Each year, academic dialogue is enriched at the Centre of African Studies by the arrival of a group of African scholars who spend up to six months researching and working together.
Each year, academic dialogue is enriched at the Centre of African Studies by the arrival of a group of African scholars who spend up to six months researching and working together.
This Programme provides our hard-pressed colleagues in African universities with a break during which they can carry out research and create new research networks based on collaborations that are just as valuable for the University of Cambridge’s Africanists.
Professor Megan Vaughan
A programme of academic exchange at the Centre of African Studies is providing African scholars with a much-needed opportunity to step away from their overwhelming teaching and administrative burdens and develop their research during a six-month sabbatical in Cambridge. In so doing, the Cambridge/Africa Collaborative Research Programme is also stimulating the richness of Africa-centric research in Cambridge.
‘It has become increasingly difficult to pursue academic research in African universities,’ explains Professor Megan Vaughan, Director of the Centre. ‘Aside from teaching commitments, which can hinder researchers from having the time to complete their PhDs, there is a severe lack of funding to maintain their research. As a result, many African scholars feel increasingly isolated from academia at an international level in the social sciences and humanities.’
Over the past seven years, a total of 43 academics from 14 African nations have taken part in the Cambridge/Africa Research Collaborative Programme. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust and the Isaac Newton Trust, the Programme provides the visiting scholars with an opportunity to renew their access to international scholarship and to develop collaborations in Cambridge and beyond that will continue to vitalise their research after they return to their home universities.
Myth and modernity
The research of the five scholars currently visiting takes its cue from this year’s theme – Myth and Modernity in African Literature – and is providing a fascinating glimpse of how African nations place themselves in a global context.
Dr Chris Warnes, a specialist in postcolonial literature in the Faculty of English and a member of the Centre, leads the research programme: ‘This is a very exciting topic,’ he explains. ‘The talented scholars we have with us are using mythology as a key to unlock important questions about Africa both past and present, exemplifying the contributions that such research can make to societal concerns of today.'
For instance, mythology can tell us about national identity, explains Dr James Tsaaior, one of the visiting scholars: ‘How African novelists have dealt with mythology reveals the struggle to construct nationhood and a sense of an African identity.’
‘By studying authors such as Naguib Mahfouz from Egypt, Ngugi wa Thiong’o from Kenya, Ayi Kwei Armah from Ghana and Ben Okri from Nigeria,’ he continues, ‘it is clear that there is a confluence of certain strong and recurrent themes, including slavery, the slave trade and (neo-)colonialism, which have shaped the way that Africans think about Africa and perceive the world.’
Understanding relations between identity and myth is an issue that is particularly salient in the Sudan where religious tensions have increasingly divided the country. In her research, Dr Eiman El-Nour is hoping to document and record some of these myths, which frequently take the form of verbal storytelling. ‘Mythology is tremendously strong and influential in Sudan, providing the codes by which ordinary people live their lives,’ she explains. ‘I’m interested in looking at how myth influences the recreation of Sudanese identity, whether Islamic, African or both.’
Likewise, in the west of Africa, mythology has had a major influence on the identity, culture, philosophy and beliefs of the Yoruba people, one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. Dr Oyeniyi Okunoye is interested in how a genre of Yoruba poetry (Ewi) is being shaped by modernity.
‘My task,’ he maintains, ‘is to clarify why Ewi, despite being rooted in the past, dynamically responds to the various experiences that Yoruba people have witnessed within the global environment.’ He will be looking at how the poetry, which is both written and chanted, is actively involved in inventing a pan-Yoruba identity today.
Mythology also has the potential to sustain and preserve the literature of African modernity, says Dr Tunde Awosanmi: ‘A challenge set by novelist Ayi Kwei Armah has been to encourage African writers not just to use ancestral myth and history as a cultural resource, but also to engage in the creative modernisation of primitive mythology. I am interested in how this is being played out in modern African drama, through identifying contrasting attitudes in terms of orthodox
and unorthodox users of myth.’
‘Myth and modernity are concepts that have increasingly come to mark our world,’ adds Dr Kenneth Simala. ‘From African mythology we can make deductions that tell us not just about times that have passed but also about issues that are relevant today. The legend of Fumo Liyongo [see below] is a wonderful example of this modern-day resonance for what it has to say about civilisations in conflict and the need for civilisations to engage in dialogue.’
Unlocking research potential
As the African scholars come to the close of their sabbatical, they will have attended a seminar series that brings international speakers to Cambridge, presented their findings at a workshop at the Centre in March and a conference in Nigeria in August 2011, as well as published their research as a book.
Professor Vaughan and her colleagues are immensely proud of the Programme: ‘Without an initiative such as this, there is a real danger that African countries will fall further behind in a global economy that is ever more dependent on expert knowledge. This Programme provides our hard-pressed colleagues in African universities with a break during which they can carry out research and create new research networks based on collaborations that are just as valuable for the University of Cambridge’s Africanists.’
Swahili Odyssey: a tale of civilisations, conquests and resolving conflict
A centuries-old epic poem describing the travels of a Swahili hero could provide valuable lessons for modern society on avoiding conflict between civilisations.
Among the abundant myths, legends and stories of the Swahili people of eastern Africa, perhaps the most celebrated are those attributed to the Swahili Chieftain Fumo Liyongo and his epic poem of almost 232 stanzas.
Passed down for centuries as an oral tradition, the poem includes a narrative of how he interacted with the other civilisations that came to explore, trade with, proselytise or conquer the African territories he ruled over. Although the poem is shrouded in mystery – it’s unclear how much of the poem is accurate and even when Liyongo lived (variously given as the 13th–17th centuries) – it is generally agreed that it has a strong historical basis.
African scholar Dr Kenneth Simala is attempting to resolve some of the questions surrounding the poem. But, as he explains, it is the relevance of the poem’s content to modern times that especially fascinates him: ‘Fumo Liyongo observed how different civilisations interacted at a time when East Africa was at the crossroads of meeting cultures. As a result, he provides lessons of experience on disputes, tensions, conflicts, power, globalisation and the need for peaceful coexistence.’
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