Date: June 16, 2018
Venue: Room318 of Inamori Foundation Memorial Hall, Kyoto University

1.Members made a report on their oral presentations at the annual meetings of the Japan Society for African Studies, held at Hokkaido University on May 26-27.

2.Members shared the plan of oral presentations in a proposed panel, titled “Diversification and Reorganization of ‘Family’ and Kinship in Africa: Cross-cultural Analysis on Economic Discrepancy, Conflicts and Potential of Indigenous Institutions for Social Security” at the annual meeting of International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES), which will be held on July 16-21, 2018.

The 35th Annual Meeting of Japanese Society for Oceanic Studies
Joint Symposium with the “African Potentials” project and the Japanese Society for Oceanic Studies.
Title: “Local Responses to Conflicts and Coexistence: Case Studies from Oceania and Africa.”

Date and Time: 23rd March, 2018, Friday, 8:45 – 10:15
Venue: Event Hall, Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, Ocean Expo Park.

The Japanese Society for Oceanic Studies was established in 1977 to promote Oceanic Studies in Japan. The 35th Annual Meeting held in 2017 organized a joint symposium with “African Potentials” project to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the society.

Kubota explained the background of the symposium, which was jointly organized by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) “African Potential” (project leader, Motoji Matsuda) and Specific Research Project on “Community Governance on Retribution and Restoration over Conflict Resolution: From a Case Study on Dolphin Hunting and Environmental Organizations” (project leader, Daisuke Takekawa), and mentioned that the objective of the symposium is to address local responses on conflicts and coexistence in Oceania and Africa.

Takekawa firstly explained the meanings of the two keywords: mutual benefit, which is an emotion related to fairness and equity, and empathy, which is an action led by consideration of the others’ intention. Then he presented his observation on cases of conflict avoidance among clans by excessive gifting and reconciliation regarding suspension contract for dolphin hunting and embezzlement of contract amount by the agent. He elucidated that, in small communities, restorative justice based on empathy, in which they consider the counterpart shares the same feeling, is more important than retributive justice focusing on mutual benefits.

Ootsuru introduced a case from Erromango Island, Vanuatu, where Christian missionaries were killed in the 19th century. She took examples from the reconciliation ceremony held after 170 year of death of the missionaries and apology ceremony among the community members in the north and south which had been conflicting over the use of traditional songs and dance. Then she concluded that continuity of restoration and lasting consent have been realized in a circular connection (or loop) of interpretation of facts, storytelling, repeating empathy, reality, and narrative creation.

Oyama discussed a case of conflict in the Sahel region in West Africa where agriculturists and pastoralists face conflicts rooted in crop damage by the cattle. The victims and offenders do not confront each other directly and avoid escalation to violence. However, he clarified that conflict prevention based on dialogue at community level does not function for avoidance of deadly attacks and terrorist attacks led by Boko Haram.

Abe addressed reconciliation policy implemented in South Africa after democratization. Their initiatives aiming to unify the society through hearing of evidences and amnesty attracted various criticisms from political forces within the country, but the speaker considered that a turning point in collective conflicting relationship can be read in such affairs.

Kimura, the commentator, summarized the points of each presentation and then exemplified a case of marriage in the Bongando people in rainforest in Cameroon. He pointed out that maintaining and restoring relationships require continuous movement and emphasized continuity of the action, rather than the state. At the local level, they stress ambiguity and subjectivity, which have irreconcilable natures against modernity.

The general discussion addressed and confirmed various topics, including: whether any characteristics or tendencies in negotiation and conciliation within the community or external parties in Oceania and Africa; the significance of exploring compensation, gift, reconciliation, and ceremonies in a social context; and focusing on proactive initiatives by the local residents on conflicts and coexistence, and importance to clarify the undefined concept of reconciliation at the local level.

