Table Of ContentLeeds
African
Studies
Bulletin
Number 75
Winter 2013/14
Editor
Jane Plastow
Book Reviews Editor
Martin Banham
The Leeds African Studies Bulletin
Editorial Assistance is published annually by the Leeds
Karen Cereso University Centre for African
Studies (LUCAS)
All correspondence should be addressed to:
The Editor, Leeds African Studies Bulletin
LUCAS, Hillary Place
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
UK
E-mail: [email protected] website: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/lucas
Leeds African Studies Bulletin
Number 75 Winter 2013-14
Contents 3
Introduction 6
Notes on Contributors 8
LUCAS News, Reports and People
The LUCAS Book Distribution Scheme 10
Yorkshire African Studies Network 13
LUCAS Seminars 14
The LUCAS Schools Project 16
Departmental News
School of Earth and Environment 19
School of English/Workshop Theatre 22
School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies 24
School of History 25
Institute of Communications Studies (ICS) 26
School of Modern Languages and Cultures 27
School of Music 27
Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development 28
School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science 37
School of Politics and International Studies 38
Tributes 46
Professor Lionel Cliffe (by Ray Bush) 47
Chinua Achebe (by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong‘o) 51
Articles 54
The Other Side of the Bush
Patience Nitumwesiga 55
Positioning Kiswahili Video-films as a Pedagogical Institution
Vicensia Shule 65
Black Consciousness in South Africa and the Question of White Oppression
under Apartheid
Edward Powell 80
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Book Reviews
From Head-loading to the Iron Horse: Railway Building in Colonial Ghana
and the Origins of Tropical Development. Komla Tsey.
(Reviewed by James Gibbs) 95
Outcomes of Post-2000 Fast Track Land Reform in Zimbabwe.
Lionel Cliffe, Jocelyn Alexander, Ben Cousins and Rudo Gaidzanwa (eds).
(Reviewed by Fay Chung) 96
Summoning the Rains. Hilda Twongyeirwe and Ellen Banda-Aaku (eds).
(Reviewed by Elinor Rooks) 100
In The House Of The Interpreter. Ngugi wa Thiong‘o.
(Reviewed by Martin Banham) 103
Writing Revolt. An Engagement with African Nationalism 1957-67.
Terence Ranger. (Reviewed by Henning Melber) 105
Perceiving Pain in African Literature. Zoe Norridge
(Reviewed by Ruth Bush) 107
Reading Marechera. Grant Hamilton (Ed.).
(Reviewed by Tiro Sebina) 110
The Freetown Bond: A Life under Two Flags. Eldred Durosimi Jones
with Marjorie Jones. (Reviewed by Jane Plastow) 112
Yorùbá Music in the Twentieth Century: Identity, Agency, and
Performance Practice. Bode Omojola. (Reviewed by Debbie Klein) 114
Lagos: A Cultural and Historical Companion. Kaye Whiteman.
(Reviewed by Femi Osofisan) 117
Focus on Nigeria: Literature and Culture. Gordon Collier (Ed.).
(Reviewed by Femi Osofisan) 119
S is for Samora: A lexical biography of Samora Machel and the Mozambican
Dream. Sarah LeFanu. (Reviewed by Simone Doctors) 121
Remembering Africa: The Rediscovery of Colonialism in Contemporary
German Literature. Dirk Göttsche. (Reviewed by Henning Melber) 123
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Teaching Africa: A Guide for the 21st Century Classroom. Brandon D.
Lundy and Solomon Negash (eds). (Reviewed by Richard Borowski) 126
Inside African Anthropology: Monica Wilson and Her Interpreters.
Andrew Bank and Leslie Bank (eds). (Reviewed by Karen Cereso) 129
The African Diaspora: Slavery, Modernity, and Globalization.
Toyin Falola (Reviewed by Saheed Amusa) 132
Books Received 134
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Introduction
By the Director of LUCAS, Jane Plastow
Welcome to the 2013/14 Leeds African Studies Bulletin.
This year our Bulletin is dedicated to the memory of our friend, colleague, and
mentor over many years, to a whole host of Leeds academics and students,
Professor Lionel Cliffe. We are carrying an obituary by Professor Ray Bush, so I
will just say here how wonderful it has been for me as director to have had the
unstinting generous support of Lionel throughout my time with LUCAS and
how I miss him both personally and professionally. We are delighted to be able
to announce that we will be setting up an essay prize for student writing on
Africa as the Lionel Cliffe prize. Further details will follow later in the year.
