lecture will not only highlight the devastation caused by the civil war in Sierra Leone, but will focus on the sense of hope and the democratic renewal occurring in the country since the civil war. He will also provide updates on the Charles Taylor trial presently before the Hague.

Eugene Harkins is a lawyer and a graduate of Rutgers College with a B. A. in Latin American Civilization. He has a J.D. from Rutgers School of Law and an Advanced degree in International, Foreign and Comparative law from New York University. He began his career with the State Department, then joined Gulf Oil Company Latin America as a staff attorney. He then became head of the international law department of Blackwell, Walker Gray in Miami. Later, he returned to corporate practice as General Counsel of Texaco Latin America/West Africa. He has worked and traveled in some sixty-five countries, and is multi-cultural and multi-lingual (Spanish, Portuguese and Russian).
Should you require additional information, please contact the UNESCO Chair & Institute of Comparative Human Rights (860.486.0647,
unescochair@uconn.edu).