Ep. 103: A conversation with Cyril Obi of the African Peacebuilding Network

Joining us in conversation this week is Cyril Obi, program director of the African Peacebuilding Network, to talk with Rachel about the geopolitics of oil in Africa, his work with the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Program, and the great work of the African Peacebuilding Network.

And if you’re still looking for gifts for your African studies friends, check out this week’s news wrap where Kim and Rachel share the books we should be reading. In other news, we talk Ghanian elections, all of the happenings in the Sahel, and Malawi being selected as the country of the year.

Ep. 91: A conversation with Peace Medie about gender and conflict in Africa, writing research and fiction, and more

The news wrap in this week’s episode offers tribute to Malawian economist and thinker Thandika Mkandawire, discusses COVID-19’s economic impacts, and more.

This week’s conversation is with Peace Medie (@PeaceMedie), a Senior Lecturer in Gender and International Politics at the University of Bristol. Her research examines gender, politics, and conflict in Africa. During a conversation we recorded at the African Studies Association annual meeting, we talk about campaigns to end gender-based violence, writing both academic research and fiction, the ethics of research in African politics, and more. During that chat, we talk about what she found when researching her newly published book, Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence against Women in Africa and we talk about her forthcoming debut novel, His Only Wife, which listeners can pre-order now. Her segment begins at 9:28.

As a content note to our listeners, our conversation touches on Peace’s research, which includes women’s reporting of sexual violence and rape to the police.

Ep. 80: A conversation with Emmanuel Katongole on a political theology for Africa

This week’s episode begins with congratulations to Rachel Beatty Riedl and her co-author Gwyneth McClendon on the publication of their book, From Pews to Politics: Religious Sermons and Political Participation in Africa. What perfect timing, given this week’s episode features a conversation with Father Emmanuel Katongole, Professor of Theology and Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. The news wrap also covers events in Burkina Faso and Gambia, Ugandan opposition parliamentarian Bobi Wine’s visit to the US, and a shoutout to TJ Tallie for his book being published this week, too!

This week’s episode includes the first interview by Ufahamu Africa’s research and production fellow, Zamone Perez, an undergraduate student at Northwestern University. Zamone talks with Professor Katongole about his book, The Sacrifice of Africa: A Political Theology for Africa. The conversation covers broad territory on religion as offering social and political organizing principles as well as specifics, e.g., on forgiveness of the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army Joseph Kony. Their conversation begins at 15:17.

Ep. 72: A conversation with Susanna Wing on intergroup violence and instability in Mali

In this week’s episode, we start with news about LGBTQ rights in Botswana, Russian interference in African countries’ domestic politics, and east African governments announcing increased spending on infrastructure. We also mention the upcoming book launch for Jeffrey Paller and Noah Nathan’s respective books at CDD-Ghana on June 19th.

This week’s conversation is with Susanna Wing, associate professor of political science at Haverford College. She is author of the award-winning book, Constructing Democracy in Transitioning Societies of Africa: Constitutionalism and Deliberation in Mali, that was later published in paperback in 2010 as Constructing Democracy in Africa: Mali in Transition. Earlier this week Susanna wrote a helpful explainer piece about the recent violence and instability in Mali, which we talk about in this week’s episode. Our conversation begins at 11:11.

Ep. 70: A conversation with Ato Kwamena Onoma on property rights, refugees, and more

In this week’s episode, we talk about Malawi’s elections, the passing of Binyavanga Wainaina, and ethnic violence and displacement in Ethiopia. Our featured conversation is with Ato Kwamena Onoma, a political scientist currently serving as a senior program officer at the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa. He is also the author of two books, Anti-Refugee Violence and African Politics and The Politics of Property Rights Institutions in Africa, both published by Cambridge University Press. His segment begins at 13:06.