40th Anniversary Celebrations

Twenty Years After Mandela’s Release: Critical Reflections on Educational Reform and Restructuring in South Africa: A Lecture Featuring Dr. Anthony Lemon

The demise of apartheid and the transition to democratic rule in South Africa is one of the most significant events of the 20^th century. February 11^th, 2010 marked twenty years since Nelson Mandela walked out of prison. With great dignity and open arms, Nelson Mandela shepherded South Africa, a country tormented by racial inequality and conflict, through a peaceful transition to democratic rule. In conjunction with the Graduate School of Education’s South Africa Initiative, the Africana Studies Department sponsored a visit to Rutgers by a Dr. Anthony Lemon, as a distinguished lecturer on South Africa. Dr. Lemon is University Lecturer in the School of Geography at Oxford University and a senior fellow at Mansfield College, Oxford, with a lifelong intellectual and political engagement with South Africa. His book Apartheid: A Geography of Separation (1976) is a classic text in the study of the South Africa’s white ruling classes’ ambitious but futile attempt to structure that country’s social, political, and economic geography along racial lines. Dr. Lemon is also the author of four other books and a number of articles on the human geography of apartheid, urban segregation and desegregation, governance in multi-ethnic societies, elections and democratic consolidation, as well as the question of integration in region of Southern Africa.

Dr. Lemon spent three days at Rutgers sharing insights from his current research on the restructuring of post-apartheid education. The original architects of the apartheid order drew a sharp distinction between “citizens” and “subjects” in their blueprint for South African society.  South Africans of white ancestry were afforded rights and freedoms because they were regarded as morally autonomous “citizens.” The African majority and other non-whites, on the other hand, were designated as morally non-autonomous “subjects.” As such, they were denied basic rights and were segregated spatially, economically, and culturally from white society. Hendrik Verwoerd, one of the chief proponents of apartheid, blatantly stated that "there is no place for Africans in the European community above certain forms of labor." Apartheid affected all aspects of life for non-whites, but some of its most pernicious effects were on education. Whilst South Africa has made impressive gains since the transition to democratic rule in 1994, uneven and often poor quality education continues to plague the society. At present, the majority of the African population is still educated under very deprived conditions, according to Dr. Lemon.

Dr. Lemon’s visit enabled students, faculty, and staff and other members of the Rutgers community, and beyond, to interact with and learn from a leading scholar on South Africa’s complex transition to democratic rule. In addition to delivering a public lecture on educational transformation in South Africa, Dr. Lemon engaged with students in a number of smaller forums. The program also highlighted current efforts of the Graduate School of Education’s South Africa Initiative in assisting South African society in addressing the legacy of unequal education.

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NAACP President Ben Jealous speaks at Rutgers

The Africana Studies 40^th Anniversary Celebration kicked off with a lecture and panel discussion featuring Mr. Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The event was a celebration of two milestones: In addition to marking the 40^th anniversary of the Africana Studies Department at Rutgers (New Brunswick), 2009 also marked the 100 anniversary of the formation of the NAACP. The NAACP was a pivotal civil rights organization that waged a heroic campaign to chip away at the walls of segregation during the first half of the 20^th century.  One of its most important victories was the overturning of the infamous Plessy v Ferguson decision in the historic Brown v Board of Education decision, which found the doctrine of “separate but equal” upheld by Plessy v Ferguson inherently unequal. In fact, Brown v Board of Education was the culmination of a series of legal battles waged by the NAACP which then created opportunities for the Modern Civil Rights Movement to advance the struggle and achieve tangible results. It was the momentum of these movements that resulted in the institutionalization of Africana/Black Studies departments throughout the country since the late 1960s.

Dr. Gayle T. Tate, Chairperson of the Department of Africana Studies, welcomed the participants and guests to the program, and discussed the significance of the 40^th Anniversary of the Africana Studies Department at Rutgers. She then introduced Rutgers President Richard McCormick, who stressed the importance of the dual milestones being commemorated that evening. President McCormick introduced Reverend Bill Howard, Chairperson of the Rutgers University Board of Governors and long-time civil rights activist, to speak about the NAACP and introduce the evening’s speaker, Mr. Benjamin Todd Jealous.

