THE STANTON SHARP

LECTURES  ON

AFRICA

February 16 and 17, 2009

Receptions at 6:00 pm  ■  Lectures at 6:30 pm

Both lectures in McCord Auditorium  ■  306 Dallas Hall

3225 University ■ Southern Methodist University ■ Dallas, TX

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16

“The Deferred Violence of Decolonization:
The Case of the Congo”

Our modern world is wracked by violence, no more so than in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Short-term contingencies are important factors, but explaining the present requires situating current processes within deeper historical legacies.  Newbury will examine contemporary violence in the Congo, rooted in unresolved issues of decolonization, and explore its implications for understanding the nature of the contemporary state through comparisons with other states in Africa.

Presented by DAVID NEWBURY, the Gwendolen Carter Professor of African Studies at Smith College.  He is the author of several books on Africa, including Kings and Clans; Vers le Passé du Zaire; and The Land Beyond the Mists: Essays on Identity and Authority in Pre-colonial Congo and Rwanda (currently in press). Newbury is Chair of the Five College African Studies Council and book review co-editor, along with Catharine Newbury, of the African Studies Review.

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17

“Discourse and Delegitimation:

Comparing Rwanda 1959 and 1991”

Giving voice to widespread rural discontent in the 1950s, Hutu leaders overthrew Rwanda’s Tutsi-dominated monarchy. Some 20,000 Tutsi were killed; many more fled the country.   In the early 1990s demands for democratization reemerged—again driven by rural discontent but this time challenging the Hutu leaders of Rwanda’s Second Republic. Facing a loss of power Hutu hardliners massacred their Hutu political opponents and carried out a genocide against Tutsi. While in both instances the government acted to protect privilege, the dynamics differed dramatically.  Exploring such parallels and contrasts contextualizes the complicated interplay of ethnicity and class in cases of political transition.

Presented by CATHARINE NEWBURY, Professor of Government at Smith College and Five College Professor of Government and African Studies.  She is the author of The Cohesion of Oppression: Clientship and Ethnicity in Rwanda and has published many articles on Central African political processes.  Newbury’s research interests include ethnicity and the state in Africa, the politics of peasants and women, and the politics of violence in Francophone Central Africa.

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The Stanton Sharp Lectures are free and open to the public.  Seating is not reserved. 

Metered visitor parking is available in the parking garage at Daniel and Airline.

For more information, call  214-768-2967 or e-mail  hist@smu.edu.