Annual ReportAnnual ReportReturn to African Research Institute Home Page.
Executive Committee:Dr David Dorward (Director and Chair),
Dr Sue Thomas (English),
Prof Martin Chanock (Legal Studies),
Library Representative (vacant),
Derek Overton (Postgraduate Representative)Members of the Institute:
Dr Edith Bavin (School of Psychological Science) ; Dr Martin Chanock (Legal Studies) ; Dr David Dorward (History) ; Dr Nicola Stern (Archaeology) ; Dr Sue Thomas (English); Prof Philip Darby (Associate Member: Politics, University of Melbourne); Dr Elizabeth Dimock (Associate Member: History and Women's Studies); Moses Adepoju (Postgraduate: Social Work); Derek Overton (Postgraduate: History); Ken Okugu (Postgraduate: Politics); Clare Rushman (Honours: History); Kivubiru Tabawebbula (Affiliate Member: Material Culture, Flinder University)
Summary of Major Activities:
The Institute mounted its own internet web-site, staff continued to provide briefings on African affairs and information to various officials and agencies, including: the Joint Services Staff College, Canberra, Refugee Review Tribunal and Legal Advisory Services and various Non-Government Agencies, including the Overseas Service Bureau, Community Aid Abroad, World Vision and the Australian Council for Overseas Aid.
The African Research Institute web-site:The Institute went `on-line' in 1997 with its own website.
The Simons Report on Australian Overseas AidMembers of the Institute prepared a number of submissions and reports relating to Australian aid to Africa for the Simons Committee on Australian Overseas Aid. The Simon's Report, submitted to Parliament in July 1997, and the basis of current Australian aid, has substantially lessens Australian development assistance to Africa.
Somali Report for Department of Immigration and Multicultural AffairsMembers of the Institute undertook a commissioned report on The Complexities of Somali Culture and Society: Problems of Identification of Somali Refugees, at the request of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs.
Refugee Review TribunalThe Institute was asked by the Refugee Review Tribunal to provide advice and prepared a number of confidential reports relating to specific Africa-related refugee issues.
Documentation of African Artefacts in the AntipodesDr Dorward continued his research on the London Papers and collection of Asante artefacts of the Faculty of Humanities, Australian National University.
Arthur London was agent to Lagos Stores in Nigeria and later for Swanzy's & Co., at Takawa and Kumasi in the Gold Coast. He died at Kumasi in 1920 and his widow migrated to Australia, bring his collection of African 'curios' and extensive private papers.
The 'Blue Tuff' archaeological project, KenyaDr Nicola Stern has been engaged in on-going research on the `Blue Tuff' sites in Kenya.
Socio-Legal IssuesProf Martin Chanock presented a paper on Human Rights and Cultural Transformation in Africa at a conference in Cape Town, South Africa, sponsored by the Ford Foundation and the African Studies Centre of the University of Cape Town.
He was engaged throughout the year in on-going research on South African legal culture, on land law in transition in South Africa, and on culture and human rights in Africa.
Misc.Dr Dorward was elected President and Dr Dimock as Treasurer of the African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific (AFSAAP) at its annual general meeting in Canberra in Sept, 1997.
Dr Dorward was invited onto the National Overseas and Indigenous Australia Program Advisory Forum of Community Aid Abroad (OXFAM Australia) and continues as consultant to the Australian Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA), the umbrella body for Australian non-government aid agencies.
MediaMembers of the Institute continued to provide expertise to the media a range of subjects relating to African affairs.
Donations to the InstituteThe Institute wishes to express its gratitude to:
Dr David Lucas for donations of publications on African development;
John Barnes for additional donations of archival material relating to his period with the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute in Lusaka,
Robert Austin for a collection of materials relating to the anti-apartheid movement in Australia.
Publications:Liz Dimock, compiler, Directory of Africanists in Australasia and the Pacific, 6th ed. (Melbourne: AFSAAP, 1997)
David Dorward, "Major Turnbridge's Boer War Album: Glimpses of Empire and Erotica", Post-Colonialism: Culture and Identity in Africa, Pal Ahluwalia and Paul Nursey-Bray, eds.,(New York: Nova Publishers, 1997), pp. 79-90.
Sue Thomas, "Memory Politics in the Narratives of Lindsay Collen's The Rape of Sita, " Contemporary African Fiction, Derek Wright, ed (Bayreuth: Bayreuth University Press, 1997), pp. 123-137.
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