#BringBackOurGirls: Boko Haram and Human Security in West Africa Conference, December 4, 2015
#BringBackOurGirls NYC
#BringBackOurGirls: Boko Haram and Human Security in West Africa Conference.
Thursday, December 4, 2014
9:30am – 6:00pm
The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY
the conference is a call for continued action toward
the end of gender based violence and the rescue and safe return of our girls
who were abducted from their school in chibok, borno state, nigeria on april
14, 2014, and all other nigerian citizens abducted by boko haram
December 4, 2014
New York, New York – On
April 14, 2014, armed militants from the insurgent group, Boko
Haram, stormed female school dormitories in Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria. The militants forcefully abducted 200+ young
female students in the middle of the night, stole supplies and burned the
school to the ground. Other women and
girls, boys and men have been abducted before and after the April 14th
abduction, and Boko Haram is still on the rampage. Many communities
have been attacked and thousands have been killed. There are also millions of
Internally Displaced Persons and refugees as a result of these predatory
attacks. One of the most unfortunate results of the abductions is the
paralyzing effect it has had on Nigerian citizens in Northeastern parts of the country, who are afraid to engage in their day to day activities, including schooling. 234 days after the Chibok abductions,
additional concerns have been raised about the fate of many of the abducted
female students forcefully separated from their families and communities. Although the Nigerian government informed its
citizens and the world, around May 26th, that it knows the location of the
girls, and although there were at least two announcements of the imminent
release of the girls, only those who managed to escape by themselves are free.
Most of our girls remain in captivity and no additional information has been
forthcoming.
To continue to raise awareness on this heartrending
and tragic matter, in collaboration with the #BringBackOurGirls Global
Coalition, #BringBackOurGirls NYC, community leaders and concerned citizens
from NYC gathered for the #BringBackOurGirls:
Boko Haram and Human Security in West Africa Conference on Thursday, December 4, 2014, from 9:30am – 6:00pm
at The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365
Fifth Avenue, to discuss the implications of the Boko Haram abductions for
Nigerian citizens and state. We ask the
Nigerian government and its armed forces and the International Community to
take additional action to #BringBackOurGirls. We also call on the Nigerian government to
keep Nigerian children and citizens safe in their respective schools across the
country. Beginning from November 25, led
by UNWomen, various actions have been undertaken worldwide, in acknowledgement
of the need to end all forms of gender based violence. As we call for worldwide
solidarity with our missing girls and their families, #BringBackOurGirls NYC is
asked all attendees to wear ORANGE, as a symbol of
the hope for a brighter future in which we will all be secure from violence. We
also hope for a future where the bloodshed and abduction of children throughout
the northern region of Nigeria would stop.
We will continue to rally to bring attention to this matter until our
girls are brought back and reunited with their families.
The program:
Bring Back
Our Girls: Boko Haram and Human Security in West Africa
December 4th
Special thanks to our sponsors:
9:30 - 10:15 AM
Welcome:
Robert Reid-Pharr, Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies and Director, Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean
Robert Reid-Pharr, Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies and Director, Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean
Robert Reid-Pharr, Director, IRADAC
Opening Remarks:
President Chase Robinson, The Graduate Center
Evocations & Griot Performance:
Salieu Suso (Griot)
10:15 - 11:30
AM
Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome,
Professor of Political Science, African & Women's Studies Brooklyn College, CUNY
“Evolving
A World Where Our Girls Can Be Safe To Thrive and Lead.”
11:30 – 1:15
PM
PANEL 1: Boko-Haram & Pervasive Violence in West
Africa: Interfaith Responses and Action
Speakers
Rev. Herbert Daughtry, House of the Lord Pentecostal
Church
Boko-Haram & Pervasive
Violence in West Africa in the Context of Global Crises: The Imperative for a
Prophetic/Radical Interfaith Alliance
Abstract: Our hearts
bleed for the abducted children in Nigeria, indeed, children across the world.
This is one of the many crises that pervades Africa. There are crises of war, disease,
violence, hunger, refugees and displaced persons, etc. Yet our African
continent, particularly Nigeria, has been blessed with bountiful resources and
brilliant minds which built advanced civilizations, and which could lead the
world with peace and prosperity. Looming over us is Climate Change, which
threatens to destroy all of us. If there were ever a time for the intervention,
the participation, or the voices of the moral, religious protagonists, the time
is now. Our generation, and generations yet unborn, cry out for the activism of
a prophetic/radical unity of religious leaders that prioritizes commitment to
the Almighty Creator, takes up the cause of the "wretched of the earth,"
and put forth the vision of a world of oneness of the human family.
