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Re-Membering Africa: Memory, Restoration and African Renaissance

March 16, 2006
Ngugi wa Thiong'o professor, english, UC Irvine

Ngugi wa Thiong'o explores the resistance of African memory to European capitalist modernity's attempts to bury it under Europhonism.

The resurrection of African memory is seen as part and parcel of the African renaissance and Afro-modernity. In all three lectures, he draws on the experiences of other cultures, the European Renaissance and the Irish Experience particularly, to draw parallels, comparisons and contrasts. Here, Ngugi looks at the much talked about African Renaissance arguing that the economic, political and cultural re-membering of Africa is the real basis for the flowering of the African Renaissance. The reconnection with African memory and its means of being is seen as crucial. In short, the resurrection of African memory is seen as necessary for the African renaissance.

This lecture is a part of a series of lectures called Re-Membering Africa: Burial and Resurrection of African Memory.

WGBH
Harvard Du Bois Institute
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