African Research Institute
LaTrobe University

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African Research Institute Committee:
Dr David Dorward- History (Director), Prof. Martin Chanock- Law & Legal Studies, Dr Elizabeth Dimock, vacancy (Post-Graduate Representative), Eva Fisch (Library Representative).

Members of the Institute:
Dr David Dorward (History); Professor Martin Chanock (Law and Legal Studies) Dr Sue Thomas (English); Prof. Edith Bavin (Psychology); Dr Nicola Stern (Archaeology); Eva Fisch (Borchardt Library); Dr Apollo Nsubuga-Kyobe (Business); Paul Cocks
Associate Members:
Dr Elizabeth Dimock; Dr Kivubiro Tabawebbula
Postgraduates:
Derek Overton (History); Matthew Durban (Grad. School of Business Management); Allison Simons (Archaeology); David Wines (Archaeology); Mary Ross (English)

In May, the Institute hosted a symposium on Somalia in conjunction with representatives of the Somali Community in Australia. Dr Liz Dimock and Issa Farah served as co-convenors. The morning sessions were devoted to papers and discussion on the prospects of the on-going peace process in Somalia. The afternoon sessions comprised papers and panel discussions on the Somali Experience in Australia.

The Symposium attracted a range of specialist and academics, representatives of various Australian NGOs and government departments, including the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, as well as a large number of Somalis.

The Institute hopes to publish a selection of papers presented at the symposium.

Somali Conference Programme

The African Institute hosted the annual conference of the African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific at the LaTrobe University City Campus on 4-6 October 2001.

Unfortunately events of 11 September led to a number of cancellations by North American and African speakers, while the collapse of Ansett led to the withdrawal of a number of Australian participants and, in what is becoming an increasing impediment, several African scholars were unable to secure Australian visas in time to participate. Nevertheless, the conference attracted scholars from Africa, Europe and North America, as well as New Zealand and Australia. Participants were impressed with the conference facilities available at the Franklin Street Campus.

President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa was to address the conference at a luncheon hosted by BHP-Billeton but that too fell by the wayside with the cancellation of CHOGM.

The following papers were presented:

Elizabeth Rankin (Auckland) "South African artists in New Zealand"
Goolam Vahed (Univ of Durban-Westville) "The Burden of Race: Community, Identity and the Muharram Festival in Colonial Natal, 1860-1910"
Sole Adeyemi (U of Natal) Post-Négritudism and the Quest for Identity in African Theatre: Femi Ósófisan's "Tegonni: An African Antigone"
Annie Stafford (S A) "Mixed relationships are a nightmare. Mixed cultures within a marriage, or within a relationship is a problem"
Alan Thorold (Univ of Durban-Westville) "Adapt or Fly- a white working class suburb in postapartheid Durban
Gerald Acquaah-Gaisie (Monash) "Global Solutions for Third World Corruption"
Basil A. Ekot (UNSW), "Nigerian Federalism: The Resource Control Deadlock"
Juan Manuel Santana Perez (Las Palmas) Northwest African Culture in the Canary Islands from the 16th to the 18th centuries
German Santana Perez (Las Palmas) Relations between the Canary Islands and the Southern African Hemisphere in the 17th and 18th centuries
David Tothill (former South African ambassador to Australia) Australian diplomatic reporting from South Africa, 1946-1970
Alexander "Sandy" Johnston (University of Durban) "Comrades, Citizens and Consumers: Political Communication and the Modernisation of South African Politics"
Lindy Stiebel (University of Durban-Westville)"A Treasure Story: Thomas Baines' 'Map to the Gold Fields of South Eastern Africa, 1877' "
Jock McCullock (RMIT) "Mining Asbestos in South Africa, 1893-1996"
Colin Cameron "Stories that fall on us from above' Justifying the Second Congo War
Dr Patrick McAllister (University of Canterbury) "Knowledge, order, performance: oratory and the construction of social reality at Xhosa ritual events."
Liz Dimock (Otago) "First encounters: Scenes depicting the arrival of female missionaries in Buganda in 1895"
Elizabeth Isichei (Otago) "The Rainbow Serpent and Mami Wata"
Patrick McAllister (Canterbury) "Knowledge, order, performance: Oratory and the Construction of Social Reality at Xhosa ritual events"
George Odera-Outa (Witswatersrand) "Fabricating Nationhood; Sigana (Narrative) as Theatre in Post-Colonial Kenya
Richard Jackson (Otago) "Toward a Model of Mediation in Africa's Civil Wars"
Seifudein Adem, (U of Tsukuba, Japan), "Mazruiana (Ali Mazuru) and the New International Relations"

There was also a panel on African migration issues, chaired by Apollo Nsubuga-Kyobe, (LaTrobe)

The Eastern and Central Africa Communities of Victoria Inc, in collaboration with the African Research Institute, hosted the inaugural "Eastern and Central Africa Day" on 6 October 2001, designed to be celebrated annually with festivities in commemoration of the members' unity in Victoria.

