BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Sabre//Sabre VObject 4.5.8//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Zurich X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Zurich TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:19810329T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:19961027T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:news1257@zasb.unibas.ch DTSTAMP;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20200811T101712 DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20191101T181500 SUMMARY:Francis Nyamnjoh: Decolonising the Academy - A Case for Convivial S cholarship (Carl Schlettwein Lecture 2019) DESCRIPTION:Everything moves – people\, things and ideas – in predictab le and unpredictable ways. The circulation of things\, ideas and people is not the monopoly of any particular group\, community or society. Mobility and circulation lead to encounters of various forms\, encounters that are (re)defining in myriad ways. If people\, their things and their ideas cir culate\, it follows that their identities\, personal or collective\, move as well. And through encounters with others\, mobile people are constantly having to navigate\, negotiate\, accommodate or reject difference (in thi ngs\, ideas\, practices and relations) in an open-ended manner that makes of them a permanent work in progress. No mobility or interaction with othe rs leaves anyone\, anything or any idea indifferent\, even if such interac tions are not always equal and do not always result in immediate\, palpabl e or tangible change. No encounter in mobility results in uncontested domi nation or total passivity. Even as some may wilt completely in the face of domination\, some resist it fervently\, and others are able to navigate a nd negotiate the tensions and contradictions brought about by the reality of domination in complex\, creative and innovative ways. Sometimes this ho lds potential for new and more convivial forms of identity\, practice and relating.\\r\\nTo revisit a debate such as that on ‘Africa and the Disci plines’\, is to afford ourselves the opportunity to use old questions as a springboard for exploring new ones. If Africa and the Disciplines was a bout interrogating the social production of knowledge\, the production pro cess and those involved\, as well as the resources that make knowledge pro duction possible\, how does one draw on such dynamics to inform current an d persistent clamours for decolonisation of knowledge production and consu mption globally\, and on and about Africa and Africans in particular\, and especially in their complexities and mobilities? And how does one proceed with the understanding that increasingly\, African knowledge producers\, aware that the predicaments of those they research\, teach and publish on are not discipline-bound or confined to a particular geographical space\, and that doing justice to them requires working in teams\, within institut ions and in local and global networks of cooperation\, as well as with sta keholders beyond the ivory tower?\\r\\nIn view of the nimblefootedness of being African and related considerations above\, and providing for the unb oundedness of being\, becoming and belonging as Africans or otherwise\, th is address invites us to build on the debate on Africa and the Disciplines of the early 1990s\, by recognising and providing for a disposition of in completeness that lends itself to convivial scholarship. Recurrent clamour s for universities in Africa (and indeed\, elsewhere) to provide for great er inclusivity\, are a continued reminder that\, although intended as conv ivial spaces par excellence\, universities are not as convivial in practic e as one would expect. Equally unconvivial are processes of knowledge prod uction that champion delusions of superiority and zero-sum games of absolu te winners and losers. Disciplines tend to encourage introversion and emph asise the exclusionary fundamentalism of the heartland rather than the inc lusionary overtures of the borderland. Frequenting the crossroads and fron tier conversations are frowned upon\, if not prohibited. If and when allow ed in principle\, inter-\, multi-and trans-disciplinary dispositions are m ore claimed than practised\, as scholars stick to their spots like leopard s and quills like porcupines. \\r\\nDespite our quest for distinction thro ugh science and reason\, we scholars are equally as much creatures of habi t as those beyond the walls of the academy. Scarcity of conviviality in un iversities\, among and within the disciplines\, and scholars suggests that the production\, position in and consumption of knowledge are far from a neutral\, objective and disinterested process. It is socially and politica lly mediated by hierarchies of humanity (informed by with not confined to factors such as race\, geography\, ethnicity\, class\, gender\, sexuality and age) and human agency imposed by particular relations of power. Given the resilience of colonial education in Africa and among Africans\, endoge nous traditions of knowledge popular across the continent\, do not receive the recognition and representation they deserve. Conviviality in knowledg e production would entail not just seeking conversations and collaboration with and across disciplines in the conventional sense but also\, and even more importantly\, the integration of sidestepped popular epistemologies informed by popular universes and ideas of reality. Such scholarship is pr edicated upon recognising and providing for incompleteness as a necessary attribute of being\, from persons to disciplines and traditions of knowing and knowledge making.\\r\\nFrancis B. Nyamnjoh is Professor of Social Ant hropology at the University of Cape Town. He earned his BA and MA at the U niversity of Yaounde\, Cameroon\, and his PhD (1990) at the University of Leicester\, UK. Before he joined the University of Cape Town in 2009 he se rved as Head of Publications at CODESRIA. Nyamnjoh has taught sociology\, anthropology and communication studies at universities in Cameroon and Bot swana\, and has researched and written extensively on Cameroon and Botswan a\, where he was awarded the “Senior Arts Researcher of the Year” priz e for 2003. In October 2012 he received a University of Cape Town Excellen ce Award for “Exceptional Contribution as a Professor in the Faculty of Humanities”. He is recipient of the “ASU African Hero 2013” annual a ward by the African Students Union\, Ohio University\, USA\; of the 2014 E ko Prize for African Literature\; and of the ASAUK 2018 Fage & Oliver Priz e for the best monograph for his book #RhodesMustFall: Nibbling at Resilie nt Colonialism in South Africa. His scholarly books include: Africa’s Me dia\, Democracy and the Politics of Belonging (2005)\; Insiders and Outsid ers: Citizenship and Xenophobia in Contemporary Southern Africa (2006)\; “C'est l'homme qui fait l'homme”: Cul-de-Sac Ubuntu-ism in Côte d'Ivo ire (2015)\; #RhodesMustFall: Nibbling at Resilient Colonialism in South A frica (2016)\; Drinking from the Cosmic Gourd: How Amos Tutuola Can Change Our Minds (2017)\; Eating and Being Eaten: Cannibalism as Food for Though t (2018)\; and The Rational Consumer: Bad for Business and Politics: Democ racy at the Crossroads of Nature and Culture (2018). X-ALT-DESC:

Everything moves – people\, things and ideas – in predict able and unpredictable ways. The circulation of things\, ideas and people is not the monopoly of any particular group\, community or society. Mobili ty and circulation lead to encounters of various forms\, encounters that a re (re)defining in myriad ways. If people\, their things and their ideas c irculate\, it follows that their identities\, personal or collective\, mov e as well. And through encounters with others\, mobile people are constant ly having to navigate\, negotiate\, accommodate or reject difference (in t hings\, ideas\, practices and relations) in an open-ended manner that make s of them a permanent work in progress. No mobility or interaction with ot hers leaves anyone\, anything or any idea indifferent\, even if such inter actions are not always equal and do not always result in immediate\, palpa ble or tangible change. No encounter in mobility results in uncontested do mination or total passivity. Even as some may wilt completely in the face of domination\, some resist it fervently\, and others are able to navigate and negotiate the tensions and contradictions brought about by the realit y of domination in complex\, creative and innovative ways. Sometimes this holds potential for new and more convivial forms of identity\, practice an d relating.

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To revisit a debate such as that on ‘Africa and the Disciplines’\, is to afford ourselves the opportunity to use old questio ns as a springboard for exploring new ones. If Africa and the Disciplines was about interrogating the social production of knowledge\, the productio n process and those involved\, as well as the resources that make knowledg e production possible\, how does one draw on such dynamics to inform curre nt and persistent clamours for decolonisation of knowledge production and consumption globally\, and on and about Africa and Africans in particular\ , and especially in their complexities and mobilities? And how does one pr oceed with the understanding that increasingly\, African knowledge produce rs\, aware that the predicaments of those they research\, teach and publis h on are not discipline-bound or confined to a particular geographical spa ce\, and that doing justice to them requires working in teams\, within ins titutions and in local and global networks of cooperation\, as well as wit h stakeholders beyond the ivory tower?

