Sufi Arts, Rituals and Performance in Africa

University of Kansas

February 22-24

Conference Program [.pdf]

The Kansas African Studies Center of the University of Kansas , in association with the Spencer Museum of Art, would like to extend an invitation to scholars and members of the general public to attend a conference on Sufi-related arts, rituals, and performances in Africa . The conference will occur in conjunction with the opening of the exhibition, “A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal,” which was curated at the UCLA Fowler Museum by Allen F. Roberts and Polly Nooter Roberts.

Presenters explore the deep roots in Sufism and the roles of Sufi Brotherhoods in African culture. Geographically organized panels – covering Senegal , Morocco , Sudan and Ethiopia – are multi-disciplinary and address topics ranging from hagiography, healing, contemporary visual arts and architecture, to popular music and colonialism. They employ an array of methodologies including postmodern deconstruction and embodiment theory. Among the eighteen speakers are University of Kansas scholars and guests from various institutions. The latter include Allen F. Roberts (UCLA), Cynthia Becker (Boston University), Salah Hassan (Cornell University), Soulemayne Diagne Bachir (Northwestern University), Fiona McLaughlin (University of Florida), Osman Mohammed Osman Ali (University of Khartoum), Kinsey Katchka (North Carolina Museum of Art), Laura L. Cochrane (Washington University, St. Louis), Neil McHugh (Fort Lewis College, CO), Amanda Rogers (Emory University), Aveil Katzir Hausmann (Ethiopia), Jeanne Miller (New York University) and Cheikh Babou (University of Pennsylvania). The conference will culminate in a reading of Sufi poetry by Amadu Bamba, Ibn Arabi, Abu Madyan, Ahmed Nabhany and Nana Asam'us in Arabic, Swahili, Hausa and English.