Scholars from around the world and members of local African communities will gather at UNSW Sydney to discuss recent significant shifts in governance in African nations.
UNSW Sydney will host the 41st annual conference of the African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific (AFSAAP) this week.
The event is titled ‘Africa in Transition: Governance, Society and Culture’ and brings together Africanist scholars from across the globe to explore significant transitions in the governance of African nations and discuss how different African countries have responded to these shifts in power and government.
Dr Luka Biong Deng Kuol, a former Sudanese government minister, will deliver the keynote address which examines South Sudan’s hard-won independence and its subsequent descent into civil war and a theatre of violence as one of the most fragile nations in the world.
Dr Kuol is now Professor of Practice for Security Studies at the National Defense University’s Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington DC and will analyse how the ruling elites in South Sudan managed the transition to statehood – including the constitution-making process that failed to forge a resilient social contract by properly making use of traditional institutions, values and culture.
The civil war in South Sudan has forced many people to live in terrible conditions in camps such as this one in Juba. Image from Shutterstock
As well as visiting scholars, local South Sudanese and other African communities have been invited to the conference for discussion and dialogue guided by community leaders.
Dr Anne Bartlett, Vice-President of AFSAAP and an Associate Professor and Convenor of the Bachelor of International Studies program at UNSW, believes the conference is vitally important – especially after recent coverage of the Sudanese community in Melbourne by some Australian media.
“This event shows that UNSW is front and centre of this important conversation. I hope the conference can create a more nuanced discussion about what is happening across Africa because the issues are not simplistic, but in fact very complex,” Associate Professor Bartlett said.
“We are delighted that Dr Biong Deng Kuol will be with us to deliver the keynote address as he is very well respected and we really hope the conference can help bring people together from a variety of communities to discuss what a different future might look like.”
Also featured will be a Q&A session with filmmaker Hawanatu Bangura – a UNSW alumna – following a screening of her docuemntary I am Black and Beautiful, which examines the perception of beauty and belonging from the perspectives of Afro-Australian women.
The African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific was founded in 1978 and is a national network of academics, students, consultants, activists, diplomats, artists, community leaders and others who share a mutual interest in the promotion of African Studies in Australasia and the Pacific region.
Their 41st annual conference is being sponsored by the UNSW Institute for Global Development and UNSW Canberra. It is the first time the annual conference has been held at UNSW. It runs from November 21-23 at the Colombo Theatre.
A variety of exhibits will be accessible to all UNSW staff in the Colombo Building foyer throughout the event – including a number of book talks by the African Books Collective and a selection of Kenyan coffees from Ameru Coffee, plus African jewellery and crafts.