MAAAS 2002 Meets at the University of Oklahoma

By Betty J. Harris, Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma was the venue for the eighth annual Mid-America Alliance of African Studies (MAAAS) conference held September 20th-22nd , 2002. The conference theme was "Africa: Globalization and its Discontents." The keynote speaker was Professor Maxwell Owusu of the Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. A political anthropologist who conducts research in Africa and the Caribbean, he is the author of Uses and Abuses of Political Power: A Case Study of Continuity and Change in the Politics of Ghana (University of Chicago Press, 1970). The keynote address, "Globalization and Africa: Bane or Blessing?", was delivered during lunch on Saturday, September 21st.

Papers were presented at MAAAS 2002 by scholars from the region and elsewhere in the US. Professor Loretta Bass (Sociology, University of Oklahoma) coordinated an African film series. Film titles included "Faat Kine", "Daresalam", and "Long Night's Journey into Day". Exhibitors, including Sukari, G & G Designs, World Neighbors (Work of Women), and the University of Oklahoma Bookstore, were present in the Physical Sciences Center lobby all day Saturday.

MAAAS was formed in 1995 at the University of Kansas to promote African studies scholarship in the region. The conference was previously hosted by OU in 1997. The current MAAAS president is Dr. Emmanuel Nnadozie of Truman State University. Dr. Betty Harris, conference coordinator for MAAAS 2002, is a past president of MAAAS as is Dr. Edward Sankowski. Celeste Smith-Warah handled logistics for the conference.