LUCAS Annual Lecture 2009-10, Paul Richards

Location: Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre

Annual Lecture: 'Afromodernism: An Assessment' by Paul Richards

Paul Richards is Professor of Anthropology and head of the Technology and Agrarian Development Group chair group at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

In anticipation of his lecture Professor Richards states:

'Scholars claim that Africa is evolving its own forms of modernity, Afromodernism. The talk will consider some of the key texts of Afromodernism (from the Green Book c. 1977, to the Africa Commission's report, 2005) and assess the lessons of a specific Afromodernist struggle (the civil war in Sierra Leone).  It will be suggested that Afromodernism is neither specifically African nor very modern.  Other "voices from below" should now be heard.'