SOUTHERN AFRICA BEYOND THE WEST
Political, Economic & Cultural Relationships with the BRICS Countries & the Global South
CONFERENCE TIMETABLE
7—11 August 2015
Day 1, Friday 7 August 2015
10.00 – 14.00 Arrivals and Registration
14.00 – 15.00 Welcome and Introductory Remarks
Professor Manenga Ndulo (SAIPAR), Professor David Simon (JSAS), Dr Alastair Fraser (RoAPE)
Dr Jessica Achberger: Announcements, practical matters, events (book table, new books, photography exhibits, and documentary film)
Stream A: Situating the BRICS in Space and Time
- Early Societies and Trading Networks
15.00 – 16.30
Panel 1: The Archaeological Evidence for Southern African Trade and Contact (funded by the British Institute in Eastern Africa [BIEA])
Chair: Joost Fontein (BIEA)
- Professor Innocent Pikirayi (University of Pretoria): ‘Trade, Globalisation and the Archaic State in Southern Africa’
- Professor Ed Wilmsen (Universities of Witwatersrand/Edinburgh/Texas): ‘Iron Age Archaeology and Political Economy of Interior Southern Africa’
- Dr Edward Pollard (BIEA): ‘Seventh-to Fifteenth-Century East African Ports in the Indian Ocean Trading System’
- Dr Ashley Coutu (University of York and University of Cape Town): ‘Routes of Ivory: Mapping Trade in the African Iron Age’
- Nicolas Nikis (Université Libre de Bruxelles): ‘Copper and Exchange Networks in Southern Central Africa in 2nd Millennium AD: Contributions of the Material Culture Spatial Analysis.’
16.30 – 16.45 Tea/coffee break
16.45 – 17.30
Opening keynote address: Pádraig Carmody (Trinity College Dublin)
(Chair: tbc)
Title: ‘The Rise of the BRICS in Southern Africa: The Geopolitics of Resource and Market Access and Tranformation’
18.00 – 19.00 Reception for conference participants
19.00 Dinner
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Day 2, Saturday 8 August 2015
08.00 – 09.00 Breakfast meeting, JSAS advisory and editorial boards
09.15 – 10.00
Keynote address: Teresa Cruz e Silva (Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo)
(Chair: tbc)
Title: ‘Mozambique & Brazil beyond Diplomatic Relations: From the Solidarity of the Left to the Economic Interests of International Capitalism, 1975—2015’
10.00 – 10.30 Tea/coffee break
Day 2, Parallel Session: Society & Culture
Stream B: The Power of Socio-Cultural Interactions
- Arts, Media & Literature
10.30 – 12.15
Panel 1: Cultural Transnationalism
Chair: Mpalive-Hangson Msiska
- Cheela Chilala (University of Zambia): ‘The “Bee’s Knees” Factor: An Evaluation of South Africa’s Influence on Zambian Arts’
- Megan Jones (University of Stellenbosch): ‘Towards a Political Poetics of Waste in South Africa, India and Brazil’
- Mildred Nkolola-Wakumelo (University of Zambia): ‘The Love-Hate Relationship: Discourses on the Chinese Presence in Zambia as Reflected in the Media’
- Mpalive-Hangson Msiska (Birkbeck): ‘Kujoni: The Production of South Africa as Part of the National Imaginary in Malawian Writing’
- Neil Parsons (former Professor of History, University of Botswana): ‘John Koenakeefe Mohl and the Bechuanaland Protectorate: The Transfrontier Career of a Black South African Landscape Painter’
12.45 – 13.45 Lunch
13.45 – 15.15
Panel 2: Natures of Violence: Spaces of Misrule in Contemporary BRICS Literature
Chair: Liz Gunner
- Michael Wessels (University of the Western Cape): ‘Representations of Political Violence in Indian Literature in English’