The African Institute hosted the annual African Studies Postgraduate Workshop on 3 October at the LaTrobe University City Campus. The workshop offers an opportunity for postgraduates involved in African Studies across a range of disciplines to meet informally present aspects of their work and hold discussions. This year, the workshop attracted a number of postgraduates from Africa and New Zealand, as well as Australia. Sadly, several North American postgraduates, who had submitted papers, cancelled following 11 September, while a number of interstate and New Zealand postgraduates cancelled following the collapse of Ansett. Papers presented included:

David Robinson (UWA) "From Conflict to Cataclysm: The UN and the Congo Crisis
Hasim Tewfik Mohammed (Melbourne) "Democratic Reconstitution of the State in Africa: with special reference to Ethiopia"
Marina Carman (UNSW) "Truth, Reconciliation and Transformation"
Aloysius Nana Conduah (Wittwatersrand) "Multilingual Language Policy in Tertiary Institutions in South Africa- The case of Wits University"
May Raidoo (University of Durban- Westville) Rebuilding Local Economies: The Case of East Asian Importers in Durban's CBD
Kate MacDonald (Melbourne) "Privatisation and Bottom-up Development in Africa
Carlos Arnaldo (ANU) "Provincial Differences in Marriage Patterns in Mozambique"
Cassiano Soda Chipembe (ANU) "Mozambique: Differentials in Infant and Child Mortality, 1997
Chibwe Lwamba (ANU) "Adult Mortality in Zambia: Levels, Trends and Differentials (1980-2000"
Namuunda Mutombo (ANU) "Mass Media and Male Reproductive Behaviour in Zambia"

Professor Thomas Spear, University of Wisconsin- Madison, "Indirect Rule, the Politics of Neo-Traditionalism, and the Limits of Invention in Tanzania"

Professor Bruce Berman, Queens University, Canada, "Representing the Kikuyu: Louis Leakey, Jomo Kenyatta and the Political Uses of Anthropology"

Lucia Matibenga, Movement for Democratic Change Chairperson for Women, First Vice President of the Zimbabwe Trade Union Congress and President of the Commercial Workers' Union, Zimbabwe, address staff and students on the current crisis in Zimbabwe.

Nicola Stern was engaged in her evaluation of data from the Blue Tuff site in Kenya.

Allison Simons arrived from Kenya at the end of March 2001 to commence Ph.D research on the establishment of pastoral societies in south west Kenya.

David Wines spent nine months in Kenya analyzing faunal collections held in the National Museums of Kenya as part of his Ph.D research. He is investigating the micro-structure of bovid teeth recovered from the Okote Member of the Koobi Fora Formation (1.6 - 1.4 m.y.a.) to generate information about the palaeoecological context of activities of Homo ergaster. He is also investigating the composition and characteristics of the faunal assemblage from FxJj43 to find out how Homo ergaster obtained meat and marrow resources and to make an assessment of the role meat played in their diet.

Dr Kivubiro Tabawebbula will be ending his formal association with the African Research Institute at the end of 2001, as he will be taking up an appointment in Uganda. We wish to express our warmest best wishes for his future career and acknowledge his contribution to the promotion of African culture in Australia through his work at the South Australia Museum, in the promotion of African art, material culture and music.

Dr Liz Dimock offered a summer subject on "Women , Race and Gender in Africa" in February- March 2001. Courses in the Summer Program are available to the public and may be pursued for interest only. Second and Third Year students may apply for credit points toward a LaTrobe University BA degree.

Dr Liz Dimock spent second semester on a Teaching Fellowship in the History Department at Otago University in Dunedin, New Zealand. There were fifty third-year students enrolled in her course on Colonial Africa.

Dr Dimock has been invited to edit a volume on Africa in a new series by Routledge on "Women and Empire". The series will consist of annotated source material for studying women and empire, with volumes covering Australia, the West Indies, India, Canada and New Zealand.

In June, Dr Dorward was invited to the 10th anniversary celebrations of Eritrean Independence in Asmara, Eritrea, which afforded an opportunity to renew contacts with a range of Eritrean academics and government officials. The Guests of Government were taken on excursions to a number of major battlefields of the war of liberation and participated in a range of activities in the capital. Unfortunately, due to landmines at Senafe, which the Canadians were in the process of clearing, Dr Dorward was unable to obtain permission to inspect various archaeological sites, reportedly destroyed by occupying Ethiopian forces.

