The Africology Spark Newsletter

Volume 1, Issue 1 -- Spring/Summer 2000

Inside this issue:

Greetings from the Chair
Et Tu Globalization?
Africology Ph.D. Proposed
Pan-African Notes
African Women
Important Dates in History
Recent Faculty Publications
Poem by Michael Copeland
Africology Faculty and Staff

Greetings from the Chair

— Doreatha Drummond Mbalia

Jambo! Hotep! Na'Nga Def! Greetings from the Department of Africology! I am delighted that this issue launches our first newsletter. We, in the Department of Africology, hope that it will be one of many ways to strengthen the relationship between the campus and the community.

When the first black studies centers and programs were founded in 1968, one of the core concepts was the "necessity of relevance." At that time, Dr. Nathan Hare, director of the black studies program at San Francisco State, stated that "a black education which is not revolutionary in the current day is both irrelevant and useless." More than thirty years later, we recognize that B.A. degrees in black studies programs are not adequate in preparing students of the field to meet the growing demand for an intelligentsia trained to discover solutions to the critical problems confronting Africa today. Persons trained in the doctoral studies programs of africology departments are needed to solve the increasing problems confronting Africa and its people scattered throughout the world. Additionally, we recognize that a program focused primarily on the African diaspora is too narrow. Just as did W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus and Amy Ashwood Garvey, Malcolm X, and Kwame Nkrumah, africologists understand not only the spiritual, but also the material relationship between Africa and its people: From land (Africa) comes wealth; from wealth comes power; from power comes respect; and from respect comes liberation.

Today, perhaps more than ever before, doctoral programs in africology are not just desirable, but also imperative. Though rich in mineral resources, Africa's prognosis for the twenty-first century is bleak. Multinational corporations continue to be interested in Africa, but only in exploiting its mineral wealth. In the "Information Age," Africa has fewer telephone lines for internet access than either of the cities of Tokyo or Manhattan. Two-thirds of the nations in Africa are embroiled in armed conflict. Fourteen million people have died from the AIDS virus, one-third of those children. For African women, the future seems bleaker. Literacy remains the lowest in the world for African women. They are the only women of the world who have experienced a decrease in their participation in the labor force. Most of this suffering witnessed throughout Africa is caused by the economic policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (i.e., structural adjustment programs).

So, what must be done- A new African, intellectually trained and sincerely committed to solving the problems of Africa and its people must be educated. This education process can best be achieved through doctoral programs in the discipline of africology. For only within africology will the student be assured of acquiring the priorities that must be established to deal with the needs of African people. For only within africology will the student be taught to plan scientifically for the resources to meet the needs of African people. For only within africology will the student be assured of being taught the importance of the traditional African principles of humanism, collectivism, and egalitarianism. Ph.D. programs in africology are both necessary and relevant. Forward ever, backwards never. back to top

Et Tu Globalization?

— by Bartholomew Armah

Globalization has been touted as an instrument of economic prosperity for both developed and developing nations, but is this really so- During my sabbatical leave in 1998-1999, I conducted a survey to examine the effects of a key component of globalization-trade liberalization (i.e., the lowering of trade barriers) on urban-based manufacturing firms in the West African country of Ghana. Incidentally, Ghana has the longest uninterrupted experience with trade policy reforms (generally a component of a comprehensive package of reforms called Structural Adjustment policies) in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.

The objective was to determine whether the new policies had been beneficial to domestic manufacturing industries. Specifically, such policies lowered taxes or duties (tariff barriers) on imported products and introduced measures to reduce the administrative "headaches" (non-tariff barriers) associated with importing goods and services into the country.

DOMESTIC FIRMS WHICH PRODUCE FOR THE LOCAL MARKET ARE NOT FARING WELL!
The firms studied were divided into three categories, small (employed fewer than 10 workers), medium (defined as enterprises employing between 10 and 29 persons) and large (employed 30 or more workers). Medium-sized were disproportionately represented among the ranks of enterprises experiencing declines in production and profits. Such firms cited increased competition from imported products as the main reason for the downturn in production. It is important to note, however, that of the three categories, medium sized firms were least likely to export their output. As a result, their products are more likely to face competition from foreign products such as imported clothing and food items. In effect, the vulnerability of such firms can be attributed to their lack of competitiveness at the domestic level and their limited export orientation. It is also conceivable that foreign firms are dumping (i.e., selling their products at prices below cost of production) their products on the local markets to drive out their domestic competitors.

EXPORT ORIENTED FIRMS SEEM TO BE DOING MUCH BETTER!
The main beneficiaries of the policy reforms appear to be large domestic firms and to a lesser extent small firms. Less than 50 percent of medium-sized firms reported that their firms were profitable during the survey year. In contrast, 84.6 percent of small firms and 76.9 percent of large scale enterprises made similar claims. Presumably, small and large firms are more likely to experience favorable output and profit levels than medium sized of firms because such firms tend to be more export oriented and hence, less likely to face foreign competition.

IT TAKES MORE THAN EXPORT ORIENTATION TO SUCCEED!
Nevertheless, export orientation alone does not guarantee success. It appears that small firms, in particular are more likely to participate in management training programs and to change their product mix in response to the changing conditions in the market. Indeed, 70 percent of all firms that failed to participate in management training programs reported negative profit levels.