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In view of the nimblefooted ness of being African and related considerations above\, and providing for the unboundedness of being\, becoming and belonging as Africans or otherw ise\, this address invites us to build on the debate on Africa and the Dis ciplines of the early 1990s\, by recognising and providing for a dispositi on of incompleteness that lends itself to convivial scholarship. Recurrent clamours for universities in Africa (and indeed\, elsewhere) to provide f or greater inclusivity\, are a continued reminder that\, although intended as convivial spaces par excellence\, universities are not as convivial in practice as one would expect. Equally unconvivial are processes of knowle dge production that champion delusions of superiority and zero-sum games o f absolute winners and losers. Disciplines tend to encourage introversion and emphasise the exclusionary fundamentalism of the heartland rather than the inclusionary overtures of the borderland. Frequenting the crossroads and frontier conversations are frowned upon\, if not prohibited. If and wh en allowed in principle\, inter-\, multi-and trans-disciplinary dispositio ns are more claimed than practised\, as scholars stick to their spots like leopards and quills like porcupines.

\n

Despite our quest for disti nction through science and reason\, we scholars are equally as much creatu res of habit as those beyond the walls of the academy. Scarcity of convivi ality in universities\, among and within the disciplines\, and scholars su ggests that the production\, position in and consumption of knowledge are far from a neutral\, objective and disinterested process. It is socially a nd politically mediated by hierarchies of humanity (informed by with not c onfined to factors such as race\, geography\, ethnicity\, class\, gender\, sexuality and age) and human agency imposed by particular relations of po wer. Given the resilience of colonial education in Africa and among Africa ns\, endogenous traditions of knowledge popular across the continent\, do not receive the recognition and representation they deserve. Conviviality in knowledge production would entail not just seeking conversations and co llaboration with and across disciplines in the conventional sense but also \, and even more importantly\, the integration of sidestepped popular epis temologies informed by popular universes and ideas of reality. Such schola rship is predicated upon recognising and providing for incompleteness as a necessary attribute of being\, from persons to disciplines and traditions of knowing and knowledge making.

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Francis B. Nyamnjoh is Pr ofessor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town. He earned h is BA and MA at the University of Yaounde\, Cameroon\, and his PhD (1990) at the University of Leicester\, UK. Before he joined the University of Ca pe Town in 2009 he served as Head of Publications at CODESRIA. Nyamnjoh ha s taught sociology\, anthropology and communication studies at universitie s in Cameroon and Botswana\, and has researched and written extensively on Cameroon and Botswana\, where he was awarded the “Senior Arts Researche r of the Year” prize for 2003. In October 2012 he received a University of Cape Town Excellence Award for “Exceptional Contribution as a Profess or in the Faculty of Humanities”. He is recipient of the “ASU African Hero 2013” annual award by the African Students Union\, Ohio University\ , USA\; of the 2014 Eko Prize for African Literature\; and of the ASAUK 20 18 Fage &\; Oliver Prize for the best monograph for his book #Rhodes MustFall: Nibbling at Resilient Colonialism in South Africa. His schol arly books include: Africa’s Media\, Democracy and the Politics of Be longing (2005)\; Insiders and Outsiders: Citizenship and Xenophobia in Contemporary Southern Africa (2006)\; “C'est l'homme qui fait l'homme”: Cul-de-Sac Ubuntu-ism in Côte d'Ivoire (2015)\; #Rhod esMustFall: Nibbling at Resilient Colonialism in South Africa (2016)\; Drinking from the Cosmic Gourd: How Amos Tutuola Can Change Our Minds< /i> (2017)\; Eating and Being Eaten: Cannibalism as Food for Thought (2018)\; and The Rational Consumer: Bad for Business and Politics: De mocracy at the Crossroads of Nature and Culture (2018).

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