Full Details

Thursday, October 18

Critical Research On Africa Series
Re-imagining history in Africa and the role of technology
Time:
2:00 pm
Presenter:
Nisi Shawl
Location:
WWPH 4130
Sponsored by:
Center for African Studies along with Department of History, Africana Studies Department, Department of English and Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA)

Nisi Shawl will present on themes that surround her recent novel "Everfair" which is set in an alternative future of the Congo. Technology is a recurring theme in her writings and she will discuss the role of technology in Africa from a historical perspective.

Everfair is a wonderful Neo-Victorian alternate history novel that explores the question of what might have come of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier. Fabian Socialists from Great Britian join forces with African-American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo's "owner," King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated.

isi Shawl is a writer, editor, and journalist. She is best known as an author of science fiction and fantasy short stories who writes and teaches about how fantastic fiction might reflect real-world diversity of gender, sexual orientation, race, colonialism, physical ability, age, and other sociocultural factors. Please join us for a very interesting conversation with her.