In a year of sad loses we also publish a very personal tribute by Ngugi wa
Thiong‘o to another friend and a truly exceptional artist, Africa‘s most
renowned author, Chinua Achebe, who left us all to join the ancestors in March
2013. I will never forget my most nerve-wracking public discussion ever, with
Professor Achebe, who came to LUCAS in November 2010 as one of his last
UK engagements, to read his often overlooked but powerful poetry, and to
discuss arts, society and politics with me before a huge audience. I am seldom
overcome with nerves, but it‘s a big deal to meet one‘s heroes, and I was
convinced only garbage would spill out of my mouth as I sought to conduct our
question and answer session. Achebe‘s kindness and generosity of spirit soon
put my nerves to rest and I was able to enjoy, along with many hundred others,
an exceptional evening.
As you will see from the LUCAS News section, we have been as busy as ever.
The Departmental Reports detail activities on a school by school basis, while as
LUCAS we continue to run our book distribution scheme for relevant African
institutions, our local school‘s outreach programme ‗African Voices‘, and a full
programme of seminar events, besides the on-going commitment from many of
our colleagues to the undergraduate module we organise, ‗Contemporary
Africas‘. This first year elective is key to the financial health of LUCAS as
many of our Board members give free lectures so that we can maximise the
income which pays for publication of the Bulletin, maintains our office, supports
our administrator, Karen Cereso, subsidises ‗African Voices‘ and enables us to
fund a range of Africa-related events. I would like to take this opportunity to
thank all those who so generously contribute their time and concretely
demonstrate their commitment to African Studies at Leeds University.
Our articles this year all come from emerging scholars. The Bulletin sees one of
its key roles as providing a space for new writers on Africa, and we would
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encourage those seeking to develop their publishing profile to send us articles.
Patience Nitumwesiga is a young Ugandan scholar who, in ‗The Other Side of
the Bush‘, writes very personally about an extraordinary journey to Kuron, a
peace village deep in rural South Sudan, to run a theatre training programme.
Vicensia Shule teaches at the University of Dar es Salaam. She is a pioneering
scholar of Tanzanian video-film, and her article ‗Positioning Kiswahili Video-
films as a Pedagogical Institution‘ explores some of the common themes in these
films as she argues that they are important cultural artefacts for many ordinary
Tanzanians and deserving of study on their own terms, not just in relation to far
more expensive, often Western-funded, African feature films. Edward Powell is
a final year Leeds PhD student. His article, ‗Black Consciousness in South
Africa and the Question of White Oppression under Apartheid,‘ offers new
insights into the thinking of the South African Student Organisation (SASO) and
Steve Biko around the question of Black Consciousness, and of white responses
to this, at times unclearly, emerging discourse in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
As always we host a very full book reviews section, which we think provides a
valuable service in informing about and promoting Africa-related publication.
This has been run for the past few years by Professor Martin Banham who is
standing down after this issue, and I take the opportunity here to extend our
thanks for all his work on behalf of LUCAS.
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Notes on Contributors
Patience Nitumwesiga is a Ugandan filmmaker, poet and theatre artist. She is
also a development worker who has worked with various international theatre
and development organisations. She is involved in projects to document
stories/history, languages and endangered cultures and cultural practices,
including the Lusese language of the Basesse on the Sesse Islands, the
storytelling tradition and oral history on Bussi Island and folktales from across
Uganda as part of projects with colleagues from Germany, Britain and Uganda
respectively. Her documentary, Small Is Beautiful, is in postproduction. She
directed Everybody Needs An Electrician and worked on Somebody Clap For
Me. She has published poetry in anthologies like Painted Voices (Volume 2)
published by FEMRITE, and Reflections: An Anthology of New Work by African
Women Poets published by Lynne Reinner. Patience has led and participated in
a range of humanitarian activities.
Edward Powell is a PhD student in the School of English at the University of
Leeds. His thesis, Postcolonial Critical Perspectives on „the West‟, Social
Hegemony and Political Participation, looks at how postcolonial studies
comprehends the relationship between social privilege and political power, and
uses the Black Consciousness movement in South Africa during the 1970s as a
precedent for some of his arguments. Edward‘s analysis uses postcolonial and
post-Marxist theory of American and African literature, including a chapter on
the work of Nadine Gordimer.
