The 9th Colloquium of Natural History of Landscape Formation was held at #318, Inamori Memorial Foundation Building (third floor), Kyoto University on 7th (Tuesday) May, 2019. This time Professor Wim M.J. van Binsbergen from African Studies Centre Leiden, the Netherlands gave us a talk.
9th Colloquium of Natural History of Landscape Formation
【Date】
7th May 2019 (Tuesday) 14:00-15:40 (Reception will open on 13:40)
【Venue】
#318, Inamori Memorial Foundation Building (third floor), Kyoto University
http://www.asafas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/about/access
【Schedule】
14:00-14:10
Introduction
Akira Takada (Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies
(ASAFAS), Kyoto University)
14:10-15:10
Researching Power and Identity in African State Formation: Retrospect
and Prospect
Wim M.J. van Binsbergen (Emeritus Professor, Erasmus University
Rotterdam / Associated Senior Researcher, African Studies Centre,
Leiden)
Towards the end of the 19th century CE modern state structures were
imposed upon the territories in sub-Saharan Africa which colonising
European states had appropriated by a combination of military conquest
and (usually treacherous) treaty negotiations. By the mid-1960s, most
of these African countries had gained independence, usually on terms
which perpetuated considerable post-colonial, political and economic
influence of the former colonizing European power. Against the
background of, usually, ill-understood and ill-accommodated
pre-colonial African political structures and their afterlife, the
saga had begun of one of the most significant processes in modern
Africa: the vicissitudes of independent African states. This has
included, among other aspects:
· economic and political deficiency and instability;
· the tendency to internal strife along ethnic, regional, and
religious lines;
· the waxing and waning of modern constitutional democracy as a
dream or a reality;
· the failure of governance;
· the lure of military rule;
· the retreat or absence of the state as being eclipsed by both
local and transcontinental military and economic entrepreneurs;
· the lure of individual transcontinental migration as an
increasingly tragic non-solution
· and yet the persistent, courageous attempts, on the part
African leaderships and civil society at large (the press, education,
religious organisations, sports, women’s organisations), and selected
international agencies, to confront these shortcomings and to make the
continent a fully-fledged part of today’s globalising world).
All these manifestations are daily topics in today’s new and old media
coverage – and in your and my own research.
With my distinguished colleague Professor Martin Doornbos (Institute
of Social Studies, the Hague, the Netherlands) I have closely studied
African states for the past half century (in my case, with emphasis on
precolonial political forms, on incorporation, on ethnicity, and on
religion); and we have recently compiled our central thoughts on these
matters in a book published by the University of South Africa Press in
2017, same title as this seminar
(cf.:http://www.quest-journal.net/shikanda/topicalities/doornbos_&_van_binsbergen_proofs.pdf).
Selectively working down the four main sections of that book, and
drawing inspiration mainly from the sub-Saharan African countries
(Zambia, Botswana, South Africa, Guiné-Bissau, Cameroon) where I have
personally conducted research, my seminar’s argument will highlight
significant aspects of modern African states:
· Incorporation and political penetration
· Ethnicity and identity
· The ambiguous relationships between religion and state
· The construction of national politics.
15:10-15:40
General discussion
【Notes】
* The talk is given in English, and no translation will be provided.
* No reservation is required for participating in the Colloquium.
* Admission-free.
* The Colloquium of Natural History of Landscape Formation is a serial
seminar that have been carried out since Academic Year 2016, as part
of the JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)(Overseas Academic
Research) “Natural history of landscape formation in contact zone
between hunter-gatherers and agro-pastoralists in Africa” (Primary
Investigator: Akira Takada).
* Co-host：87th KUASS