News

The second International Cluster conference took place from 14 to 17 July 2021. Focusing on the topic of “Modalities” it provided a platform for a wide range of perspectives and debates on the subject. The conference featured four keynotes, four roundtables, and nine panels that were attended by more than 750 registered participants. The conference's keynotes were recorded and people who were not in attendance are now able to rewatch the most important lectures and the video production that was shown before a the "Conversation with artists"on Friday.

For the opening of its second international conference the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence invited the distinguished Senegalese sociologist, Prof. Dr. Fatou Sow, to speak about "Relating Women in African Studies: A Critical View". Fatou Sow was introduced by Prof. Dr. Akosua Adomako Ampofo. The event was chaired by Prof. Dr. Ute Fendler, the Cluster's Vice Dean of Internationalisation and Public Engagement. After Sow’s keynote, the Dean of the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS), Prof. Dr. Martina Drescher, solemnly announced that the distinguished Senegalese scholar, a veritable pioneer of African feminist studies, has been selected as the recipient of the BIGSAS honorary doctorate, making her the second person to be awarded this title to date.

• Find out more about Prof. Sow receiving the BIGSAS honorary award here.
  

During its conference the Cluster of Excellence also presented Nairobian creative writer Yvonne A. Owuor with a lecture on "Imagination, Thesholds and Ennui: Summons to Alt. Decoloniality?". She was introduced by Dr. Joschka Philipps, Junior Research Group Leader at the Cluster. 

One of the keynotes was conducted by Prof. Dr. Boaventura de Sousa Santos from Portugal, one of the leading decolonial thinkers. He explored the question of "Decolonizing the University from the perspective of the epistemologies of the Global South".

He was introduced by Prof. Dr. Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Professor and Chair of Epistemologies of the Global South with Emphasis on Africa at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. The lecture was chaired by Prof. Dr. Susan Arndt. 

El Encuentro de las Tierras (The Confluence of Roots) is about relations, a poetics of relation, to use the words of the Caribbean intellectual, Edouard Glissant. In particular, it is about the contact between artistic and subjective roots. Possibly, it also connotes a confluence of languages ​​and memories for the production of a relation between Brazil, Colombia and Mozambique. It is in this sense that the artists Diego Araúja (Brazil), Matchume Zango (Mozambique) and Lobadys Pérez (Colombia) make use of music, sound, choreography, documentary, literature and oral lyric to come up with a Creole and artistic production in this audiovisual work.

• Direction & creation: Diego Araúja, Matchume Zango & Lobadys Pérez
  
• Original soundtrack: (Ya Duma Ma Africa) Matchume Zango
  
• Choreography: Lobadys Pérez
  
• Script & text of narration: Diego Araúja
  
• Narration: Laís Machado
  
• Sound (Ya Duma Ma Africa): Fanuel Macuacua
  
• Sound effects and mixing (narration): Andrea Martins
  
• Singer: Bela Zango
  
• Dancers: Frey Gonzales, Mónica Laguna, Gina Collazos & Ingrid Londoño
  
• Special participation: D. Maria Celeste de Araújo
  
• Directors of photography: Diego Araúja, Nin La Croix, Matchume Zango & Lobadys Pérez
  
• Cameras: Diego Araúja, Nin La Croix, Ercilio Muchanga & Manuel Meléndez “Chino Slim”
  
• Assembly, editing & subtitling: Rana Tosto
  
• English translation: Raquel de Souza
  
• Spanish translation: Valerie V. V. Gruber & Carolina Beleño Garcia
  
• Executive production: Valerie V. V. Gruber, Gilbert Shang Ndi & Ute Fendler
  

Artwork commissioned by the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bayreuth (Germany).