{"id":26886,"date":"2026-05-08T13:57:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T17:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=26886"},"modified":"2026-05-08T17:09:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T21:09:19","slug":"africa-month-events-begin-may-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/africa-month-events-begin-may-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa Month Events Begin May 14"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Africa Month: Homecoming will focus on the category of home and the mobilities that carry people to and from their homes, across land, time, memory and knowledge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Kalamazoo College will host world-renowned scholars, artists, filmmakers and performers from four continents Thursday, May 14\u2013Saturday, May 16, for its second annual Africa Month. The assemblage will provide a space of conviviality and community for conversations, meals and joyful music at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, 205 Monroe St. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The events are supported by the Arcus Center, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Inclusive Excellence grant and the hosting department of African studies<\/a>, with financial or intellectual contributions from the Center for International Programs<\/a>, and the departments of philosophy<\/a>, anthropology-sociology<\/a>, English<\/a> and French and Francophone studies<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director of African Studies Dominique Somda, Assistant Professor of French Manfa Sanogo, Associate Professor of Anthropology Espelencia Baptiste and Professor of English Babli Sinha are the event\u2019s convenors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, the first edition of Africa Month helped K relaunch its African studies concentration while invited scholars and the community rethought and questioned their knowledge of Africa and from Africa. This year\u2019s edition, themed\u202fHomecoming<\/em>, turns its focus to the category of home and to the mobilities that carry people to and from their homes, across land, time, memory and knowledge. The event offers a space to think through African studies in its broadest sense, embracing Africans and the homes of African descendants alike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHome, in postcolonial thought, is never a stable or innocent place,\u201d Somda said. \u201cIt is both a site of return and a terrain of struggle. Homecoming<\/em>\u202fasks what it means to return when histories of colonial violence, displacement and extraction have profoundly transformed the conditions of belonging.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinha said that the exploration of this theme will take place through a variety of media including art, film, scholarship and music, \u201creflecting the ethos of the liberal arts as it explores Africanness through many forms of knowledge and expression in dialogue with each other.\u201d\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanogo said the continuation of Africa Month helps establish a lasting tradition of K engagement and institutional commitment to centering African and diasporic voices, knowledge, culture and lived experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCalling it Homecoming<\/em> highlights the importance of creating a space\u202fwhere these experiences can circulate across borders and generations,\u201d he said. \u201cWe hope this program will resonate both on campus and in the broader Kalamazoo community.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presenters, speakers and panelists will include: <\/p>\n\n\n\n