Black History Month 2014 presents

Samstag 01.02.2014 18:30 | Seminarraum 1

Eintritt: frei

Veranstalter/-in: Werkstatt der Kulturen

Produktion Flyer

RELIGION AS COUNTERCULTURE

African Prophets, Spirit Mediums and Muslim Saints under colonial rule

Vortrag - Teil I

Im Rahmen des BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2014 hält Prof. Cheikh Anta Babou jeden Samstag im Februar einen Vortrag mit jeweils anderem Schwerpunkt.

This lecture offers a broad introduction to the indigenous African system of beliefs and practices. We will use the example of Yoruba religion to look at African cosmology as well as the role and meanings of religion in the life of people and in society before the encounter with Europe. The focus will be on the idea of the divine, the world of spirits, rituals (music, sacred dance), and worship, religious ethics, death and the world beyond.

The lecture series (4 sessions in February every Saturday) explores the experience of Africans from the era of the “scramble for Africa” in the 1880s to the onset of European colonial rule through the lens of religious practices and movements. The four lecture seminar is designed to offer an understanding of the different ways in which, the African Traditional Religions and the world religions of Christianity and Islam provided a cultural foundation for resisting colonial assimilation policies. We will look at the Yoruba religion, Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita’s experiment with Christianity in the Kongo, the Maji Maji revolt in German Tanganyika, and finally, Amadu Bamba’s cultural resistance to the French civilizing mission in Senegal.

Dr. Cheikh Anta Babou is a Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia where he offers courses on African History and the History of Islam in Africa. His research focuses on mystical Islam in West Africa and Senegal, the new African diaspora and political Islam.

Foto © Daniela Incoronato

Professor Babou has published extensively on the Muridiyya Muslim order of Senegal and the Senegalese diaspora. His book, Fighting the Greater Jihad: Amadu Bamba and the Founding of the Muridiyya of Senegal, 1853-1913 was published by Ohio University Press in 2007. A French translation was released by Karthala in 2011. Dr. Babou’s articles appeared in African Affairs, The annals, Journal of African History, International Journal of African Historical Studies, Journal of Religion in Africa, Africa Today and other scholarly journals in the United States and in Europe. He has presented papers in international scholarly meetings in the United States, Europe and on the continent of Africa.

His current research project examines the experience of West African Muslim immigrants in Europe and North America. Professor Babou is spending this academic year in Berlin as Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Study of Berlin). 

Zum BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2014 vom 28. Januar bis 28. Februar finden in der WERKSTATT DER KULTUREN eine Ausstellung, Panels, Konzerte, eine Lesung, religiöse Tanzdarbietungen und Filmvorführungen statt, die das diesjährige Schwerpunktthema ‚Religion, Musik und Widerstand’ entlang der bedeutsamen Jahre 1884, 1904, 1964 und 1994 bearbeiten; den hundertjahrelangen Weg zur Freiheit.

Gesamtes Programm des BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2014