The Mixing Disciplines Workshop’s two-day virtual zoom conference occurred from April 22-23rd, 2021. Supported by the Center for African Studies, this two-day conference started with a detour to Lusophone Africa with the screening of Billy Woodberry film “A Story from Africa (2018). This film was a brilliant work that gave life to photos from archives of the Portuguese occupation of the Cuamato people. This showing of the film led to a discussion with the filmmaker. The audience engaged in questions about the ways in which Mr. Woodberry came about the photo and the journey at which it took to make this tragic yet poignant film.
This first day also had the honor of hosting Kiluanji Kia Henda, who shared his photos with the audience. He also discussed the stories of his installations, how they took space and claimed ownership of status in Lisbon, challenging the colonial history of Portuguese in Angola. These two artists had a very insightful discussion about the synergy of their work around the Portuguese colonial legacy and military. Later in the day, the conference had a second session that had InĂŞs Ponte join and share her ethnographic photography from Angola. She shared her self-funded project:Â Mobilizing Archives:Â Photography in Southwest Angola.
Day two of the conference detoured to Kenya, the audience heard from Keguro Macharia, Tom Odhiambo, and April Zhu. These three shared insights about the intersections of public health and the police state during this period of COVID in Kenya. The second session of day two was filled with multiple stories from Senegal, Tanzania, Ghana, Niger surrounding lived experiences during the onset and current period of this COVID-19 pandemic.
Recording of these two days will be shared in the future on the CAS YouTube Page.
Link to the 2-day program: https://africa.ufl.edu/event/mixing-disciplines-working-group-symposium/
Written: Karen Awura-Adjoa Ronke Coker