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The Africa Institute is pleased to invite you to its Faculty Seminar Series on “An Intimate History of the African Revolution: Kwame Nkrumah and the Women in Question,” presented by Jean Allman, Professor of History, The Africa Institute on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 (12:00 noon – 02:00 pm) at The Africa Institute library.
Kwame Nkrumah, the leader of Ghana’s independence struggle and its first Prime Minister and then President, was a major theorist of Pan-Africanism and neocolonialism and arguably one of the most important leaders of what was known in the 1960s as the “African Revolution.” Nkrumah attracted around him a small cohort of expatriate women, who served in various official capacities but also became his intimate confidantes. They remained so, even after the military coup that ended his rule in 1966. Based on private papers and correspondence (some only recently accessible), newspapers, and government documents, this seminar centers love, intimacy, and affect in its account of Nkrumah’s Ghana and its many afterlives, revealing how this trusted cohort ultimately shaped not only how Nkrumah is remembered today, but the very evidence historians have at hand for reconstructing Ghana’s first Republic (1960-1966) and the ill-fated African Revolution.
Jean Allman is a Professor of History at The Africa Institute as well as hold the position of J.H. Hexter Professor in the Humanities and professor of African and African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, where she directed the Center for the Humanities from 2014-2022. Since completing her Ph.D. in African History at Northwestern University (USA), Allman has been actively engaged in interdisciplinary research, publication, and teaching in the humanities and social sciences, with a focus on Africa, the African Diaspora, and Gender and Women’s Studies. She has also been a professor of history at the University of Illinois and director of its Center for African Studies and taught at the University of Missouri and the University of Minnesota. She has twice been a senior research affiliate at the University of Ghana. Allman has served as co-editor of two book series: Heinemann’s Social History of Africa series and the New African Histories book series at Ohio University Press. For six years she co-edited the Journal of Women’s History. Allman was the President of the Ghana Studies Council (now Association) from 1992-98 and has sat on the Boards of Directors of the African Studies Association (USA), the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora, and the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes. Allman served as the Vice President, President, and Past President of the African Studies Association (USA) from 2017-2020.
The seminar will be moderated by Professor Naminata Diabate, Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow in Global African Studies, The Africa Institute.
Through these lectures and workshops, The Africa Institute reaffirms its mission as a center for the study and research of Africa and its diaspora, and its commitment to the training of a new generation of critical thinkers in African and African Diaspora studies.
The seminar will be in English.
The session is free and open to the public. Registration is mandatory, Click here to book your place.
The Africa Institute is pleased to invite you to its Faculty Seminar Series on “An Intimate History of the African Revolution: Kwame Nkrumah and the Women in Question,” presented by Jean Allman, Professor of History, The Africa Institute on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 (12:00 noon – 02:00 pm) at The Africa Institute library.
The Africa Institute is pleased to invite you to its Faculty Seminar Series on “An Intimate History of the African Revolution: Kwame Nkrumah and the Women in Question,” presented by Jean Allman, Professor of History, The Africa Institute on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 (12:00 noon – 02:00 pm) at The Africa Institute library.
Kwame Nkrumah, the leader of Ghana’s independence struggle and its first Prime Minister and then President, was a major theorist of Pan-Africanism and neocolonialism and arguably one of the most important leaders of what was known in the 1960s as the “African Revolution.” Nkrumah attracted around him a small cohort of expatriate women, who served in various official capacities but also became his intimate confidantes. They remained so, even after the military coup that ended his rule in 1966. Based on private papers and correspondence (some only recently accessible), newspapers, and government documents, this seminar centers love, intimacy, and affect in its account of Nkrumah’s Ghana and its many afterlives, revealing how this trusted cohort ultimately shaped not only how Nkrumah is remembered today, but the very evidence historians have at hand for reconstructing Ghana’s first Republic (1960-1966) and the ill-fated African Revolution.
Jean Allman is a Professor of History at The Africa Institute as well as hold the position of J.H. Hexter Professor in the Humanities and professor of African and African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, where she directed the Center for the Humanities from 2014-2022. Since completing her Ph.D. in African History at Northwestern University (USA), Allman has been actively engaged in interdisciplinary research, publication, and teaching in the humanities and social sciences, with a focus on Africa, the African Diaspora, and Gender and Women’s Studies. She has also been a professor of history at the University of Illinois and director of its Center for African Studies and taught at the University of Missouri and the University of Minnesota. She has twice been a senior research affiliate at the University of Ghana. Allman has served as co-editor of two book series: Heinemann’s Social History of Africa series and the New African Histories book series at Ohio University Press. For six years she co-edited the Journal of Women’s History. Allman was the President of the Ghana Studies Council (now Association) from 1992-98 and has sat on the Boards of Directors of the African Studies Association (USA), the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora, and the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes. Allman served as the Vice President, President, and Past President of the African Studies Association (USA) from 2017-2020.
The seminar will be moderated by Professor Naminata Diabate, Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow in Global African Studies, The Africa Institute.
Through these lectures and workshops, The Africa Institute reaffirms its mission as a center for the study and research of Africa and its diaspora, and its commitment to the training of a new generation of critical thinkers in African and African Diaspora studies.
The seminar will be in English.
The session is free and open to the public. Registration is mandatory, Click here to book your place.
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