- Tom Penfold (University of Johannesburg): ‘A Specific Kind of Violence: Insanity and Identity in Contemporary Brazilian and South African Literature’
- Patience Mususa (UCT): ‘Narratives of Subversion and Order in Zambian Political Song’
- Liz Gunner (University of Johannesburg): ‘Songs of Comfort and Misrule: Political Song and the South’
2. Cultures of Knowledge & Development
15.15 – 16.30
Panel 1: The BRICS’ Impact on the Development of Knowledge Systems in Southern Africa
Chair: Marja Hinfelaar
- Felix Phiri (Tangaza University College, Nairobi): ‘The Impact of India and South Africa on the Development of Islam in Southern Africa‘
- Ana Stela de Almeida Cunha (Universidade Federal do Maranhão, Brazil): ‘Recreating the “Gods”: Religious Practices, Encounters and Creativity in Libolo, Kwanza Sul (Angola)‘
- Retief Muller (University of Stellenbosch): ‘Knowledge Systems in Tension: South Africa’s Dutch Reformed Church’s Missionary Enterprise in Nyasaland/ Malawi and the Indigenous Response’
16.30 – 16.45 Tea/coffee break
16.45– 18.30
Panel 2: China’s Impact: Hopes, Realities & Cultures of Development
Chair: tbc
- Jessica Achberger et al.: ‘Everyday Encounters Across the Chinese Agricultural Value Networks in Zambia‘
- Gregor Dobler (Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology, Freiburg): ‘China and Namibia, 1990 to 2015: Emerging Trends and Structures‘
- Amy Stambach (Wisconsin-Madison): ‘Confucius Institutes in Africa, or How the Educational Spirit in Africa Re-Rationalized Toward the East‘
- Yanyin Zi (Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University): ‘Decoding Labour Issues between Chinese Employers and Batswana Employees: The Case of a Chinese Shop in Gaborone‘
- Maitseo Bolaane & Edgar Bwalya (University of Botswana): ‘Ivory & Rhino Horn Poaching in Southern and East Africa, with Links to China‘
18:30 – 18.45 Break
18.45 – 19.30
Keynote address: Vladimir Shubin (Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences; LSE)
(Chair: tbc)
Title: ‘Russia and Southern Africa: From Kalashnikov to Rosatom’
20.00 Working Dinner (Seating arranged by panel topic.)
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Day 3, Sunday 9 August 2015
Stream A Continued: Situating the BRICS in Space and Time
- Cities & Trading Networks Today
09.00 – 09.45:
Keynote address: Debby Potts (King’s College London)
Chair: tbc
Title: ‘Urban Experiences “beyond the West”: Comparing Cities in Southern Africa with Cities in the BRICS Countries’
09.45 –10.15 Tea/coffee break
10.15– 12.00
Panel 2: Shaping Urban Southern Africa: The Influence of the BRICS Countries
Chair: Debby Potts
- Jamie Monson (African Studies, Michigan State University): ‘Turn to the East: Moving Global Goods in TAZARA’s Dry Port‘
- Fritz Nganje (African Diplomacy & Foreign Policy, University of Johannesburg): ‘Brazilian Cities as Development Actors in Mozambique: Emerging Perspectives on the Role of Decentralised South-South Cooperation in Africa‘
- Romain Dittigen (Foreign Policy Programme, South African Institute of International Affairs, Wits) : ‘Chinese Entrepreneurial Footprints in Johannesburg: Shifting between Spaces of Circulation and Places of Attachment’
- Gilbert Siame & Enock Sakala (University of Zambia): ‘Competing Geo-Economic Hegemonies? Chinese Versus South African Influences on the Growth of Zambian Cities’
- Andrew Brooks (King’s College London): ‘BRICS in Mozambique: Is New Economic Dynamism Delivering Urban Development?’
