50 Years of Independence in Lusophone Africa
To mark and reflect on the first 50 years of independence in Portuguese-speaking African countries and think forward to the next 50, the African Studies Program and the Department of African Cultural Studies are hosting a series of events that will culminate in a public “salon” on April 25 and April 26. These events include classroom visits by guests, film screenings, and public appearances/performances. These events will bring academics, artists, and UW Madison alumnae to campus to consider the varied and complex implications and ramifications of the path to and beyond independence in Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
Our first event features DJ Boima Tucker at the Sounds of Liberation Dance Party
- The African Studies Program in collaboration with the Black Cultural Center kicks-off Black History Month with the DJ’d Dance Party, featuring the Sounds of Liberation from Portuguese speaking Africa
Our second event takes us from February-April with a Movies of Liberation Film Fest
- This film fest focuses on new and old films that center the liberation struggles and life after independence in Portuguese- speaking Africa.
Our culminating event, “A Festival of Ideas” will be a series of roundtables featuring creative artists and scholars that will serve as platforms for a combination of brief prepared remarks followed by wide-ranging conversations on several topics, such as the role and impact of cultural expressions on the transition from variants of “Afro-Marxism” to neoliberalism, the enduring impact and multifaceted repercussions of armed liberation struggles and civil wars, the political and cultural links and ramifications of the independence struggles in Luso-Africa and the rest of the continent, and more.
We hope to spark open, informed, stimulating, and even spirited dialogues about the road that Lusophone African countries have traveled since 1975 and the paths ahead.
We look forward to seeing you all there!
International Guests
Conceição Lima
Conceição Lima is a journalist, poet, and writer from São Tomé and a founder of the National Union of Saotomean Writers and Artists. She worked for many years as a journalist for the BBC Portuguese language service and has an MA in African Studies and Sub-Saharan African Politics and Government from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She is the most translated Saotomean writer and her works have been published in German, Arab, Spanish,Turkish, Gallegan, Serbo-Croatian, French, and Italian.
More about Conceição Lima here.
Kalaf Epalanga
Kalaf Epalanga is an Angolan writer, musician, and producer. His band Buraka Som Sistema took the electronic music world by storm in the early 2000s. His 2017 novel Também Os Brancos Sabem Dançar was published in English in 2023. The blog Brittle Paper listed it on its top 100 notable books by African writers in 2023.
More about Kalaf Epalanga here.
Paula Nascimento
Paula Nascimento is an Angolan architect and curator. She curated the Golden Lion winningAngolan pavilion Luanda: Encyclopedic City at the Venice Biennial in 2013. She has curated thework of contemporary artists from the Portuguese-speaking African countries like Rene Tavares, Yonamine, Edson Chagas, Mónica de Miranda, and Januario Jano, among many others.
More about Paula Nasimento here.
Lucrécia Paco
Lucrécia Paco is Mozambican actor and theatre founder. Born in the late colonial period, she became an actor after independence in the theatre groups that sprung up in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. In the mid’1980s she helped found the theatre group Mutumbela Gogo, Mozambique’s first professional troupe.
Rogério Manjate
Rogério Manjate is an actor, theater director, and filmmaker from Mozambique, and the author of poetry and fiction. To date, he has published the short story collections Amor Silvestre (2002), O coelho que fugiu da história (2010), and Wazi (2011), in addition to the poetry collections Casa em Flor (2004) and Cicatriz encarnada (2017). Cicatriz encarnada was a finalist for the Glória de Sant’Anna Prize. Manjate has also produced documentary films and one award-winning short film, I Love You.
See tabs below for more information on upcoming events and more speakers joining us.
Program Overview
Friday, April 25: 2pm-8pm
2pm: Opening Remarks
2:30pm-4pm: Nation
4:30pm-6pm: Environment
6pm-8pm: Dinner and Tucker DJ Playlist Talk
Saturday, April 26: 9am-4pm
9-10:30am: Youth
11am-12:30pm: Language
12:30pm-2pm: Lunch
2pm – 3:30pm: Economy
4pm: Closing Remarks
Additional Participating Guests
Antonio Tomas
- António Tomás is Associate Professor of Anthropology at University of California-Irvine and an expert on Angola and southern Africa. His current project focuses on the entwined wars of Angola, Namibia, and South Africa.
Benedito Machava:
- Benedito Machava is a Assistant Professor of African History at Yale University. He works on colonial and independent African history, particularly on the period and process of decolonization in Mozambique.
Boima Tucker:
- Boima Tucker is a music producer, a DJ, and a cultural activist and critic. He is the ManagingEditor of the blog Africa is a Country, co-founder of the Kondi Band, and the founder of the record label INTL BLK. He graduated from UW-Madison in 2003 and after living in many places around the US and the world, he is currently living in Milwaukee.
Jean-Michel Mabeko-Tali
- Professor Jean-Michel Mabeko-Tali is an Associate Professor of African History at Howard University. He is a Specialist of Central African History, and has published a two-volume study in Portuguese on Angola’s Anti-colonial liberation movement. He also published a book in French on national identity and Political Transitions in Africa which provides a comparative analysis of the emergence of national identity in Congo-Brazzaville and Angola. His book Guerrilhas e lutas sociais: O MPLA perante si próprio, 1960-1977: Ensaio de História Política is a newest and expanded version of his book Dissidências e poder de estado.
Sonia Vaz Borges
- Sonia Vaz Borges is an Assistant Professor of History and Africana Studies at Drexel University.She is known for her work on the liberation movement leader Amilcar Cabral and, in particular his revolutionary approach to pedagogy.
The Sounds of Liberation Dance Party: DJ Boima Tucker
- February 1st
- 6:00-9:00pm
- BCC Classroom 716 Langdon St, Madison, WI 53703
More information about the dance party here
Movies of Liberation Film Fest
Films
- Feb. 15, 7pm – Our Lady of the Chinese Shop – UW Cinematheque
- Feb. 22, 7pm – Air Conditioner – UW Cinematheque
- Mar. 4, 4pm – Sambizanga – 1339 Sterling Hall
- Mar. 11, 4pm – A Memory in Three Acts – 1339 Sterling Hall
- Apr. 8, 4pm – Nome – 1339 Sterling Hall
More information about the film fest here
A Festival of Ideas – 50 Years of Independence in Lusophone Africa
- April 25 & 26
- H.F. DeLuca Forum, Discovery Bldg., 330 N. Orchard Street, Madison, WI 53715
More information about the Festival of Ideas gathering here
RSVP for the conference here
Hosts
Marissa Moorman
Professor, African Studies Program Faculty Director
Professor; Chair
Co-Sponsors
- University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Political Science
- University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Art
- Regional and International Studies National Resource Center (IRIS NRC)
- University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Latin American, Caribbean & Iberian Studies
- University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Spanish and Portuguese
- University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Sociology