Date and Time: 14:00-17:00, March 3, 2018 (Saturday)
Venue: Middle Meeting Room, 3rd Floor, Inamori Foundation Memorial Hall, Kyoto University
(Honorifics and titles omitted hereafter)

This plenary meeting was organized as a team leaders’ meeting in which the leaders of the seven teams (including an acting leader), members in charge of general overview, and secretariat participated. Motoji Matsuda, the project leader, presented the following report and the team leaders responded with opinions and discussed the ways forward for the project.

1. International Communication
First, a report on international communication of research outcome was presented. The speaker reported the record international communication (European Conference on African Studies and African Studies Association in the US) in fiscal year 2017 and shared a plan for the communication in fiscal year 2018 (World Social Science Forum and International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Science).

2. African Potentials Forum
A detailed report on the Africa Forum held in Grahamstown, South Africa, was presented. It also referred to the outcome of the forum. Following the report, the speaker explained that the selection of the keynote speaker and report presenters from Africa for the Africa Forum in the next fiscal year (December in Accra, Ghana) is in progress, and requested the leaders to list candidates for the presenters. In addition, he also referred to the publication of the outcome of the Kampala Forum 2016 (to be included in African Study Monographs Supplementary Issue 56).
Explanation on the symposium in Kyoto, scheduled in January 2019, was also provided. He explained the symposium will serve as an international exchange seminar mainly for young to mid-level researchers, and requested the leaders to consider candidate invitees from African young/mid-level researchers and candidate presenters from Japan.

3. Research Collaboration with Other Area Studies Groups
The speaker reported on collaborative research activity with other area studies group (Joint Symposium with Japanese Society for Oceanic Studies) implemented this fiscal year and shared a plan for future activity (collaboration with Japan Society for Southeast Asian Studies, May 2018).

4. Team Activities
The budget for the next fiscal year and schedule for the Plenary Meeting were announced, and direction of the project for the next fiscal year onwards was discussed. Prior to the discussion, Motoji Matsuda, the project leader, shared his thoughts on how to proceed with the project. In response to his requests, each team leader shared updates on team activities and commented on the ways forward for the project. The leaders discussed whether to continue the current approach based on individual reports or to start focusing and sharing discussions beyond the teams. They concluded to maintain the individual report approach for another year. On the other hand, they confirmed to encourage mutual exchange with other teams and collaborative activities by multiple teams.

(Reported by Shinichiro Ichino.)

AFRICAN FORUM

7th African Forum: Grahams town
Dates: November 24–26, 2017
Venue: Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

Summary of African Forum

The 7th African Potentials Forum was held from November 24 to 26, 2017, in Grahamstown, South Africa. Project members, researchers, and practitioners from southern African countries, such as Angola, Botswana, and Mozambique, participated in the forum. The event also included a new component: a poster session for young researchers, which was incorporated to encourage a focus on academics in the next generation. Postgraduate students from Rhodes University, Cape Town University, and University of Lesotho took part in the forum. The more than 40 participants held intense discussions on African potentials during the two-day event.

This forum had two key characteristics. The first was its attempt to seek another mode of intelligence in humanities based on African potentials, which is one of the objectives of the second phase of the project. The discussion as such was centered around the idea of multiple universality proposed by Dr. Michael Neocosmos in his keynote speech. Universality has long been a concept exclusive to modern, Western societies up until now (as target of criticism or defense, but he discussed the possibility to find different ways to understand universality in politics, history, and views of humanity and society. The second characteristic of the forum was that more than a half of the presenters were female, and the event encouraged active discussion on sexual violence, sex governance, as well as gender and sexuality which were newly added to the project theme from the seceiond phase.

The forum offered a poster session and four sessions titled “Liberation,” “Knowledge,” “Governmentality,” and “Everyday Wisdom.” The event opened with Dr. Michael Neocosmos’s keynote address, “African Potentials and the Thought of Universal Humanity.” After the keynote, 14 presenters (seven from Africa and seven from Japan) made reports in breakout sessions, and core members of the project, who had been working to conceptualize African potentials since the first phase of the project, served as commentators to deepen and develop the discussions. At the poster session, seven researchers from the next generation presented on topics related to African potentials.

