 Yeah, welcome all of you to the Center for International Collections at Alden. This is the center where we manage the international collections in Alden. We have a subject expert here. We have a Southeast Asia collection, and then our African collection is in the normal stacks. And we have libraries, subject librarians. We have Jeff, who is a subject librarian for Southeast Asia, and the curator of the Center for International Collections. And then Jeff Shane, he's a Southeast Asia reference librarian. And I'm the African studies and social sciences librarian. And this is Jessica. She's a subject librarian for communications and also for the social media coordinator. So she's going to put us on Facebook. And thank you all for coming. We were supposed to have food, but we made a mistake and they were all there, so sorry about it. I'm really ashamed. Yeah, and the purpose of the exhibit was to highlight African authors and also to highlight the library's rich Africana collections. I'm sure most of you don't know that we have an Africana collection in the library. So that's why I felt it's important to highlight some authors. And these authors are what we call the New Generation, because African writing has been dominated by the first generation, who was like a writer like Chinua Chibi, who wrote Things Fall Apart. How many of you have read it? Okay, yeah, Things Fall Apart was one of the foremost African writing books, and it's been translated into so many different languages. And then we have, in Gujiwa, Chinua, we have Woleso Inka, who even won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. And then we also have writers from South Africa, like Nadine Godemai, J. M. Keiti, who all have written about African and are mostly about the colonialism. They were born during colonialism, so their experiences, so most of their writing was on the colonial experience and how it affected African culture. And then there were the second generation, who were like Aiko Yama, and then who wrote about the, after independence, the corruption in African countries. And then we have these new generation, most of them are very young writers, who mostly, some live in Africa, but many of them live in the United States and Canada. So they also have write up on different experiences like their immigrant experience, their experience as a diaspora, and then also the write on migration. So those are all different perspectives. So that's why I figured that these, and all the books highlighted were published since 2000. So some of the authors that you will see in this Chinua, sorry, Adichi, Chimamanda Adichi. She's now described as one of the foremost, one of the most important voices in African literature today. And then also, we also have Chris Sabani, who's a professor at Northwestern University. He's very versatile. He's a novelist, a poet, essays, a screenwriter, and a playwright. And then we also have Teju Cole, who is described as one of the most gifted writers today. And then we have writers like, yeah, you see, whose book just came out last year. And then, No Violet Bu Lawayu, also her book came out recently. And they are described as the stars of African writing. And then we have rising stars like Mingestu over there. And then the names are, you might not be familiar with the names, but, and then we have Tende Huchi. So there are so many different authors. So, well, again, welcome, and I will call Keith to give some remarks. And then we read from, no, we need new names. No Violet Bu Lawayu. And then Rosa will read from Bongo by EIJC. And then afterwards you can ask any questions you want. Thank you very much. Antia Rava, subject librarian for, for, for, for. So you will note that I use Antia Rava because that's the way we, so, you know, I can't just call her by her first name. So that tells you something about our, you know, relationships with our elders in the African community. So when we started this class, I assigned a reading from Ngugiwa Theon, right? I guess most of you remember that. And the main theme of that reading was on the theme of the language of African literature. And as it has already been said, this literature, you know, has undergone through different historical moments. At some point the focus was on the themes of colonization by those early writers, something that we have also defined in class. But now the focus of this exhibition is African writers, especially those who are the leading novelists, who are writing themes that are relevant in today's discussions or today's development. So before I read from Novalet Abulawayo, that's just a short excerpt. I want you to think of the following as you pay attention to the exhibitions. By just looking at some of these titles, what are the themes and styles that you think these writers are trying to engage with? And that will come out very clearly in a short response or reflection that I want you guys to submit for this class. What are the various diverse cultural backgrounds? Most of them, like if you take a look at them, they are from different places across Africa. What does this say? What influences different kinds of themes that they get to write about? So think about why is it important for us to be having such an exhibition in an American university? So think around those lines. Why is it important for you as an American to read non-American literature? What is it that you can learn from that? With these few words, I would just like to read from We Need New Names by Norvalet Bulawayo. When you go to many places in the African continent, for example in Botswana, I live in a place called Broadhurst and the second city of Botswana is called Francis Town named after David Francis Town. If you go to a place like Namibia, there's Venhuk, Sierra Leone, the capital city is Frita. So indeed we need new names, don't we? Because now these names do not reflect on our culture. Those places existed before there were colonial settlers. This is the argument that we are being told on. So Norvalet says if you are stealing something, it's better if it is small and hideable or something you can eat quickly and be done with, like guavas. That way people can see you with the thing to be reminded that you are a shameless thief and that you stole it from them. So I don't know what the white people are trying to do in the first place stealing not just a tiny piece, but a whole country. Who can ever forget you stole something like that? Nobody knows why my grandfather's body is. So now the church people say his spirit is inside me and won't live until his body is buried right. The thing is I've never listened or felt the spirit myself to say if it is true or people are just lying. Which is what adults will do sometimes because they are adults. So we find Norvalet writing about Zimbabwe. And her narrative helped us understand why a country like Zimbabwe is now in a position, in a condition, social economic condition that it finds itself in recently. So indeed these writers were there to give us a lot to think about. There is an audio version here with also the videos where they do an exchange of interviews and many other things that you can feel free to listen to as you explore the exhibition. I'd like to call Rosa and then move to close this later. Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming for today's event. So I'm going to read like a very short excerpt from Yadjisi's Homegoing. This is a picture. This book I read, what did I read this week? I think I read it this summer. No wait, wait. Yes, I read it last summer, 2017. And this book, there's been a lot of noise about it and like most things that there's generally so much noise about. You wonder exactly what is in there, right? So this is just one of those books that I read that I wasn't disappointed after having heard so much. I'm African. I'm from Ghana. This book just made me realize how much I do not know about my own heritage. This book is historical fiction. It's about the slave trade. And I don't know what you're all studying but I don't know if you can relate to reading material that is very dry and abstract. And you're like, okay, so what? So this book is fiction that brings you into events as they happen. And it's more like a movie. You just have to imagine it and that's what fiction does. It gives you the extra dramatic information. It kind of like let's just add the skeleton that you need in theory, the abstract material. So before I read the excerpt I just want you to think about these themes that I outlined from the little excerpt. So the thing about I don't want to generalize and say African societies but for example in Ghana a huge emphasis is placed on childhood and family. So I have a quote from Tessa Lassie and she's also somewhere there. And Tessa Lassie says that in the peculiar hierarchy of African households the only rank lower than motherless child is childless mother. So it's, I don't know if it's a paradox but so the only rank that is lower like the lowest of society is either a motherless child or a childless mother. So think about that. That quote just makes you understand how much we place emphasis on family and childhood. And also this excerpt also highlights the difficulty surrounding mental health conversations in some African societies. Now the character is crazy. Everyone says she's crazy. She doesn't think she's crazy but she just gets mocked at. And so it just makes you understand how issues like mental health is treated in different countries. And then we have of course the conversation of colonialism and the state trade. And the last thing that I also saw in this little excerpt is conversations surrounding feminism and how in general African women are sort of seen as suppressed but in this book you see a lot of female characters who show you that African women are suppressed like the world likes to tell us. So the excerpt is Ikua was wary of the villages. The only people who brought her any joy were her children. Amasewa was speaking real words now leaving behind the fast and frantic nonsense speech of her early twos. Now no one questioned Ikua when she wanted to take long walks with her children. They didn't question her when she thought her stick was asleep or when she left the food in the fire to them. When they whispered, crazy woman, they had to do it behind Amasewa's back because if the woman heard them she would give them a tongue lashing that would sting almost as much as the real thing. Ikua would start each walk by asking her daughters where they wanted to go. She would sling baby out of her upper around her back and wait for the girls to direct her. Often they would say the same things. They would walk by Yas and to a palace. The place had been preserved in her honor and the girls liked to stand outside the gate singing the post war songs. So there we have it. A little excerpt highlighting the importance of childbirth and family and some information Thank you. Thank you, Rosa. Before we call Dennis to you guys have any comments, any questions? So far. I see Paul has a lot of questions and Brandon. Thank you, Riley. Say something. Any questions? Anyone wants to? What have you learned from the interview? Have you picked up anything? Yes, please. I just think it's cool how important family is and the children in African society and everything about it. What else? And to add to that I was really surprised by how I was surprised. I don't know how this will sound but I was surprised at the nursing home like how some people choose to put their parents in nursing homes. So where I come from old people stay at home and get really old and just stay at home with everybody. So being Canadian, studying in the US it was very interesting to see that some old people are put in nursing homes. That's interesting. Okay. Well, on that note let's invite another literary giant Dennis Moot. Well, I think much has been said. First of all, I'd like to thank Teraba and the staff at Liberia's of the International Collection for putting up this. This is very timely. In an era where you hear about what you can refer to as a country and all the that is being said about Africans this is a very nice opportunity to open up perspective into the dynamics that flow within the African continent. For us also in learning about other cultures and learning about people especially those that are here and those that we hear about this is a very nice vision that would at least introduce us to some of the literatures and some of the things that go around in the African continent. And most importantly it is changing the story. The way story is being told is changing it from the handkerchief to the prey where the prey tell gets the opportunity to talk about your own experience to talk about your own life and what is more important to them. So I'd like to once again share about my fellow colleagues in this together so spread the word that people come and experience the African writers that we have and some of the stories that we talk about. And I would like to challenge each one of you if you are an alien from Africa pick something and read it and talk to your whole perspective that you are used to. So thank you for coming and invite your friends to stay out of what should be used to interact with us. Thank you. I'll ask any questions. Thank you. So you guys can feel free to take the final