Studies in Contemporary Africa Seminar Series
Jacob Dlamini: Sediments of Meaning: A Military History of Mapungubwe National Park, 1932-present
Date: October 15, 5 PM
Location: Faculty House, Morningside Drive
RSVP: Write to [email protected]
Description: This presentation is about the archaeological and political history of South Africa's Mapungubwe National Park, with a particular focus on the reserve's role during apartheid as a rehabilitation camp for gay military conscripts and recreational drug users. The talk examines the much-neglected role of the apartheid military in fashioning a notion of normalcy founded on arbitrary distinctions between black and white, gay and straight, as well as 'normal' and 'abnormal.'
Jacob Dlamini is a professor of history and the program director of African Studies at Princeton University. He is interested in precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial African History. He obtained a Ph.D. from Yale University in 2012 and is also a graduate of Wits University in South Africa and Sussex University in England. Jacob held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Barcelona, Spain, from November 2011 to April 2015, and was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University from August 2014 to May 2015. A qualified field guide, Jacob is also interested in comparative and global histories of conservation and national parks. Some of his publications include Native Nostalgia, Safari Nation: A Social History of the Kruger National Park, and the recently published Dying for Freedom: Political Martyrdom in South Africa.
Columbia University Seminar Studies in Contemporary Africa
Co-chairs: Rhiannon Stephens and Casey McNeill
Rapporteur: Mylkah Djacko
Advisory and Steering Committee: Emanuel Admassu, Robyn d’Avignon, Yuusuf Caruso, Laura Fair, Abosede George, Joseph Godlewski, Amelia Simone Herbert, Sean Jacobs, May Joseph, Julie Kleinman, Brian Larkin, Daniel Magaziner, Manjari Mahajan, Casey McNeill, Prita Meier, Abdul Nanji, Nana Osei Quarshie, Antina von Schnitzler, Shobana Shankar, Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi, Rhiannon Stephens, Zoë Strother, Matthew Swagler, Madina Thiam, Jennifer Wenzel.
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