We would like to hear what you are doing now that UF is a virtual university. Tell us more about how you have adjusted to teaching, research, and other responsibilities in a virtual setting.
Do you have any updates or professional insight into CV19 in Africa?
In line with social distancing, we are calling for you to #StayHomeStayGlobal. If you have suggestions for reading, listening, watching, or other forms of at-home entertainment that celebrate global cultures, please share them so we can too! Keep up to date by visiting our social media for suggestions.
If you have interesting news, updates, or other information to share please email ufcasbulletin@gmail.com.
CAS News Bulletin Care Package
Peace, Power and Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa at the Harn
This exhibition explores the roles of metal objects in sustaining, unifying and enhancing life in African communities, while demonstrating the aesthetic and expressive power of metal arts. "Peace, Power and Prestige" will include a diverse range of iron, brass, bronze, gold, copper, silver and alloyed works created by artists in West, Central, South and East Africa, between the 9th and 21st centuries.
Please enjoy this video that we have prepared for you and keep an eye on the Harn’s digital platforms, as we will continue to release additional material to the public until we are able to reopen and welcome visitors into the museum.
UF Performing Arts "Brian's Performance Picks"
While we all practice social distancing, UFPA will be sending noteworthy, short videos straight to your inbox each week, all of them hand-picked by UFPA Director Brian Jose:
"Hi friends, I saw this artist, Baloji, perform at Webster Hall a few years ago. I love this song because it never fails to put a smile on my face, and bring a tear to my eye. I turned my teenagers on to this song, and it’s now in their playlist – so it must be good! Be on the lookout for more good stuff soon! Until then, stay strong. - Brian" See the video here.
Resources
UF Libraries Gains Access to HathiTrust Library
The UF Libraries are now approved for HathiTrust’s Emergency Temporary Access Service (ETAS). As a HathiTrust member library, our users now have reading access (not downloading access) to 38.21% of our print
collection; this is in addition to access we already have to their entire public domain corpus. ETAS will extend for as long as we experience campus closures. We provide a link to HathiTrust on the A-Z database list, and HathiTrust content is discoverable in the catalog and OneSearch. The best way to find and access HT content is to go directly to their site at http://www.hathitrust.org.
Self-Care Tips to Support a Sense of Normalcy and Calm
UF’s Center for OCD, Anxiety and Related Disorders at the University of Florida shares eight “SELF-CARE” tips on how to take care of yourself and your loved ones during the pandemic, with links to resources to help you survive and thrive. Read the tips here.
As of April 2, the FDA relaxed restrictions on who can donate blood. Namely, travel to a malaria-endemic region used to be a 12 month deferral for blood donation but is now only 3 months, meaning many of us who may not have been eligible to Donate blood are eligible. View the press announcement here.
Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund COVID-19 Emergency Awards
The Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund has made over 200 awards since 2012, enabling Cambridge researchers to engage with colleagues from 25 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The COVID-19 pandemic represents an extraordinary threat globally. We will be operating a rolling emergency funding scheme to make awards, up to a maximum for each award of £20,000, to Cambridge and African researchers working together to address COVID-19 in Africa. Projects are expected to address an immediate need defined by the African partner in relation to a regional, national or local COVID-19 response. The application process will be expedited. View details here.
Virtual Meetings and Events
SASA Virtual Tea Time
Join us with your favorite roast or chai for this informal, weekly zoom hang out to catch up on all things African Studies.
If you are interested in more information but unable to make these sessions, please contact Kelly J. Medley, UF’s External Scholarship & Fellowships Coordinator, at kmedley@honors.ufl.edu
Virtual Swahili Conversation Group
Join us in our weekly Swahili conversation group online, using the Zoom platform. Advanced students, native speakers, and those just hoping to brush up on their speaking skills are all invited to join.
To participate in the conversation group, please email me at rgriscom@gmail.com for the zoom password. Thanks again!
Center for African Studies Community News
Publications
Please send citations for your recently published articles, book chapters, book reviews, or op-ed pieces to ufcasbulletin@gmail.comfor their inclusion in the news bulletin.
Black Panther in Exile: The Pete O'Neal Story
By Paul J. Magnarella
University Press of Florida
In the tumultuous year after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, 29-year-old Pete O’Neal became inspired by reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X and founded the Kansas City branch of the Black Panther Party (BPP). The same year, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover declared the BPP was the “greatest threat to the internal security of the country.” Black Panther in Exile is the gripping story of O’Neal, one of the influential members of the movement, who now lives in Africa—unable to return to the United States but refusing to renounce his past.
Arrested in 1969 and convicted for transporting a shotgun across state lines, O’Neal was free on bail pending his appeal when Fred Hampton,
chairman of the Illinois chapter of the BPP, was assassinated by the police. O’Neal and his wife fled the United States for Algiers. Eventually they settled in Tanzania, where the O’Neals continue the social justice work of the Panthers through community and agricultural programs and host study-abroad programs for American students.
Paul Magnarella—a veteran of the United Nations Criminal Tribunals and O’Neal’s attorney during his appeals process from 1997 to 2001—describes his legal appeals to overturn what he argues was a wrongful conviction. He lucidly reviews the evidence of judicial errors, the prosecution’s use of a paid informant as a witness, perjury by both the prosecution’s key witness and a federal agent, as well as other constitutional violations. He demonstrates how O’Neal was denied justice during the height of the COINTELPRO assault on black activists in the United States.
“A fascinating, introspective biography of the life and times of former Black Panther member and African American expatriate Pete O’Neal. It breathes life and historical memory into the ancient and transnational idea that Black Lives Matter.”—Kwasi Densu, Florida A&M University
“The United States government’s war against the Black Panther Party is not a thing of the past. The war continues to this day in the continued exile of Pete O’Neal, whose incredible journey is beautifully captured by Paul Magnarella.”—Mark Gibney, author of International Human Rights Law: Returning to Universal Principles
Curated by Riley Ravary
Programs and Communications Officer
Center for African Studies, University of Florida