Peyi Soyinka-Airewele, Professor of Political Science,
Ithaca College
Beyond Decoys, Impunity and Interfaith
Platitudes: Politico-Constitutional and Other Requisites for Religious
Coexistence in Nigeria
Abstract: Interfaith mobilization in Nigeria as a response to
terrorism is both substantive and superficial. For some, it opens up new
possibilities for productive citizenry action. However, within diverse societal
and discursive arenas, many have found reason to dismiss such visions as a
sham, or as transient acts inconsequential to enduring realities. To
convert nascent hopes for harmonious religious coexistence into a material
reality capable of preventing religious violence
and the theology of colonizing terrorism adopted by groups
such as Boko Haram, advocates of an interfaith approach must tackle some key
dilemmas. This paper examines such challenges including the functionality of
Boko Haram in luring attention from longstanding and unresolved tensions
regarding religious control of public spaces, voices and identities. It argues
that in the quest for understanding, mutual respect, reconciliation and peace,
interfaith activists have often shied away from discomfiting evidence of
specific trajectories of religious persecution underpinned by religious,
political, bureaucratic and socio-cultural instruments. Such silences are
traumatic for the subjectivities of violence and
impunity; they create new layers of fear and mistrust and erode the
integrity of interfaith movements and their quest for viable solutions.
Abstract: My presentation will
examine two broad issues. One, it will locate the rise of the terror group,
Boko Haram, in the context of structural defects in formation of the Nigerian
nation. In fact, the failure of the Nigerian state to achieve popular legitimacy
and to inspire a national ethos account for the various forms of violent
resistance to a structure deemed to breed dehumanization and degradation. Two, my
presentation will also explore the success of Boko Haram as owing to the
failure of successive Nigerian governments to rise to the challenge of
transforming Nigeria into a space where citizens’ basic human needs are met. I
will argue that Boko Haram’s power and ascendancy are a function of Nigeria’s
crisis of leadership, the absence of an animating national spirit, and the
mindless reconstruction of Nigerian citizens into metaphoric ants, at once
invisible and insignificant to the visionless and rapacious men and women who
presume to be Nigerian leaders.
Moderator: Olufemi Vaughan, Geoffrey Canada Professor of History
and Africana Studies
Bowdoin College
1:15 – 2:30
PM
Lunch
Room 9207
2:30 – 3:45 PM
PANEL
2: Human Security: Women Organizing for Humanitarian Assistance & Peace-building
Speakers
Which Way? Grassroots Women Organizing in the
New Era of Social Media
Abstract: Across Africa, women have
an enduring tradition of mobilizing and organizing at the grassroots to bring
about social change within their communities locally, nationally, regionally,
globally, and transnationally. The advent of new social media has now
maximized the scope and speed of these mobilizations as shown by the global
movement initiated by Nigerian women following the kidnapping of hundreds of
girls from their school. This reflection focuses on the female collective
action known as the “Bring Back Our Girls” movement in Nigeria and beyond.
The practice is rooted in a long history of women’s indigenous institutions
and mechanisms of resistance to abuse -- struggles against patriarchal
dominance, colonial supremacy, global capitalism and the current sexual
terrorism. Past successful campaigns beg the question: Is this new form
of grassroots women-led coalition the silver lining for better governance in
Nigeria and other African states?
Oty Agbajoh Laoye, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and English, Monmouth University
Building Fences from the Smallest Things: Securing the Future for Our Children
Abstract: The question of security and the lack thereof, especially as it
pertains to children in so-called developing countries, is not new.
Growing up in many of these countries means not taking safety for
granted, sometimes in unlikely locations— homes, neighborhoods, schools that
map the daily lives in the journey from childhood to productive adulthood.
African female writers document the unsecured spaces of children in
Africa—Nawal El Saadawi’s Woman at
Point Zero and Amma Darko’s Faceless
read like subjects for the goriest episodes in Special Victims Unit (SVU). The
documentation in literature is only a glimpse of the problems that children
face in West Africa. Human security should begin as soon as a child is
born and in places that we usually consider secure—“cozy and contained, private
and limited,” to quote Arundhati Roy’s The
God of Small Things (2). My point here is that women’s approach to
human security, especially as it pertains to children in the third world and
more, should be different from the so-called norm. What is the use of
national security, if it does not extend to inside the home or ensure safe
enclosures in essential spaces—like school for every child? Safety like
charity should begin in small places and with our most vulnerable but precious
young population—our hope for a sustainable tomorrow.
Rashidah Ismaili AbuBakr, Professor Graduate Creative Writing Program of Wilkes University, poet, playwright, essayist and short story writer.
Nisa; the
appropriate treatment of girls, and women in Islam.