Mr. Jealous was 35 five years old when he took over the leadership of the NAACP in 2008, becoming the organization’s youngest president. He has focused his energies on inspiring young people and getting them more involved in the organization. After highlighting some significant recent achievements of the NAACP, Mr. Jealous proceeded into his lecture, “Civil Rights in the Age of Obama,” in which he observed that the struggle for social justice is far from over, even with Barack Obama in office as the nation’s first Black president. The lecture was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Edward Ramsamy, Vice-Chairperson of the Department of Africana Studies. Dr. Ramsamy summarized the historical importance of the NAACP to national and international struggles for democracy and invited each of the panelists to comment on the lecture given by Mr. Jealous. The panelists were Mr. James E. Harris (President of the New Jersey Conference of the NAACP), Ms. Sharon Robinson-Briggs (Mayor of Plainfield), Mr. Theodore Carrington (Chairperson of the Environmental Justice Committee of New Jersey Chapter of the NAACP) and Ms. Nkechinyere Ugoji (a graduate of Africana Studies and Program Coordinator of TRIO Student Support Services at Rutgers). The panelists connected Mr. Jealous observations to specific civil rights challenges in New Jersey and commented on the implications for democratic struggles in the future.

The multipurpose room at the Student Center on College Avenue was filled to capacity, with overflow into other parts of the building. The enthusiastic audience, comprised of the Rutgers community as well as the wider public, had numerous questions for the speakers and discussions went on long after Mr. Jealous and the panelists left for the evening.

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  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tly6TGNfIlg&NR=1
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"Fish, Grits, and CousCous": Islam in the African-American Experience

The fact that Africans who got drawn into the vortex of slavery came from a variety of ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious backgrounds, is seldom recognized. For example, many enslaved persons belonged to the Islamic faith. Thus, the fact that Islam has been an integral feature of African-American religious life in the United States for centuries, is often overlooked. The program “Fish, Grits and Couscous: Islam in the African American Experience” featured panel of experts who explore different aspects of Islam in Black America. Dr. Sylviane Diouf, of the Schomburg Center for Black Research and author of the award winning book Servants of Allah (which traces the influence  of Islam on slave communities in the United States), began the discussion by overviewing the west-African origins of African-Americans. She pointed out that a large proportion of African-Americans have origins in the Senegal-Gambia region, which is historically one of the most Islamic regions in Africa. She went on to discuss the life histories of enslaved Muslim Africans and cited specific Islamic influences within African-American culture, such as expressions used by African-Americans with Arabic roots, as well as the Blues, which, according to Dr. Diouf, are deeply influenced by Koranic chanting and the Muslim call to prayer.

The next panelist, Dr. Michael Gomez, Professor of History, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University, is the author of a number of path breaking books on politics and culture in the Black Diaspora, including Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas. Professor Gomez observed that it was difficult for enslaved Africans of Muslim ancestry to sustain their faith under the institution of slavery. For example, there was no access to Arabic religious texts and very little literacy in Arabic within slave communities. Furthermore, large numbers of enslaved Africans embraced Christianity.  While there was no coherent institutionalized practice of Islam during slavery, there were nevertheless, sensibilities to Islamic antecedents in the slave communities of North Carolina, Georgia and the Mississippi basin, according to Professor Gomez. The rise of Islamic movements among African-Americans in the 20^th century is attributable to the sense of alienation they experienced as they descended into second class civic status following the demise of the Reconstruction period and the rise of segregation, which gave rise to a crisis of identity in the Black community during this period.  Muslim movements such as the Moorish Science Temple and the Nation of Islam fused Black nationalism with religion, promoting Black self acceptance and self-love, according to Professor Gomez.

The next speaker, Professor Michael Nash (faculty member in the Division of the Humanities at Essex County College and a lecturer in the Department of Africana Studies at Rutgers-New Brunswick), drew on his recent work Islam among Urban Blacks: Muslims in Newark, New Jersey, to discuss the development of Islam is New Jersey’s most populous city.  He stated that many southern Blacks settled in Newark in search of economic opportunity during the great Black migration. One of these migrants, Noble Drew Ali from North Carolina, who settled in Newark in 1913, was the founder of the Moorish Science Temple. He then traced the developments of this and other Islamic sects in Newark.

The final speaker was Ms. Donna Austin, a graduate of the Department of Africana Studies and Vice-President of the New Brunswick Islamic Center. Ms. Austin spoke about the role of women in Islam from both historic and personal perspectives. She tried to dispel some of the popular myths about the marginal status of women in Islam and offered examples of the important roles played by African-American women in the development of Islam among Blacks in the contemporary United States. She concluded her presentation by discussing the personal inspiration she derives from her Muslim faith.

Following the formal talks, students engaged in a lively discussion with the panelists. Many students commented that they enjoyed interacting with scholars and that their awareness of this topic was increased as a result of the program.

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Professor Cornel West speaks on Race in the Age of Obama

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  http://ur.rutgers.edu/video/rutv/atp/atp-cornelwest.wmv
  
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