12.00 – 13.15 Lunch
Stream E: Conflicts over Land & Resources in the Context of BRICS Investment in the Region
13.15 – 14.00
Keynote speaker: Carol Thompson (University of Arizona)
Chair: Maxim Bolt
Title: The Demise of Neoliberalism: Giving Rise to Philanthrocapitalism
14.00 – 15.45
Panel 1: Lessons from African and BRICS Experience: Biodiversity and BioPiracy
Chair: Carol Thompson (University of Arizona)
- Hilton Mbozi (Commutech): ‘Crop Biodiversity as a Strategy for Addressing Food Insecurity’
- Tinashe Sithole (Commutech): ‘Biopiracy and its Effects on Biodiverse Food Production’
- Hangwei Li (University of Kyoto): ‘Neoliberal Scheme or Opportunity for Sustainable Development? – The Case of Chinese Agricultural Investments in Zambia’
- Marie Widengard (Sweden): ‘Land Deals, and How Not All States React the Same: Zambia and the Chinese Request’
- Wheeler R. Winstead (National Resource Center for African Studies, Howard University): ‘South-South Cooperation: The Role of Brazilian Investments in Mozambique’s Agricultural Transformation‘
15.45 –16.00 Tea/coffee break
16.00 – 17:30
Panel 2: Lessons from the BRICS Experience: Rural Transformations in Zambia and South Africa
Chair: Darlene Miller
- Lungisile Ntsebeza (Director, Centre for African Studies at UCT): ‘Chiefs and the Politics of Land in Contemporary Southern Africa’
- Horman Chitonge (UCT): ‘The Conversion of Freehold Land to Leasehold Land in Zambia’
- Darlene Miller & Dimuna Phiri (UCT and the Zambia Land Alliance): ‘Villager Resistance and FDI in Mining: the Kalumbila Case Study’
- Razack Karriem (Institue for Social Development, UWC) : The Political Praxis of the Brazilian Landless Movement: What Lessons for the Landless Peoples Movement of South Africa’
19.00 Conference Dinner (The Golden Leaf Restaurant, Mosi-oa-Tunya Rd, Livingstone)
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Day 4, Monday 10 August
Stream F: Political Economy of Southern Africa and the BRICS Countries
09.00 – 09.45
Keynote speaker: Ching Kwan Lee (UCLA)
Chair: tbc
Title: ‘The Power and Peril of Chinese Investment in Africa’
09.45 – 10.15 Tea/coffee break
10.15 – 12.00
Panel 1: Alternative Approaches to Economic Policy and Practice in Southern Africa: BRICS from above, below or In-Between?
Chair: Patrick Bond
- Carolyn Bassett (University of New Brunswick, Fredericton) & Allyson Fradella (Carlton University, Ottowa): ‘Chinese Investment and Entrepreneurship in Zambia: Accumulation by Dispossession or Dependent Development?’
12.00 – 13.15 Lunch
13.15 – 15.00
Panel 2: Development Paradigms in Southern Africa: BRICS from above, below or In-Between? Part 2
Chair: Caesar Cheelo
- Bizeck Jube Phiri (University of Zambia): ‘Zambia-India Relations in the Era of Economic Liberalization and Globalization‘
- Monageng Mogalakwe (University of Botswana): ‘Africa-China Relations in the 21st Century: An Impact Assessment of Chinese Development Assistance to Africa – The Case of Botswana’
- Madalitso Phiri (International Politics, UNISA): ‘Durable Inequalities under Transformative Social Policy Reforms: A Comparative Study of South Africa and Brazil‘
- Ben Scully (Wits) & Kevan Harris (Princeton): ‘A Hidden Counter- Movement? Precarity, Politics, and Social Protection before and beyond the Neoliberal Era’
- Finex Ndhlovu (University of New England, Armidale, Australia): ‘Perhaps Decolonial Epistemology is the Answer to Africa’s Development Paradox’
15.00 – 15.15 Tea/coffee break
15.15 – 16.00
Keynote speaker: Patrick Bond (Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal)
Chair: Manenga Ndulo
Title: ‘The BRICS and their Critics in Geopolitical Context’
16.00 Zambezi River Cruise & Dinner (tbc)
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Day 5, Tuesday 11 August
9.00 – 11.00
Roundtable and Audience Discussion:
Disciplines, Perspectives and Theories from the South: Setting the African Studies Agenda
Chair: David Simon
Key Text: Jean Comaroff and John L. Comaroff (Harvard): ‘Theory from the South’
Chair: David Simon
- Trevor Ngwane
- Caesar Cheelo (SAIPAR)
- Wheeler Winstead (National Resource Center for African Studies, Howard University)
- Blessings Chinsinga
- Muna Ndulo
- Teresa Cruz e Silva
- Patience Mususa
11.00 – 11.30 Closing Remarks
11:30 Conference Ends