Abstract: My talk will focus on a brief background of
history and Islam from the Qur'an and the demystification of current trends in
the Muslim World in general and Nigeria in particular. I will speak to the topic
of kidnapping and forced conversions and the destruction of holy places of
worship.
3:45 – 4:00
PM
Break
4:00 – 5:15
PM
Closing Celebration: Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome,
Professor of Political Science, African & Women's Studies Brooklyn
College, CUNY
Mother's cry
Description: A
dance-Drama piece starring the the consciousness of everyone to action beyond
mere speech.
Group Members: Shayee Awoyomi, Kunle Adegeye, Sunday Bada, Baba Kebe, Perfecta Mfonma Ekpo, Donel Lotus Davis, Segun AJ, Boluwatife Taiwo, Dami Ibikunle
Group Members: Shayee Awoyomi, Kunle Adegeye, Sunday Bada, Baba Kebe, Perfecta Mfonma Ekpo, Donel Lotus Davis, Segun AJ, Boluwatife Taiwo, Dami Ibikunle
Ayanbinrin (Mother Drum of Africa)
5:15 – 8:30
PM
Reception
Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili founder of the #BringBackOurGirls movement, is a Senior Economic Advisor at Open Society Foundations (OSF), a group founded by investor and philanthropist George Soros. She also jointly serves as Senior Economic Advisor for Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative (AEDPI), a program of the Open Society Foundations. In these roles, she advises nine reform-committed African heads of state including Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia. Before joining OSF, she was Vice President of the World
Bank (Africa Region) in Washington, D.C., responsible for operations in 48 countries and a lending portfolio of nearly $40 billion. From 2002 to 2007, Ezekwesili worked for the federal government of Nigeria as Minister of Education, Minister of Solid Minerals, head of the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit as well as Chairperson of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) where she led the first ever national implementation of the global standards and principles of transparency in the oil, gas and mining sectors. She was a key member of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Economic Team.
Rashidah Ismaili AbuBakr is a scholar, counselor, writer, and, arts advocate. She teaches in the Graduate Creative Writing Program of Wilkes University, and is currently the President of Organization of Women Writers of Africa (OWWA). She was the Associate Director of the Higher Education Opportunity Programs at Pratt University. Dr. Ismaili AbuBakr has maintained Salon d’Afrique and Galleria Africa showcasing works of contemporary artists from Africa and the Diaspora. She worked with the New World Theatre at the University of Massachusetts. She is a member of PEN; African Literature Association (ALA); As a member of the Black Theatre Network her works have been translated into: Arabic, Catalan, Dutch, French, Mandarin, Papiamento, Spanish, and Turkish.
Oty Agbajoh-Laoye is an associate professor of Interdisciplinary Studies with expertise in Literature in English, Africana Studies and Comparative literature, Ethnic and Interdisciplinary Studies at Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey with a doctorate from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She teaches an array of courses in African and the African Diaspora, Postcolonial, Non-European literature in English; World literature, American Ethnic lives and Interdisciplinary studies. Her research interest is in comparative Black Women literature, the slave narrative tradition, 20th century African Diaspora fiction and comparative and transnational experience in global-local perspectives.
Reverend Herbert Daughtry hails from a family of five generations of Black church leaders. As national presiding minister of the House of the Lord Churches, chairman emeritus of the National Black United Front, and president of the African People’s Christian Organization, he has risen to a position of national and international acclaim and responsibility. Rev. Daughtry’s more than 46 years of involvement in community and church service has earned him the title, “The People’s Pastor.” Reverend Herbert Daniel Daughtry, Sr. is currently the National Presiding Minister of The House of the Lord Churches. He is a founder and President of the African People’s Christian Organization and a founding member of the Black Leadership Commission on AIDS. Reverend Daughtry the host and principal speaker on a weekly radio program on New York City’s WWRL-AM. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from Seton Hall University (1980) and the State University of New York, College of Old Westbury (1992). In addition, Reverend Daughtry is a writer and author, writing weekly columns for the New York Daily Challenge, contributing to The New York Times, the Amsterdam News, and the Bergen Record. His publications include, No Monopoly on Suffering: Blacks and Jews in Crown Heights and Elsewhere, My Beloved Community; Effectual Prayer; and, Dear 2pac: Letters to a Son. Reverend Daughtry's latest book is, In My Lifetime: Towards the Presidency of Barack Obama.
