Exhibition at the British Library. West Africa: Word, Symbol, Song

An exhibition of literature and music – from the great African empires of the Middle Ages to the cultural dynamism of West Africa today

Fri 16 Oct 2015 – Tue 16 Feb 2016

Fascinating stories from the region’s 17 nations show how West Africans have harnessed the power of words to build societies, drive political movements, sustain religious belief and fight injustice. Beautiful manuscripts, historic film and sound recordings, books, photographs, and woven and printed textiles offer a unique insight into a profound and engaging literary culture with centuries-old written heritage existing alongside ancient oral traditions.

Hear the myth of the founding of ancient Mali in recorded performance. See the influence of religion through colourful fabric and the saddlebag Qur’an. Celebrate writers and artists including Africa’s first Nobel prize winner, Wole Soyinka, and internationally acclaimed musician and human rights activist Fela Kuti.

More information here

Roundtable with Emile Chabal on French contemporary political culture

ROUNDTABLE EVENT around Emile Chabal’s book ‘A Divided Republic: Nation, State and Citizenship in Contemporary France’

Tuesday 6 October 2015, 5.15-6.45pm, Denis Schiama Building, room 2.14

As part of the CEISR seminar series, the Francophone Africa cluster will host an event around Dr Emile Chabal’s newly published book on contemporary French political culture.

With:

Dr Emile Chabal (Chancellor’s Fellow in History, University of Edinburgh)

Prof David Hanley, Dr Natalya Vince and Emmanuel Godin (University of Portsmouth)

 

Link to the presentation of ‘A Divided Republic: Nation, State and Citizenship in Contemporary France’.

Reviews

‘This is an outstanding and groundbreaking book. It provides a powerful and persuasive account of the transformation of the modern French intellectual landscape, and the emergence of new patterns of republican and liberal thought. The analysis is rich, nuanced, and sophisticated, and Chabal provides us with the essential keys to understanding contemporary French political debates.’ Sudhir Hazareesingh, University of Oxford

‘Emile Chabal demonstrates with great perspicacity how, since the end of the 1970s, a newly revived French republicanism came to prominence amidst the ruins of the grand ideologies of the ‘Trente Glorieuses’. His analysis is compelling and he successfully steers clear of the tired confrontation between (neo-)liberal apologists and those nostalgic for a lost France of revolutionary passion.’ Christophe Prochasson, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales

‘After Marxism, what next? A Divided Republic is an outstanding integrative study that brightly illuminates both the republican and liberal turns of French political culture since the 1970s, with an impressive combination of political and intellectual history. As a guide to the territory, Emile Chabal is as insightful as he is informed, and has achieved the best available treatment of a complex set of developments.’ Samuel Moyn, Harvard University

‘Chabal’s survey of contemporary French political culture is patient and heroically comprehensive … Students of French political thought will … remain in [his] debt for this careful and thorough work of reconstruction and analysis.’ Arthur Goldhammer, The American Prospect