The 2018 Carter Conference, “Text Meets Image, Image Meets Text: Sequences & Assemblages Out of Africa & Congo,” took place this Thursday February 8th through Saturday February 10th. The conference consisted of five sessions, with additional workshops, outreach events, performances, and art installations. Participants traveled from around the world to attend the conference—coming from Australia, Congo, Belgium, South Africa, Austria, and France.
Center for African Studies Director, Brenda Chalfin, gave the welcoming speech at the first session on Thursday. She discussed the importance of the Center for African Studies at UF. The Center has been active for 50 years, and has organized the Carter Conference for 36. Dr. Chalfin highlighted the ways the conferences moves us in new directions by creating engagements and connections across Africa, at the university, in Gainesville, and within African studies. By focusing on the Papa Mfumu’eto archival collection, which is currently in the process of formation, the Carter Conference became a workshop and a laboratory for new knowledge production. The collection allowed participants to engage with public life and experiences within Kinshasa through the art of Papa Mfumu’eto. Mary Watt (CLAS Associate Dean) also spoke about the ways that language, literature, and African studies have enriched the university.
Dr. Nancy Hunt (History, African Studies) said that the conference is a celebration of the arrival of an archive centered on the work of an iconic comic artist, Papa Mfumu’eto. She believes that the materials will provide opportunities to connect with wide publics, and developed the conference as a way to engage with diverse groups—specialists of Congo and Kinshasa, scholars of text and image relations, curators, and artists. Dr. Hunt also talked about how the conference will provide the basis for other projects including multiple exhibitions and a book.
Dr. Patricia Hayes (University of Wesern Cape) and Dr. Alioune Sow (French, African Studies) closed the first session by “Theorizing Text and Image.” Dr. Hayes considered the dualities of photography and how exposure, visibility, light, and non-light can be used to approach the collection. Dr. Sow examined on image from the collection, which centered on the Bamako airport conflict.
Events continued throughout Thursday and Friday, with a trip to the Gainesville’s Sequential Artists workshop, a visit to UF’s Smathers Library, and sessions at the Reitz Union. On Friday evening, the conference keynote and reception was held at the Harn Museum of Art. The keynote featured the work of artists David Carlin (writer), Didier Viodé (visual artist), and Fiston Mwanza Mujila (poet). Carlin read three scenes from his book, The Abyssinian Contortionist. The book told the story of Sosina Wogayehu, an Ethiopian circus performer who sought asylum in Australia. Viodé presented his work as an artist, focusing on a series he created in response to French anti-immigration polices. Mwanza Mujila performed a reading of his poems, which was accompanied by a saxophone performance. His work blended together poetry, improvisation, tempo, jazz, and the literary traditions of Congo. The night ended with a reception, where conference guests were able to visit the Harn galleries and socialize.
Dr. Brenda Chalfin and Dr. Jean Comaroff (Harvard University) closed the conference on Saturday. Dr. Comaroff tied together themes brought up throughout the conference such as the vernacular, framing, creativity, and comedy. A discussion followed, as participants considered where to go from here and how to continue engaging with the work of Papa Mfumu’eto.
CAS News Bulletin- Week of February 12, 2018