In the plenary discussion on the last day of the forum, we confirmed our shared understanding of the importance of the conception and practices of African potentials in a situation where many modes of intelligence represent colonial thinking. We must critique and identify issues in such outdated thinking and adopt countermeasures. At the same time, we confirmed the need to construct a new order of intelligence by mutually collaborating in and engaging with modern Western concepts and practices—rather than merely rejecting or criticizing them—to address social contradictions and the global trend toward violence in our world today. In addition, because of the participation of many young researchers, this forum promoted an open exchange of opinions on emerging generational gaps in recognition and behavior.

We have concluded that each party involved would consider publishing the outcome of the forum either in featured journal articles as a part of the African Potentials series in English.

(Motoji Matsuda, Project Leader)

PROGRAM

Program Timetable

November 24, Friday

18:00-19:00 Registration

19:00-21:00 Reception

November 25, Saturday

9:40-10:00 Opening remarks

Motoji Matsuda (Project leader, Kyoto University)

10:00-11:30 Keynote Address (Chair: Eisei Kurimoto)

Michael Neocosmos (Rhodes University)
African Potentials and the Thought of Universal Humanity

11:30-13:00 Lunch Break

13:00-15:30 Session 1: Liberation (Chair: Yohei Miyauchi)
Commentators: Edward Kirumira & Yoko Nagahara

1-1. Shose Kessi (University of Cape Town)
African Identities and Community Participation in the Time of ‘Nation’

1-2. Toshihiro Abe (Otani University)
Reconsidering South African TRC in the Current Context of Transitional Justice Studies

1-3. Nomboniso Gasa (University of Cape Town)
The Traditional Debate in South Africa: What Is the Fuss All About?

1-4. Akiyo Aminaka (IDE-JETRO)
Signs of Spontaneous Democratization in Mozambique: Special Focus on the Opposition Party and Its Ex-Soldiers

15:30-15:50 Coffee Break

15:50-17:50 Session 2: Knowledge (Chair: Shose Kessi)
Commentators: Michael Neocosmos & Motoji Matsuda

2-1. Artwell Nhemachena (University of Namibia)
Evading Genetic Modifications through African Potentials? Whither the Afro-pessimism Thesis

2-2. Akira Takada (Kyoto University)
The Medium of Instruction in North-Central Namibia in Colonial Times

2-3. Sethunya Tshepho Mosime (University of Botswana)
Teaching African Potentials: Incompleteness and the Pedagogy of African Potentials

18:30- Conference dinnerk

November 26, Sunday

9:00-11:00 Session 3: Governmentality (Chair: Nomboniso Gasa)
Commentators: Kennedy Mkutu & Eisei Kurimoto

3-1. Richard Pithouse (Wits University)
Can the Subaltern Be Heard? Reflections on the Academy, the Universal and Thought from the Underside of Modernity

3-2. Yohei Miyauchi (Rikkyo University)
Tolerance as Post-Apartheid Urban Planning Political Geography of the Art-Led Urban Rejuvenation in Inner City of Johannesburg

3-3. Euclides Gonçalves (Kaleidoscopio)
Champion’s Music and the Poetics of Constructive Criticism in Rural Mozambique

11:00-11:15 Coffee Break

11:15-12:15 Poster Session

P-1. Levi Kabwato (Rhodes University)
Catching Colds: Analysing Media Discourses in Africa on Euro-American Political Developments

P-2. Motlatsi Khosi (University of South Africa)
“Living” Ubuntu: The African as Philosophy in Its Construction of an African Philosophy

P-3. Yvonne Zamaswazi Sibaya (University of Cape Town)
Downsizing and Outsourcing African Identities.
An Ethnography of the Downsizing and Outsourcing of African Identities through Transactional Hair Exchanges amongst Insiders and Outsiders of Johannesburg

P-4. Sayaka Kono (National University of Lesotho)
Making “Basotho of South Africa” under Bantustan Policy: Ethnicity, Citizenship and Apartheid in Rural South Africa in the Late 1970s:

P-5. Meyu Yamamoto (Tsuda University)
Beyond Binary Paradigm of Racism: Chinese Mine Labour and Construction of Whiteness in South Africa

P-6. Yuriko Sugiyama (University of Botswana)
Reorganization of San Society in New Xade, Botswana: Analysis of Changes in Funeral Customs

P-7. Chivimbiso Gava (University of Cape Town)
Migration and Narration – Making the Unfamiliar Familiar through a Shared History

12:15-13:30 Lunch Break

13:30-15:30 Session 4: Everyday Wisdom (Chair: Akira Takada)
Commentators: Edward Kirumira & Toshio Meguro

4-1. Mayu Hayakawa (National Museum of Ethnology)
The Potential of the Useless Money: The Non-Disappearance of Hyperinflating Currency in Zimbabwe

4-2. Fezokuhle Mthonti (Rhodes University)
The Hair Salons Are Not Burning: African Migrant Women and Xenophobic Violence in South Africa

4-3. Junko Maruyama (Tsuda University)
Divided Land, Shared Land: Recent Land Issues among the San Hunter-Gatherers in Central Kalahari

15:30-15:45 Coffee Break

15:45-17:30 General Discussion (Chair: Eisei Kurimoto)

18:00- Farewell Party

Date: October 14, 2017 14:00～17:00
Venue: 3rd floor of Inamori Foundation Memorial Hall, Kyoto University

At the beginning of the meeting, Motoji Matsuda, the project leader, made a number of administrative announcements, including in relation to international forums and conferences related to the project, events in which the project members participated, support for future research by next generation, publication of the ASM, as well as future plenary meetings. Shinichi Takeuchi provided a detailed explanation of the African Studies Association(ASA) Meeting.

Next, Motoji Matsuda provided an overview of the seventh Africa Forum (also called the Rhodes Forum), which is scheduled to be held from 24 to 26 November at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. Five Japanese speakers are due to present at the forum. Their names and the titles and abstracts of their presentations are listed below.

Speaker 1: Toshihiro Abe (Otani University)
Title: Reconsidering South African TRC in the Current Context of Transitional Justice Studies

This presentation discussed how to re-evaluate the impact of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa, which completed its activities nearly 20 years ago, as well as what secondary impacts derived from them have attracted attention. The speaker then reconsidered the TRC in South Africa in comparison to a number of case studies of justice in transitional eras drawn from other regions, such as the former Yugoslavia. On the basis of these comparisons, the speaker suggested that the response of society in post-TRC South Africa has resulted from such conditions as “control of more than sufficient and intermediate omission”, “failure in specific nature” and “insufficiency and incompleteness in certain areas”.

Speaker２: Akira Takada (Kyoto University)
Title: The Medium of Instruction in North-Central Namibia in Colonial Times

In this presentation, the speaker reported the education history of the San people in the Ohangwena region, the Ovambo people in north-central Namibia, and non-white people in southern Africa, with a focus on the medium of instruction. The languages used for education in this region have changed in accordance with social and political changes, such as colonial policy, the activities of missionaries, and policies in relation to indigenous peoples. A range of languages, including English, Afrikaans, Spanish and Ovambo language, have been used. The speaker also highlighted the significant differences between the respective education histories of the San, Ovamboland’s indigenous inhabitants, and the Ovambo people.

Speaker 3: Mayu Hayakawa (National Museum of Ethnology)
Title: The Potentials of the Useless Money: The Non-disappearance of Hyperinflating Currency in Zimbabwe

This presentation attempts to find African potentials in the reaction of people in Zimbabwe to hyper-inflation. Inhabitants of Zimbabwe used Zimbabwean dollars as limited-purpose currency even under conditions of hyper-inflation. On the other hand, US dollars, which could have been regarded as multi-purpose currency, were sometimes not used due to a shortage of smaller bills. In such extraordinary circumstances, Zimbabweans attempted to maintain everyday life by means of natural and usual trades, which displays the presence of an economy and currency maintained by micro-management, which differs from the situation prevailing in most modern economies and currencies.

