Colloquium
House of Bondage and Home of Ubuntu:South Africa after Twenty Years of Democracy

In conjunction with the exhibition Ernest Cole: Photographer

Colloquium

House of Bondage and Home of Ubuntu:

South Africa after Twenty Years of Democracy

Friday, November 7, 6:00–8:00 pm

The Event Space, NYU English Department, 244 Greene Street

 

This colloquium takes as inspiration the exhibition of South African photographer Ernest Cole’s work at NYU’s Grey Gallery; the return of South African writer Nat Nakasa’s remains from upstate New York to South Africa; and the Ubuntu Music and Arts Festival at Carnegie Hall, New York—all of which coincide with South Africa’s twenty-year anniversary of democracy in 2014, and gesture to a long history of transnational flow between South Africa and New York.

The colloquium seeks to address some of the following questions: If ubuntu refers to an African sense of ethics expressed in the idiom “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” (Zulu) (“a person is a person through other people”), what relationships can be traced between the structures of oppression exposed in Cole’s House of Bondage (New York: Random House, 1967) and South Africa as home of ubuntu? How does the idea of ubuntu appear through the lens of black intellectual traditions in South Africa, and can black intellectual traditions themselves be understood through the lens of ubuntu? How are dispossession and unfreedom in South Africa today being framed and understood? To what extent do South African issues speak to the rest of the world, particularly to the United States?

Speakers include Jacob Dlamini, “Askari: Apartheid Collaborators”; Xolela Mangcu, “Nelson Mandela: Towards a New Angle of Vision”; Hlonipha Mokoena, “The Policeman, Reconsidered”; Mark Sanders, “Learning Zulu, In Hindsight”; Jennifer Wenzel, “Amandla Awethu: Energy, Infrastructure, Rights, Services.”

 

Both events are free of charge, no reservations, seating limited. Photo ID required for entrance to NYU buildings.

 

Co-sponsored by the NYU Postcolonial Colloquium and NYU’s Grey Art Gallery. Information:      Lucy Graham: lucy.graham@nyu.edu

Starts 11/7/14 6:00 pm
Ends 11/7/14 8:00 pm
Participants Jacob Dlamini, Xolela Mangcu, Hlonipha Mokoena, Mark Sanders, Jennifer Wenzel
Location The Event Space, NYU English Department, 244 Greene Street
Cost Free of charge

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Program Types: Colloquium