Vicensia Shule is a lecturer in theatre and film studies at the Department of Fine
and Performing Arts, University of Dar es Salaam as well as a policy analyst
and producer and director of theatre, film, radio and television productions. She
has published widely, especially on the performing arts in Tanzania and in
Africa. She is an active member of the Tanzania Gender Networking
Programme, the International Federation for Theatre Research, the Council for
the Development of Social Science Research in Africa and is GMC Vice
President of International Drama/Theatre and Education Association. Vicensia
has a DPhil in Theatre Studies from Johannes Gutenberg University MA in
Performing Arts from University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
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LUCAS News,
Reports & People
9
LUCAS News
by Karen Cereso
The LUCAS book donation scheme and related news
The LUCAS theatre book donation scheme has had another very good year and
with thanks, as always, to the Morel Trust for their generous funding, and to the
participating publishers for their discounted (and sometimes donated) books,
enabling us to keep this great project going. We have recently received copies
for distribution of the latest in the series of African Theatre (African Theatre 12:
Shakespeare in & out of Africa) and African Literature Today (ALT31: Writing
African in the Short Story). Last year, in addition to copies of Freetown Bond by
Eldred Durosimi Jones (also published by James Currey and with assistance
from the Morel Trust), we also received for the scheme copies of Luka Jantjie
by Kevin Shillington, generously donated by John and Charlotte Aldridge of
Aldridge Press, the publishers, as well as by Kevin Shillington himself, which
have already begun to be received by recipient universities. Just recently, The
Morel Trust have also agreed with Rodopi for us to receive copies of African
Literatures and Beyond: A Florilegium. This book is edited by Bernth Lindfors
and Geoffrey V. Davis and is a tribute to Dr. James Gibbs, reflecting the wide
range and diversity of James‘s academic interests. The book was presented to
James when he went, unsuspecting, to the University of Warwick to give a
seminar. On 26th November at 10:27 am James emailed LUCAS to say:
Just off to Warwick for a seminar arranged by Yvette [Hutchison]. I will be sure to
wave copies of AT 12. Looks good, feels good and by goodness it is good.
But the ‗seminar‘ turned out a little differently:
James was billed to lead a seminar on ‗African Theatre History‘ but it became
apparent that it was a ‗seminar with a difference‘. It had a surprising cast, an
10
unexpected dénouement, and, at least as far as James was concerned, a dream-like
quality.
After introductions, Gibbs launched into his presentation. His seminar-style hand-
out had been transformed into a Power Point presentation for what the organisers
clearly saw as a lecture rather than a seminar. James expressed himself not entirely
happy with the resulting display on the screen behind him and, referring to several of
his brothers, whom he was surprised to see in the audience, said he would receive
lots of criticism!
In a paper that touched on themes of knowledge and awareness, on research
opportunities and the state of various archives, he included references to plays by
Wole Soyinka, such as Rain of Stones and Document of Identity, that, he said, are
rarely mentioned in treatments of that writer‘s work that claim to be comprehensive.
He also drew attention to the account Chinua Achebe gave in his 2012 publication,
There was a Country, about the experiences that led to the writing of Things Fall
Apart. This account represents, Gibbs maintained, a significant ‗rewriting‘.
In the course of delivering his paper, James picked out a number of people in the
room, and it was clear that in addition to Warwick‘s own Yvette Hutchison, his
brothers, and his wife and daughter (who had accompanied him), the assembled
gathering included several old friends. These had made distinguished contributions
to the study of African literature and theatre, and included James Currey, Bernth
Lindfors, Geoffrey V. Davis, Lynn Taylor, Lyn Innes, and Christine Matzke. James
was clearly surprised that they had made it – some of them from overseas - to
Warwick for the seminar.
Yvette Hutchison had prepared the gathering for the fact that, after the presentation,
Lindfors and Davis would ‗respond‘ to it. When they rose to do so they took Gibbs
completely by surprise by presenting him with a festschrift they had edited. It was
clear from his body language that James had no inkling about this ‗plot
development‘.
The festschrift, African Literatures and Beyond, was described as a Florilegium, a
term, Lindfors explained, that could be translated as an offering of flowers. The
volume contains contributions by those just listed as present, and by other
distinguished critics and creative writers. It was pointed out that the list of
contributors and their contributions reflected aspects of Gibbs‘s peripatetic academic
career and of his research interests. American, British and German contributors were
present on the 26th, and the volume also includes work by scholars from Australia,
Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Sweden. Topics handled include:
Ghanaian theatre, Malawian literature and the writings of Wole Soyinka, and Currey
and Taylor write on the journals African Literature Today and African Theatre and
on Gibbs‘s involvement with them.
Among the creative writing in the presentation volume can be found poems by Kofi
Anyidoho and Jack Mapanje, short stories by Charles R. Larson and Robert Fraser,
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Description:renowned author, Chinua Achebe, who left us all to join the ancestors in March
Patience Nitumwesiga is a young Ugandan scholar who, in ‗The Other Side of
This has been run for the past few years by Professor Martin Banham who is.