Mora McLean is the New York-based representative of FXB USA, the U.S. affiliate of FXB International (FXBI), a 25-year old Swiss non-profit organization dedicated to improving conditions of life for people--especially vulnerable children--living in extreme poverty in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. In this capacity she advises FXBI’s founder and the FXB USA Board of Directors on strategy and provides management oversight on a range of program and administrative matters, including FXBI’s work in Colombia, South America. She is President Emerita of The Africa-America Institute (AAI), and between 1989 and 1995 served as the Ford Foundation’s West Africa Representative based in Lagos, Nigeria. Mora is a graduate of Columbia Law School and longstanding member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Okey Ndibe is the author of the widely acclaimed novels Foreign Gods, Inc. and Arrows of Rain, and co-editor (with Zimbabwean writer, Chenjerai Hove) of Writers Writing on Conflicts and Wars in Africa. He earned MFA and PhD degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and has taught at Connecticut College, Bard College, Trinity College, Brown University, and the University of Lagos (as a Fulbright scholar). He served as the founding editor of African Commentary, a US-based international magazine published by the late novelist Chinua Achebe. Ndibe also worked on the editorial board of Hartford Courant, the oldest continuously published newspaper in the US, where his essays won national and state awards. He writes for numerous international and Nigerian publications, including the New York Times, BBC online, Financial Times, and the (Nigerian) Daily Sun. He is currently working on a book titled Going Dutch and other American Mis/Adventures.
Bertrade Ngo-Ngijol Banoum teaches African Cultural Studies & Women's Studies, and chairs the Women's Studies Program at Lehman College, City University of New York. Her scholarly interests are in gender issues in local and global dimensions. Her current research explores gender construction in language and society, from African oral traditions to integration of indigenous knowledge bases in global academic agendas. Dr. Ngo-Ngijol Banoum’s publications include “The Yum: A Model of Sustainable Development”, in African Gender Studies: A Reader, “Women’s Human Rights” in the new Gale Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender, and The Role of Women in World Peace & the Role of Men and Boys in gender Equity, a Women’s Studies Review Special Issue.
Peyi Soyinka-Airewele is a professor of African and International Politics at Ithaca College, with interests in the fields of socio-political memory, the politics of disaster, critical development theory, human rights and the politics of African Cinema. Her publications include Socio-Political Scaffolding and the Construction of Change, co-edited with Kelechi Kalu (Africa World Press, 2008), Reframing Contemporary Africa, co-edited with Kiki Edozie (CQ Press 2009), and Invoking the Past, Conjuring the Nation. Her work on democratic development, collective memory, and cathartic violence has been published in several scholarly journals including the Journal of African and Asian Studies, the Journal of Third World Studies, and West Africa Review.
Olufemi Vaughan is the Geoffrey Canada Professor of Africana Studies & History at Bowdoin College. He was Professor of Africana Studies & History, and Associate Provost at SUNY, Stony Brook. Vaughan is the author and editor of nine books, including Nigerian Chiefs: Traditional Power in Modern Politics, 1890s-1990s (2000), Religion and the Making of Nigeria (forthcoming), and over forty articles. He has been awarded a Woodrow Wilson fellowship, a SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, and a Distinguished Scholar's Award from the Association of Third World Studies.
Oluwaseyi Awoyomi of Shayee Arts Culture and Tours Inc. is a New York City based visual and performing artist. Entertaining audiences since childhood, Ms. Awoyomi has performed globally throughout her career. Her work showcases the art of Nigerian traditional dance.
Ayanbinrin also known as Mother Drum of Africa is a quintessential vocalist, dancer and more especially a talking drummer of high repute who over the years have conquered many frontiers in the music industry in Nigeria and other parts of the world. Ayanbinrin is a recording artiste, singing in her native dialect and English language. She is the project director of Mother Drum Arts Foundation, a non-governmental organization with the objective of using the arts to promote, preserve and rejuvenate the cultural values of the African people, and in turn use this as a platform for global peace and unification.
Salieu Suso was born into a family of farmers and traditional Gambian musicians/historians that extends back nearly 1000 years He was trained to play the twenty-one stringed Kora (West African Harp) beginning at age 8 by his father, renowned Kora player Alhaji Musa Makang Suso. He is a descendent of JaliMady Wulayn Suso, the inventor of the Kora. He speaks Mandigo, Fula, Wolof, Sarahulay and some German. Salieu Suso is the leader of the Jaliya Kafo! Extended Family Music Ensemble. Griot, an Album of solo Kora and Vocal Performances. Message from Home, ensemble performance with renowned jazz saxophonist, Pharoah Sanders, Taking the Blues Back Home and Cheerful and Optimistic, albums of poetry, jazz and traditional African music.
“Organic Grooves” on African Travels, Sutukiung, a compilation of African dance club music. Http://www.salieususo.fourfour.com/bio
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