Searching For the African Voice in the History of Enslavement, Slave Trade and Slavery
University of Buea
14-16 December 2010
Tuesday 14 December 2010
7-8 : Breakfast
8-9: Distribution of Conference Material to registered Participants
9.30-9.45: Opening Ceremony: A word of Welcome by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea
9.45-10: A Word of Welcome by the Lord Mayor Urban Council
10-10.30: COFFEE BREAK
10.30-11.30: Keynote Presentation Martin Klein “Looking for the slave Voice: The Methodology of Research on African Slavery”
10:30 – 11:30 A – Artistic and Material Expressions Chair: Professor Paul Lovejoy
- Zacharie Saha, University of Dschang, “La mémoire de l’esclavage dans les arts plastiques de peoples de Grass Fields (Ouest Cameroun)”.
- Nadine Ngon, University of Yaounde I, “L’Expression bantoue dans l’art figuratif brésilien ».
- David Imbua, University of Calabar, “Slave Trade and Slavery remembered: A Study of the slave History Museum in Calabar, Nigeria”.
- Ntewusu Aniegye, University of Ghana, Legon “The Preservation and Utilization of slave relics in traditional leadership in Burugu Northern Ghana”.
11.30-13.30: Lunch Break
13.30-14.30: B – Oral and Written Accounts (1) Chair: Professor Victor Julius Ngoh
- Idrissou Alioum, University of Yaounde1, “Pratiques esclavagistes et serviles chez les Beti-Bulu-Fang du Cameroun”.
- Ahmadou Sehou, University of Yaounde1, “Femmes pionnières de la lutte contre l’esclavage dans l’Adamaoua au XXe Siècle”.
- Ivor Miller, US Fulbright at Calabar, “Oral and written traditions: Cross River Sources and the pathways of these traditions from Africa to the Caribbean: The Ekpe tradition”.
14.30-17:
- Jeffrey Gunn, student in York, “Understanding 18th and 19th century forms of Slavery in Africa from Auto biography and Biography as methodological tools”.
- Robert Kpwang, University of Yaounde1, ”Comptoirs Campo-Batanga et Kribi dans l’esclavage et traite trans-Atlantique“.
19-21: Dinner
Wednesday 15 December 2010
7-8: Breakfast
8-10: C – Oral and Written Accounts (2) Chair: Professor Nicodemus Awasom
- Katrina Keefer, Student, York University “A voice through murder: Poro and the 1913 special Commission Court Case of Rex V. fino, Bofion and Kalfala”.
- Christine Whyte, Student, “‘If only their slaves were returned to them’? African Voices on the role of slavery and Anti-slavery in the Sierra Leone Hut Tax War, 1898”.
- Nielson Bezerra, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil “Baquaqua’s Life: African Voices in Brazilian Documents”.
- Richard Era Agbor, University of Buea, Cameroon "Voices of Slave Descendants in Mbinjong, Upper Banyang South West Cameroon: Participatory Evidence”.
- Adam Mahamat, University of Maroua, “Colonies d’esclaves au nord Cameroun”.
10-10.15: Coffee Break
10.15-12.15: D – Folktales and Songs (1) Chair Professor Ute Roschenthaler
- Ndu Life Njoku, University of Owerri, “Memories of the slave trade among some communities in Aba-Oweri area: How proverbs, songs and folktales recapture the insecurity”.
- Mariana P. Candido, Princeton University, “Tales of Enslavement in the Portuguese colonial documents”.
- Harmony O’Rourke, Pitzer College, “Slavery and Marriage in a Settler society: Contesting narratives of Belonging in the Hausa Diaspora of Cameroon Grassfields, c.1915-c.1955”.
- Ian Fowler, Oxford University, “Narratives of Assimilation of slaves into iron working households in the Bamenda Grassfields, in the19th and early 20th centuries”.
12.15-12.30: Coffee Break
12 30-14-30: E -Folktales and Songs (2) Chair: Professor Ibrahima Thioub
- Walter Nkwi, University of Buea, “Indigenous Slavery and slave trade Accounts through songs and folktales in Kom, Northwest Cameroon”.
- AbdouramanHalirou, University of NGaoundéré, “Les danses, continuatrice de la servilité? Cas du Njaet du Babinkoro dans le lamidat de Ngaoundéré au Nord Cameroun’’.
- Emmanuel Saboro University of Cape Coast, Ghana,” Establishing of the African voice through songs: The Kambong Motif in Balsa folksongs of resistance to enslavement”.
- Lotte Pelckmans, ASC, Leiden, “Songs Unsung? Reconstructing Memories of Slavery through Riimaybe slave songs(direre) in contemporary Central Mali”.
14-30-14.45: Lunch Break
14.45-16.45: F -Status, Identity and Kinship Chair: Professor Martin Klein
- Stephen Denis Fomin, University of Yaounde1, “Oral and written Accounts of slave Identity conflicts from the Bight of Biafra 1800-1950”.
- Boulou, Ebanda, de B’beri, and Claudine Bonner, Dalhousie University, “Diasporic Articulation of ‘belongingness’ through the Promised Land project: A different model of historical knowledge production”.
- Elizabeth McMahon Tulane University, “Emotionally Linked: Kinship Ties and Relationships among Enslaved Zanzibaris, 1870-1920”.
- Ute Roschenthaler, Goethe University Frankfurt, “Memory and the persistence of slave status”.
16.45-17: Coffee Break
16.45-18.45: G -Testimonies, Chair: Professor Ian Fowler
- Michael M. Ndobegang, ENS, University of Yaounde1, “Testimonies of Encounters between freeborn and royal slave escapees in Nweh country of Cameroon in the early twentieth century”.
- Paul Lovejoy, University of York, “Testimonies of Enslavement from the Central Sudan in the 19th century”.
- Mohammed Bashir Salau University of Mississippi, “Eyewitness Account of slavery in Central Sudan, Dorugus narratives”.
19-21: Dinner
Thursday 16 December 2010
7-8: Breakfast
8-10.30: G – Memory, Chair: Professor Mariana Candido
- Flavius Mayoa Mokake, University of Buea, “Those days of Bondage’ Slavery collective Memory and Cameroon Historiography”.
- Henry Kah, University of Buea, “Direct Slave experiences on the Bimbia and Rio del-Rey Estuary of Cameroon Coast in social Memories as recorded by missionaries 1840-1961”.
- Joseph A, Ushie, University of Uyo, “Pawnship in the memories of the old Obudu Division, Cross River State: The Case of the Bendi”.
- Nicodemus Awasom, University of Swaziland, “Constructing slavery History from Artifacts, Songs and Memories in Nso and other Kingdoms of the Northwest Region of Cameroon”.
- Vanessa S. Oliveira, Student at York, “Denouncing their owners’ cruelty: the Voices of slaves in the 19th and 20th century Luanda”.
10.30-11: Coffee Break
11-12: – General Discussion and Closing Ceremony
12-18: – Sightseeing (Visit to West Coast if possible):
19-21: – Dinner/Reception
Friday 17 December 2010 – Departure of Participants