Suchergebnisse

Afro-Americans have always had more than academic interest in the study of Africa; it was inevitable therefore that they would come into conflict with Euro-Americans who (through myopia or cunning) insisted that they had no unique relationship to Africa. Viewed in historical perspective, it is quite understandable why in the 1960s blacks would challenge those whites who had arrogated to themselves the control of African Studies in the United States. For blacks, parity (if not dominance), in the study of Africa is inextricably part of their struggle for full equality in America. The reasons for this are quite simple: the whites who conquered and settled America decided quite early that the people of African descent who were brought to these shores as captives could not and (later) should not be permitted to live on a plane of equality with them.

In 1958, when the African Studies Association was founded, a small group of American scholars who were interested in Africa comprised the first annual general meeting. This year nearly 1,000 people attended the eighth annual meeting. Most of those attending were fellows and members of the Association, augmented by visitors from many parts of the world. These included Seretse Khama, Prime Minister of Bechuanaland, who gave the main address at the opening plenary session. Other visitors included Daryll Forde from London, S. N. Varma from the Department of African Studies at the University of Delhi, and Philippe Decraene, African correspondent for the Paris paper, Le Monde.

The latest meeting of the African Studies Association of the U.S.A., with 1,000 participants, emphasised the scope and seriousness that African studies has now attained. The session included two plenaries and 32 panels, plus special film showings and an exhibition of African art, stamps, and books about Africa.

Beginnings of the Slovenian ethnic research in America go back to the first known Slovenian settler in the New World, Mark Anton Kapus (1657–1717), a Jesuit of Kamna Gorica, Slovenia, who was active as a missionary and explorer in what is now Mexico and Arizona, in the years between 1687 and 1717. Although writings by Kapus and his co-authors Kono and Mangus deal primarily with their early explorations of relatively unknown territories and Indian peoples, they supplement other preserved records and correspondence in providing a description of the life and work of this first known Slovenian settler in America.

About one hundred members of the A.S.A., predominantly from British universities, assembled at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, for a full day's discussion of some two dozen papers and notes concerning current research on Southern Africa. The papers came from Afrikaans and English-language universities of South Africa, as well as from those of the United Kingdom.

The two most striking features of the 13th annual meeting of the African Studies Association were what did and what did not happen. Unlike the 1969 meeting at Montreal there was no disruption of academic discussion or general meetings, and no threat of violence, racial or otherwise – see Africa Report, December 1969. What was evident at Boston was a thoughtful and constructive effort to find through discussion a common meeting ground.

In the past two years there has been an upsurge in interest in African studies in the State, particularly through the activities of the faculties of the Universities of Colorado and Denver, and Colorado State University. Beginning in the 1967–68 academic year, the University of Colorado offered a Bachelor of Arts degree in African and Middle Eastern Studies, and is expanding its graduate courses with a multi-disciplinary approach. In the spring of 1969 the Center on International Race Relations at the Graduate School of International Studies of the University of Denver began operation with primary emphasis on Africa and Asia. Of equal importance, however, is the high level of co-operation in African studies among the institutions of higher learning throughout the State. This effort involves the maximisation of Africanist talent via the exchange of staff and students, and regional meetings and conferences.

Although the number of Africanists in Poland has never been large, a scholarly interest in Africa has long existed in this country. Among the scholars of the older generation, the most prominent were: L. Krzywicki, a sociologist with a wide interest in social change and development, who published several studies on the transition from traditional to modern societies, with special attention to Africa; J. Czekanowski, who was among the first explorers of Rwanda and other Interlacustrine kingdoms, publishing several extensive studies both in German and Polish; and B. Malinowski, who later established himself in Great Britain.