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The Africa Institute hosts Faculty Seminar titled, “The Beautyful and the Damned: Ayi Kwei Armah’s Postcolony and the Still-Born Humanisms of Decolonization,” presented by Christopher J. Lee, Professor of African History, World History, and African Literature at The Africa Institute on Tuesday, May 16, 2023 (12:00 noon – 02:00 pm) at The Africa Institute Library.
In this seminar, Lee will revisit Ghanaian writer Ayi Kwei Armah‘s first novel, “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born” (1968), which examines the crises of the African post colony. Lee will analyze the making of the novel in relation to Armah’s personal history and his intellectual engagement with Frantz Fanon during the same period. He also argues that Armah’s exploration of Fanon’s concept of wretchedness goes deeper than the understanding found in “The Wretched of the Earth” (1961). The seminar will conclude that Armah’s novel presents a case for how the still-born humanisms of decolonization, including Nkrumahism, postcolonial Pan-Africanism, and African socialism, are but a few of the possible humanisms that can emerge in the postcolony. Drawing upon the recent work of Ato Sekyi-Otu, the seminar will also consider the more prosaic humanisms of everyday life that still offer a means of individual and community regeneration.
Lee is a Professor of African History, World History, and African Literature at The Africa Institute. He has held a range of faculty appointments in Africa and North America, including at Stanford, Harvard, Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Read more.
The seminar will be moderated by Emery Kalema, Assistant Professor of History, The Africa Institute. Read more.
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 hosts Faculty Seminar titled, “The Beautyful and the Damned: Ayi Kwei Armah’s Postcolony and the Still-Born Humanisms of Decolonization,” presented by Christopher J. Lee, Professor of African History, World History, and African Literature at The Africa Institute on Tuesday, May 16, 2023 (12:00 noon – 02:00 pm) at The Africa Institute Library.
The Africa Institute hosts Faculty Seminar titled, “The Beautyful and the Damned: Ayi Kwei Armah’s Postcolony and the Still-Born Humanisms of Decolonization,” presented by Christopher J. Lee, Professor of African History, World History, and African Literature at The Africa Institute on Tuesday, May 16, 2023 (12:00 noon – 02:00 pm) at The Africa Institute Library.
In this seminar, Lee will revisit Ghanaian writer Ayi Kwei Armah‘s first novel, “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born” (1968), which examines the crises of the African post colony. Lee will analyze the making of the novel in relation to Armah’s personal history and his intellectual engagement with Frantz Fanon during the same period. He also argues that Armah’s exploration of Fanon’s concept of wretchedness goes deeper than the understanding found in “The Wretched of the Earth” (1961). The seminar will conclude that Armah’s novel presents a case for how the still-born humanisms of decolonization, including Nkrumahism, postcolonial Pan-Africanism, and African socialism, are but a few of the possible humanisms that can emerge in the postcolony. Drawing upon the recent work of Ato Sekyi-Otu, the seminar will also consider the more prosaic humanisms of everyday life that still offer a means of individual and community regeneration.
Lee is a Professor of African History, World History, and African Literature at The Africa Institute. He has held a range of faculty appointments in Africa and North America, including at Stanford, Harvard, Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Read more.
The seminar will be moderated by Emery Kalema, Assistant Professor of History, The Africa Institute. Read more.
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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