[Wadabo_updates] "IFÁ DIVINATION IN WEST AFRICA AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA" - Conference @ Harvard 3/15 & 16

Dear African Dance & Music Community,

"SACRED KNOWLEDGE, SACRED POWER AND PERFORMANCE: IFÁ DIVINATION IN WEST AFRICA AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA"

CONFERENCE AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY SATURDAY-SUNDAY, MARCH 15-16TH

- JACOB K. OLUPONA (Harvard University), Convener
- with special guest HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY ALAYELUWA OBA OKUNADE SIJUWADE, OLUBUSE II, THE OONI OF IFE, NIGERIA
- keynote address by ROWLAND ABIODUN (Amherst College)
- Additional presenters below

This international conference will provide a forum for renowned scholars in African and African Diaspora studies to explore the body of deep knowledge implicit in Ifá divination among the Yorùbá of West Africa, as well as their descendants in Africa and the Americas.

It begins with the recognition that Ifá is not only a body of knowledge, but also a religious and cultural practice. "Sacred Knowledge" will highlight the ways that Ifá texts and their brokers are dynamic and ever changing, shaped by politics, cultural histories, and social rituals. It will also address the transport and spread of Ifá knowledge and cosmologies and will contribute to the development of a theoretical and empirical language for advancing the state of Ifá scholarship.

PRESENTERS: KOLA ABIMBOLA, WANDE ABIMBOLA, DELEKE ADEEKO, ABIODUN AGBOOLA, AKINTUNDE AKINYEMI, ANDREW APTER, SUZANNE BLIER, BOLAJI CAMPBELL, STEFANIA CAPONE, M. KAMARI CLARKE, HENRY JOHN DREWAL, YSAMUR FLORES-PENA, STEPHEN GLAZIER, EMMA GOBIN, LAURA GRILLO, BARRY HALLEN, F. ABIOLA IRELE, AKINWUMI ISOLA, VELMA LOVE, WYATT MACGAFFEY, VICTOR MANFREDI, JOHN MASON, IFABOYEDE MICHELLE MCELWAINE, IVOR MILLER, JOSEPH MURPHY, AYO OPEFEYITIMI, OLASOPE OYELARAN, OYERONKE OYEWUMI, PHILIP PEEK, MEI MEI SANFORD, and OLUFEMI TAIWO

LOCATION: Tsai Auditorium, Room S010, CGIS-South, 1730 Cambridge St, Cambridge

INFORMATION: Space is extremely limited.  Free and open to the public on a "first come" basis. 
Contact amcgee@post.harvard.edu for more information & registration.

SPONSORED BY: COMMITTEE ON AFRICAN STUDIES, W.E.B. DU BOIS INSTITUTE FOR AFRICAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN RESEARCH, DEPARTMENT OF AFRICAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES with CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WORLD RELIGIONS