Wednesday, October 18: Arrival
19:00 Informal get-together of the workshop participants at “Nexus”
Thursday, October 19
08:00 Registration
09:00 Jacqueline Knörr
MPI for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany
Introduction to the conference
09:20 Organisational issues concerning the conference
THE POWER AND POLITICS OF MEMORY: HISTORICAL NARRATIVES AS SOCIAL PRACTICE
Session I - Chair: Adam Jones, University of Leipzig, Germany
09:30 Rosalind H. Shaw, Tufts University Medford, U.S.A.
History and the post-war work of memory: re-integration and the TRC in northern Sierra Leone
Gerhard Anders, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Recording history or administering justice? The Special Court of Sierra Leone
Rebekka Ehret, University of Basel, Switzerland
“The war has taught the population a lot of new words”: incorporation of conflict-related terminology in Sierra Leonean languages
10:30 Discussion
11:00 Coffee break
Session II - Chair: Rosalind Shaw, Tufts University, Medford, U.S.A.
11:30 Ramon Sarró
University of Lisbon, Portugal
Manioc fields, sacred woods: ruins and memories of religious landscape(s) in Guinea
David Berliner, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
The invention of Bulongic identity (Guinea-Conakry)
Christian Højbjerg, Universtiy of Copenhagen, Denmark
Politics of memory among Mande peoples in Guinea-Liberian border area
12:30 Discussion
13:00 Lunch at the Institute
Session III - Chair: Ramon Sarró, University of Lisbon, Portugal
14:30 Svend Holsoe, University of Delaware, Newark, U.S.A.
Murder on the Liberian frontier: social and political consequences of Bandi historical memory
Onookome Okome, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Of Malarial Coast and the ambiguous presence of the Emporium: early, colonial narratives of the Sierra Leonean Colony and Syl Cheney Coker’s The
Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar
Marina Temudo, Institute of Tropical Scientific Research, Lisbon, Portugal
Fyere Yam: Guinea-Bissau’s Balanta from “deep rural” to the presidential palace
15:30 Discussion
16:00 Coffee break
(PRE)-COLONIAL LEGACIES
Session IV - Chair: Adam Jones, University of Leipzig, Germany
16:30 Bruce Mouser
University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, U.S.A.
Insurrection as socioeconomic change. Three slave rebellions in Guinea/Sierra Leone in the eighteenth century
James Fairhead, University of Sussex, U.K.
“Upper Condo” social history and enduring political alliances across the, Guinea-Liberian border
17:10 Discussion
19:00 Dinner at “Schad”
Friday, October 20
Session V - Chair: James Fairhead, University of Sussex, U.K.
09:00 Richard Fanthorpe
University of Sussex, U. K.
Interpreting chieftaincy conflicts in colonial Sierra Leone: elite competition, popular uprising and ritual control over sociality
William P. Murphy, Northwestern University, Evanston, U.S.A.
Patrimonial logic of centrifugal forces in the political history of the Upper Guinea Coast
09:40 Discussion
10:00 Coffee break
TRADITIONAL AUTHORITIES VERSUS NEW SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PRACTICES WITHIN AND BEYOND THE NATION STATE
Session VI - Chair: Stephen Ellis, African Studies Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands
10:30 Mark Davidheiser, Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, U.S.A.
Normative orders, governance, and conflict resolution: Gambian village headmen in the era of legal reform
Alice Bellagamba
University of Milan, Italy
Chieftaincy through memory: politics and local government in postcolonial Gambia
11:10 Discussion
Session VII - Chair: Anita Shroven, MPI for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany
11:30 Peter Mark
Wesleyan University, Middletown, U.S.A.
Jola “traditional” peace making: From the perspective of the “Historien engagé”
Nathalie Wlodarczyk
Kings College, London, U.K.
The Kamajor society as magic militia – understanding the role of culture and the local in military organisation (Sierra Leone)
12:10 Discussion
12:30 Lunch at the Institute
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN INTERGENERATIONAL AND GENDER RELATIONS
Session VIII - Chair: Bertram Turner, MPI for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany
14:00 Susan Shepler
American University, Washington D.C., U.S.A.
Continuity and change in intergenerational relations and conflict in Sierra Leone, from the pre-colonial era to the present
Veronika Fuest
MPI for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany
The “new women” of Liberia: history, present and prospects of diversity
14:40 Discussion
Session IX - Chair: Richard Fanthorpe, University of Sussex, U.K.
15:00 Ruben Eberlein
University of Leipzig, Germany
“We don’t believe in politics, we believe in reality.” Social dominance and its perception among young people in Sierra Leone’s Kono District
Krijn Peters
University of Swansea, U.K.
Rising up against the rural elite: the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone as vehicle for youth emancipation?
15:40 Discussion
16:00 Coffee break
ELITE ‘STRANGERS’, LOCAL RULERS AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN PROCESSES
OF POSTCOLONIAL NATION-BUILDING
Session X - Chair: Christoph Kohl, MPI for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany
16:30 Wilson Trajano Filho
University of Brasilia, Brasil
Some problems with the Creole project for the nation: the case of Guinea- Bissau
Elizabeth Schmidt
Loyola College in Maryland, Baltimore, U.S.A.
Radical at the roots: anti-colonial nationalism in Guinea, 1946-1958
Stephen Ellis, African Studies Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands
The mutual assimilation of elites: the development of secret societies in 20th
century Liberian politics
17:30 Discussion
19:30 Dinner at “Ackerbürgerhof”
Saturday, October 21
Session XI - Chair: Veronika Fuest, MPI for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany
09:30 Elizabeth Tonkin
Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland
A saucy town? Regional histories of conflict, collusion and commerce in the making of a SE Liberian polity
Samuel Duworko II
University of Liberia, Monrovia, Liberia
Settlers in West Africa: the Americoes’ use of inherited slave culture and sororities/fraternities as instruments of political control and domination in Liberia: 1874 - 1980
Alfred Zulu, University of Liberia, Monrovia, Liberia
The role of local rulers in processes of social and political (re)integration and conflict in Liberia
10:30 Discussion
11:00 Coffee break
11:30 General Discussion
• Major controversies, where do we agree / disagree?
• Theme(s) for future conference(s)
• Research needs
12:15 Publication
12:30 Lunch at the Institute
14:00 End of Conference
19:00 Dinner at “Zech”