2023-2024 Events
Thursday April 4th at 4:45pm in HUM 401
Money, freedom, a story of the CFA Franc (2022)
Film director and producer Katy Lena N’diaye
The Film Verdict deemed the film “The most important contemporary document on Francophone Africa’s malignant economic relations with France.”
Synopsis:
1960 marks the end of the colonial period. The majority of former French territories south of the Sahara decided to keep the CFA franc, a conceived by Paris in the aftermath of World War II. In 2022 the CFA is still in use. How come that those countries have never challenged this legacy ?
About the Film Director:
Katy Léna Ndiaye is a film director and producer whose films offer a window into a contemporary Africa, tracing its journey through history and memory. Her lens has a particular focus, a gentle spotlight on women’s perspectives regarding transmission and heritage. Awards quietly adorn her work, earned at festivals across the globe.
Known for her documentaries about women muralists, “Traces’ ‘ (2003) and “Awaiting for Men” (2007), Katy Lena’s work reflects on transmission, and the nuanced journey of womanhood. Among her recent creations is “Time is on Our Side” (2019), a portrait of Burkinabe rapper Smockey, whose words became a catalyst in the resistance to Blaise Compaoré’s regime in Burkina Faso. Her most recent work, “Money, Freedom, a History of CFA Franc” (2022), sheds light on the currency of French-speaking Africa, which carries echoes of the colonial past into the present.
In 2013, Katy Léna founded IndigoMood Films in Dakar, a place where her own narratives unfold, and where she accompanies talented directors in bringing their stories, their singular visual grammars to the screen.
Tuesday February 20th in HUM 401
“ Être une Femme au Pays des Hommes Intègres”
Monique Ilboudo
A lecture honoring Black History Month and Women History Month
Monique Ilboudo (born 1959) is an author and human rights activist from Burkina Faso. She was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Burkina Faso to the Nordic and Baltic countries.
Ilboudo has written many articles and several books, and is a major figure in Francophone African literature.[6] In addition to her “Féminin Pluriel” column, she often contributed articles to the weekly Le Regard.[1] In the preface to the third volume of collected articles from “Féminin Pluriel” she wrote:
If women take to writing a little more, take the microphone or the camera, they will not be so underrepresented in the media, which focus almost exclusively on keeping us informed of daily life, but life without women, is that really life? Men speak of women, yes, but the image that they present of them is not always very positive, and above all, it’s not always an image of their reality: the aim is only to legitimize the established order in society and the position of the woman within it. This is a real danger and serious obstacle to change of attitudes relative to the current role Ilboudo received the national first prize for Best Novel with her 1992
Ilboudo received the national first prize for Best Novel with her 1992 Le Mal de Peau (The Ill of the Skin). The novel deals sensitively with subjects such as the colonial experience, prejudice and miscegenation. Murekatete, a novel written as part of the project “Rwanda, writing as a duty of memory”, was published in 2001. Murekatete is the name of a woman, and means “let her live”. The woman is haunted by memories of the Rwandan genocide. Trying to overcome her complex and return to normal life, she and her husband visit the memorial site at Murambi. The move only makes the problem worse. The story is written in the first person, in few words. In 2006, Ilboudo published Droit de cité, être femme au Burkina Faso (Freedom of the City, being a woman in Burkina Faso). ( Source Wikipedia)
Monday, February 12th, at 4:45 p.m. in Hum 401
“Unis Pour La Justice: L’Union et La Tribune de La Nouvelle-Orléans.”
Mark Roudané
“Mark Charles Roudané, author of “The New Orleans Tribune: An Introduction to America’s First Black Daily Newspaper,” is currently writing a full-length book on the Tribune. He hopes this inspirational and underrepresented history will inspire wider audiences and foster greater appreciation for one of America’s most significant civil rights movements.”
About the author –
Mark Charles Roudané, author and public historian, was born in New Orleans in 1951. He is the great, great grandson of Dr. Louis Charles Roudanez, founder of the South’s first Black newspaper, L’Union, as well as the New Orleans Tribune, America’s first Black daily. Inspired by his heritage, Mark has spent the last decade passionately researching these groundbreaking journals and bringing this inspirational and underrepresented history to the general public. His book, The New Orleans Tribune, An Introduction to America’s First Black Daily Newspaper, has reached a wide audience. Roudané’s articles have appeared in numerous journals, including the Atlantic, and 64 Parishes. Mark has presented on L’Union and the Tribune at universities, museums, and cultural organizations throughout the United States.
Follow his work at www.facebook.com/roudanezhistory and on the website www.roudanez.com.