Dr Dorward also visited Cairo, renewing contacts with clergy of the Coptic Orthodox Church, visiting Coptic historical sites and churches, as well as making contact with various scholars at Al-Azhar and a number of other principal mosques.

In October, Dr Dorward was made a Life Member of the African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific, only the fourth Life Member so honored.

Dr Dorward was a member of the Victorian organising committee for a visit to Australia by a delegation from the Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe, led by Morgan Tsvangirai. Others in the delegation included: Sekai Holland, MDC Secretary for International Relations, Lucia Matibenga, MDC Chairperson for Women, First Vice President of the Zimbabwe Trade Union Congress and President of the Commercial Workers' Union, Nelson Chamisa from the MDC executive and former President of the Student Representative Council until expelled for espousing anti-government sentiments, and Roy Bennett, MDC Member of Parliament and commercial farmer.

Dr Apollo Nsubuga-Kyobe helped secure a grant of A$122,000.00 over two years from the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs for service delivery to sub-Saharan African communities to be administered through the Eastern and Central Africa Communities of Victoria Inc. The project is a direct flow-on from the study undertaken on behalf of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs by Dr Apollo Nsubuga-Kyobe and Dr Liz Dimock, reported on in last years annual report of the African Research Institute.

Members of the Institute provide news media commentary on a range of African issues during the year.

Martin Chanock, The Making of South African Legal Culture. Fear, favour and prejudice (London: Cambridge Univ Press 200l)

Paul Cocks, 'Musemunuzhi: Edwin Smith and the restoration and fulfilment of African society and religion', Patterns of Prejudice, Special issue on the History of Anthropology, 35 (2) 2001, pp.19-32.

Paul Cocks, 'Max Gluckman and the critique of segregation in South African anthropology, 1921-1940' Journal of Southern African Studies 27 (4), 2001, pp.739-756 (forthcoming).

David Dorward, "African Gold" in GOLD AND CIVILIZATION (Canberra: National Museum of Australia, 2001), pp. 192-197.

David Dorward, African editor, SBS World Guide, 9th Edition (Melbourne: Hardie Grant, 2001).

David Dorward, "Departing in Style", LaTrobe Forum No. 18 (May 2001)

David Dorward, "The Tragedy of Sierra Leone: Diamonds, Warlords and the failure of the United Nations", African Studies Review of Australasia (2001)

David Dorward, "Arthur London, Chief Agent of Swanzy and Co: A Biography of Imperial Commerce on the Gold Coast", African Economic History (2001)

Sue Thomas, Ann Blake, Leela Gandhi, England through Colonial Eyes in Twentieth-Century Fiction (Houndsmills: Palgrave, 2001), including Sue Thomas discussing Olive Schreiner among other authors is "Colouring the English", Ann Blake on Dan Jacobson, William Plomer, Buchi Emecheta and Abdulrazak Gurnah among other authors in "'A Literature of Belonging': Re-writing the Domestic Novel". Ann Blake wrote a chapter, "The London Observer: Doris Lessing", while Sue Thomas wrote the chapter "Black families in Buchi Emecheta's England(s)"

Prof. Martin Chanock was Keynote Speaker at the Eight Nation Conference on Customary law and gender in Namibia in April (organised by Legal Resources Centre and Canadian Bar Association.)

Professor Chanock was also keynote speaker at Land Law Reform meeting in Windhoek in April.

Dr Dorward delivered a plenary address at 'Africa Today', hosted by the School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Melbourne.

Dr Apollo Nsubuga-Kyobe and Dr Liz Dimock were invited to give addresses at "African Refugees: Context, Conditions and Opportunities for Resettlement", a public meeting organised by the Refugee Council of Australia at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute in East Melbourne. Dr Dimock introduced the session with an overview of Africa that examined demography, the diversity of peoples cultures and history, colonialism, the Cold war, and current politics and the global economy. Dr Nsubuga-Kyobe spoke on Issues in African Refugee Resettlement in Australi

In the recent years there has been increased in-take of students from Africa to La Trobe University's various campuses. Many are full fees paying students sponsored by the Botswana Government. Others are recent immigrants to Australia, often mature-age students with considerable work experience and tertiary qualifications seeking to obtain qualifications recognized in Australia. The Institute is seeking ways to promote closer cooperation and increased involvement by African students in its activities.

The Institute recognizes there is a need to promote greater interest by Australia in African issues and a more active involvement of African migrants in the broader Australian community.

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