Institute of African Studies Student Association - IASSA

Hi Friends! Finals season is here and IASSA is inviting all students enrolled in AFRI courses this semester to join us for our online study sessions. If you’re having a hard time staying motivated, focusing or just want to find people to study with, this might just be for you.
Our first session is happening this Wednesday afternoon at 4pm. Don’t miss it!

The Zoom link is in our bio. See you soon!

Happy Africa Day! 🌍🎉

Giving students the option of pass/fail would help support students who are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Many students face eviction, loss of job, and nowhere to go. Balancing all of this is affecting students’ mental states and more so their ability to focus on the increased number of take-home/online assignments. Students who are not as affected and strive for high grades should also have the option to continue with a final grade. Please sign this petition to support our fellow students who might be struggling at the moment.

Happening now in Toronto, Canada Carleton University: Give Students the Option to be Graded on a Pass/Fail Basis. 2120 signatures are still needed!

A year ago today we lost our Director and teacher, Pius Adebola Adesanmi. Today, we are thinking of him—his writing, his teaching, and his Tweets.

James Yeku, professor at Kansas University, wrote this piece that includes his student’s review of “You’re Not a Country, Africa”. Carleton’s AFRI 3003 course, African Social and Political Thought taught by visiting professor Dr Samuel Oloruntoba, will be teaching a segment on Pius Adesanmi’s thoughts on humanism. The vessels of life that are our bodies will parish, but our words will live on.

“I remember the circumstances of Adesanmi’s death, and the way he appeared to preempt his final exit through a Facebook post. For some, this prescient sense of discernment has connections to Adesanmi’s acceptance of himself as Abiku, that “roaming spirit-child fated to repeated crossings between the worlds of the living and the dead”, as he describes it. Adesanmi proudly enthuses that, “my undergraduate students in North America can’t have enough of me”, whenever he taught J.P. Clark’s or Wole Soyinka’s ‘Abiku,’ foregrounding his own embodied iteration of the Yoruba worldview and spirituality that defined his writings”(Yeku, 2020).

Hello friends, the time has come! The Institute of African Studies is celebrating its 10th anniversary!!! Join us at Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre on March 12th for a full day of celebratory activities. Ken Bugul will be joining us as our keynote speaker along with panelists and talent show performers, poets and more. This is a free event! Please make sure you register on Eventbrite through the link below before March 10th. See you there!

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/african-studies-carleton-university-celebrates-10-years-of-impact-tickets-96996500143

Reminder to pre-order your African Studies sweater at the discounted price of $33.65 before February 24th. E-transfers go to [email protected] with contact information (e-mail or phone number) and order information (size and colour) in the message box.

Hey African Studies students, the year of 2020 marks the 10th Anniversary of the Institute of African Studies! In honour of this milestone and the great strides of our late Director Pius Adesanmi, we are commemorating this year with African Studies hoodies!

Pre-order a sweater before February 24rd for the reduced price of $33.65. After this date prices will increase.

Colours: Grey, Black, White
Sizes: X-small, Small, Medium, Large, X-Large

E-transfers go to [email protected]

(Note: Grey hoodie does not have red hood--it is grey all over.)

"Africa is the forward that the rest of humanity must face." -Pius Adesanmi

Black Minds Matter: In Our Words

We are creating a published Zine for African, Caribbean, Black and Turtle Island Indigenous students.

Accepting submissions for thesis and research proposals, poems, stories, spoken word, original music and graphic artists.

Submission Deadline: Feb 26th, 2020

Submit to: [email protected]

These West African artifacts tell stories of great forgotten empires but also the battle to own Africa’s art. (Joe Penney, Quartz Africa, 2020).

1. & 2. Installation view of Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Anna-Mari Kellen)
3. COURTESY MENIL COLLECTION
Middle Niger civilization, Mali 12th–14th century Terracotta The Menil Collection, Houston (1982-20 DJ)
4. MUSÉE NATIONAL DU MALI
Reclining Figure Middle Niger civilization, Jenne-jeno, Mali12th–14th century Terracotta Musée National du Mali, Bamako (R 88-19-275).
5. MAMMA HAIDARA MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Timbuktu, Mali 1733. Manuscript on paper. Mamma Haidara Memorial Library, Timbuktu, Mali (116).


Full article:
https://qz.com/africa/1794786/met-museums-sahel-exhibit-enters-the-battle-to-own-african-art/

Upcoming Event: Winter Meet & Greet
Join us in the History Lounge on January 22nd (next Wednesday) at 6pm to get to know others in your program and learn more about future events for this year’s 10th anniversary of the Institute of African Studies!
We have lots of ways to get involved and are always looking for newcomers from interdisciplinary backgrounds.

Next up on the Brownbag series: Dr. Christopher Webb presenting “New Technologies of Poverty: Financialization in South Africa’s Cash Transfer Program”.

Location: Discovery Center (482), Macodrum Library, Carleton University
Time: 1:00-2:30pm