The CODESRIA
Humanities Institute Programme is the principal formal vehicle
through which the Council has sought to promote social research
in the Humanities and structure interactions between the
Humanities and the Social Sciences. To be sure, prior to the
formal establishment of the Programme, researchers from the
various disciplines that make up the Humanities had been very
prominent in the scientific work and governance of the Council.
The formal introduction of the Programme in 1997 was designed to
improve upon the existing situation both by investing in
cross-disciplinary interaction within the Humanities and
providing a dedicated forum for engagement with other
disciplines outside the Humanities. The Humanities Institute
Programme has been located at the University of Ghana, Legon,
Accra, Ghana, since 1997 when it was established; it was one of
the first major research activities of the Council to be housed
outside of the Council’s headquarters. It also enjoys the
distinction of being the first Humanities Institute to be
established in Africa. Unlike the Governance, Gender and Child
and Youth Studies institutes, the participants in the Humanities
Institute are generally more experienced scholars and, uniquely,
practitioners drawn from different disciplinary and professional
backgrounds.
The Humanities
Institute Programme has undertaken a variety of activities that
included the completion of work initiated under the Transcending
Boundaries initiative that began in 1997 as a collaboration with
Northwestern University, Evanston, USA, and the introduction of
a number of new initiatives. The Transcending Boundaries
initiative was conceived as a multi-year project designed to
explore new frontiers in the study of Africa through an
examination of areas of overlap between the social sciences and
cultural production. Activities undertaken within the
Transcending Boundaries initiative were for many years centred
on the theme of Memory & Reconstructions of a Ruptured Past.
The theme was chosen as a point of entry into research on and
documentation of survival mechanisms developed by societies that
have suffered prolonged turmoil and dislocation: How they
reconstruct their socio-cultural traditions and institutions;
how they transmit cultural knowledge to the younger generations;
how they re/constitute diasporic intellectual/ artistic/
religious communities. Other themes explored include language,
communication, religion, as well as pedagogical models of
knowledge in the African Humanities.
The Programme has
also hosted a number of conferences and symposia. The most
important of these were the 2003 symposium on
Canonical Works & Continuing Innovation in the African Arts and
Humanities, the 2004 conference on Droit de Propriété
Inrtellectuelle et Culture Traditionnelle en Afrique Francophone,
and the 2006 special project on Circles and Time: A Theory of
Structural Organisation of Rhythm in African Music. The 2003
symposium registered the participation of 57 researchers from
across Africa and the Diaspora while the 2004 conference had 30
participants in attendance, 15 of them being practicing
musicians invited to speak to the sessions of the meeting
devoted to reflections on the role of the musician as
intellectual. The Programme was also the host of the 2006
edition of the international conference of the global network
known as the African Literary Association (ALA).
As with all
CODESRIA activities, participants in the activities of the
Humanities Institute Programme are required to respond to an
open call for papers. The project on Circles and Time
represented a deliberate initiative of the Institute aimed at
researching and documenting an important area of the Humanities
that is under-researched and which falls within the Council’s
Strategic framework. Participants in the different activities
organized were drawn not only from different disciplines but
also reflected an admixture of different generations of
scholars. A book on Canonical Works… is presently being
edited; a report on the conference on Droit de Proprété
Intellectuelle… was produced while a draft manuscript from
the special project on Circles and Time is undergoing
final revision. A documentary on Slave Routes was
produced and is being re-edited for final packaging, as is a
footage on the Transcending Boundaries initiative and
another one on CODESRIA at Thirty.
Artistic Workshop
on “Cinematographic Aesthetics and Cultures in Africa”.
This workshop was
organised in the context of the bi-annual cinema festival,
FESPACO, in Ouagadougou from 27th February to 2
March.
The
workshop successfully held over the 3day period. Participants
include: Keyan Tomaselli, Lindiwe
Dovey, Pinkie Mekgwe, Jean-Bernard Ouedraogo, Richard Akum,
Marie-Helene Gutberlet, Fani-Kayode Omoregie, Yacouba Konate,
Tsitsi Dangarembga, Fatou Kande Senghor, Martin Mhando,
Africanus Aveh, Kofi Awoonoor, Mbye Cham, Kofi Anyidoho and
Manthia Diawarra.
The papers presented at the workshop
are being edited for publication. Additionally, the workshop
received video coverage, and some interviews were conducted and
recorded. A DVD production of the event will soon be available.