Speaker 4:　Junko Maruyama (Tsuda University)
Title:　Divided Land, Shared Land: Recent Land Issues among the San Hunter-gatherers in Central Kalahari

The San people, a group of hunter-gatherers in the Central Kalahari, have continued to be forced to settle outside their ancestral land. However, they have won national lawsuits after attracting international attention by appealing land issues as an indigenous movement. However, as a result, the government has permitted only a limited return to ancestral land for specified persons, and land rights accessible only by a small number of wealthy people. In short, land issues have been transformed into disparity issues among the San. However, the San now visit new land by utilizing their family networks, and have found new enjoyment in becoming familiar with the land, leading to an overall expansion of the San’s area of activity.

Speaker 5: Meyu Yamamoto (Kyoto University)
Title: Beyond Binary Paradigm of Racism: Chinese Mine Labour and Construction of Whiteness in South Africa

The speaker attempted to relativize the dichotomous view of racism based on “white” and “black” in South Africa, with the presence of annually contracted Chinese workers. In the early twentieth century, the United Kingdom introduced annual contract workers from China to the Rand Gold Mine. The workers spent six years in the country, laboring under poor conditions, before being returned to China, but the event gave rise to a widely held stereotype of Chinese people in South Africa and contributed to the rise of white nationalism. In other words, the introduction of Chinese workers and the existence of the Asia threat, which was known at the time, encouraged unity among the “white” population in South Africa, which had not previously been cohesive, and encouraged the construction of a “white South Africa”.

Misa Hirano-Nomoto / Shinichiro Ichino

Our project supported the panel “Land Reform, Rural Changes, and Political Power in Africa” headed by Shinichi Takeuchi (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies / IDE-JETRO) in Annual Meeting of African Studies Association (November 16-18) in Chicago. The panel focused on the socio-political impacts caused by Land Acts legislation in sub-Saharan Africa since 1990s and invited four speakers: Shuichi Oyama (Kyoto University), Teshome Emana (Addis Ababa University), Horman Chitonge (University of Cape Town) and Sinichi Takeuchi. The panel chair is Scott Straus (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and discussant, Sara Berry (Johns Hopkins University) stimulated the discussion.

Chair
Scott Straus (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Discussant
Sara Berry (Johns Hopkins University)

Panelist
Shuichi Oyama (Kyoto University) “Autonomy and authority of chiefs regarding administration of customary land in Zambia”
Teshome Emana (Addis Ababa University) “The Political Economy of Land and Socio-economic Dynamics in a Rural-Urban Interface in Ethiopia”
Horman Chitonge (University of Cape Town) “Land Restitution in South Africa Re-Loaded: What Happens after the Land is Restored?”
Shinichi Takeuchi (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies / IDE-JETRO) “African Enclosure in the Context of Land Law Reforms”

 

 

 

Date: March 3, 2018. 14:00-16:00
Venue: Inamori Foundation Memorial Bldg, Middle-sized Meeting Room, Kyoto University

Program
14:05-14:40
Title: Camps for Political Prisoners in Guinea -The Current Situation and the Prospects for Bury the History
Speaker: Ichijo Hiroaki (Ryukoku University)

14:40-15:25
Title: Child-Rearing and Family Network among the Herero people in Namibia
Speaker: Yumi Kamuro (Kumamoto University)

15:25-16:00
Title: Publishing of Books for Children and African Literature: The Production of Literature and Writers in Francophone Western Africa
Speaker: Haruse Murata

Date: January 27, 2018 11:30-14:00
Venue: 3rd floor of Inamori Foundation Memorial Hall, Kyoto University

Title: Food Security Policy and Pastoral Societies in Ethiopia
Speaker: Toru SAGAWA (Keio University)

Date: January 27, 2018 11:30-14:30
Venue: 3rd floor of Inamori Foundation Memorial Hall, Kyoto University

Speaker: Haruse Murata
Title：The reason why books for African children are necessary : Considerations of interviews to writers and illustrators in London and Dakar

Brainstorming with members