Approximately a third of medium sized firms did not participate in training programs compared to less than 10 percent in the case of small and large firms. Furthermore, the survey results indicate that most medium sized firms have not changed their product mix in response to the new policy environment. Fifty eight percent of medium sized firms indicated that they had not changed their product composition since startup, the corresponding figures for large and small firms were 30.8 and 46.2 percent respectively.

THE INITIAL GAINS FROM FREE TRADE MAY BE WANING!
Although a majority of small and large firms indicated that their enterprises were profitable during the survey year, most reported flat or declining profits in comparison to the previous year. For instance, 69 percent of small firms versus 50 percent of large firms experienced no change in profit levels. The performance of medium sized firms was considerably worse. Fifty four percent of medium sized firms reported a decline in profits relative to the previous year, while 37.5 percent experienced zero profit growth. In effect, small firms appear to be stagnant with respect to profits, medium sized firms are characterized by declining profitability, while large firms occupy a middle position; neither experiencing an overwhelming tendency toward profit stagnation nor profit growth.

WHAT TO DO
In particular, the adverse effects of imports on medium sized firms, poses a dilemma for policymakers. On the one hand, protecting "inefficient producers" imposes a cost on consumers who would be forced to pay higher prices for identical or relatively lower quality products. On the other hand, doing nothing could signal the destruction of several domestic industries leading to greater unemployment and its attendant social ills.

One option for policymakers in the West African County of Ghana is to assist adversely affected firms in their transition to other economic activities where they may be more competitive. This could be costly in the short run but beneficial in the long run because resources would be diverted to more productive activities. Another option is to gradually phase in free trade as opposed to abruptly dismantling trade barriers. Simultaneously, policymakers must put in place structures and institutions designed to enhance the competitiveness of domestic firms either through partnerships with foreign firms or through management training programs and credit schemes aimed at improving both the human and financial capital of local firms. Globalization may be an unavoidable phenomenon, however, developing countries must control the pace at which they immerse themselves in its treacherous and uncharted waters.back to top

Africology Ph.D. Proposed

What is the Current Reality of African-American Studies Graduate Programs in the U.S.?
There are an estimated 500 programs of African and African-American Studies. There are approximately 25 M.A. programs in AfricanAmerican Studies. There are only three doctoral programs in AfricanAmerican Studies-Temple University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on the East Coast (Harvard is planning to have a doctoral program by Fall 2000); the University of California, Berkeley on the West Coast. (Each started with no more than 11 full-time faculty members and with as few as 8 students.) Our Ph.D. program would be the first Africology program (the first by that name and the first where the history and people of African descent throughout the world, including the U.S., is studied). It would also be the first in the Midwest. Moreover, in establishing a Ph.D. program in Africology, UWM would include itself in a small but prestigious group of universities offering the degree, serve a critical market need, both nationally and internationally, for persons with doctorates in Africology, and most importantly move one step closer to addressing established UWM and UW System diversity goals for students, faculty, and academic staff.

How would a Ph.D. in Africology fit within the Milwaukee Idea and other academic planning at UWM?

1. Given the need to address the serious issue of diversity on UWM's campus;
2. Given the timeliness of the program in the context of the UW System Plan 2008;
3. Given the fact that the greatest concentration of Wisconsin's population is to be found in the Milwaukee metropolitan area;
4. Given the ever expanding African-American population in Milwaukee and many of the cities of the U.S. in which most of the roughly 36 million blacks in the society live;
5. Given the renewed and expanded role in world affairs that Africa will play in the 21st century;
6. Given the need for new ideas, concepts, and theories of social and political organization to describe, explain, evaluate, and predict the objective realities of Africans and their descent vis-avis a repositioned Africa globally;
7. Given the strong interdepartmental collaboration that is built into the program;
8. Given the marketability of Ph.D. recipients in Africology, both nationally and internationally;
9. Given the fact that the many B.A. and M.A. programs, including the M.A. program at UWMadison, around the U.S. and throughout the world could benefit from a Ph.D. program in Africology;
10. Given that there are oply three African-American Studies doctoral programs in the U.S.;

We firmly believe that UWM is well-positioned to offer the Ph.D. degree in Africology. back to top

Pan-African Notes

"Africa: The Motherland"
We launch our inaugural column by taking note of the tremendous resources available to African people. Africa, the Motherland, is comprised of 55 countries, which cover a landmass of 30.27 million square miles. In 1996, Africa had a population of 743 million people with another 200 million persons of African descent living in the diaspora for a total population of almost 1 billion persons.

The continent is richly endowed with abundant fertile land, many bodies of water, and a diversity of plant and wildlife. Africa is rich in mineral reserves ranking 1st or 2nd in 15 minerals, including the minerals critical in space flight (vanadium and titanium) and the more well-known minerals of gold, diamonds and bauxite. Africa also possesses 6-8% of the world's reserves of coal, copper, natural gas, petroleum and 20% of the uranium deposits.

NEO-COLONIALISM IN AFRICA
Despite Africa's abundance of resources, there is a conflicting view of Africa's future that prevails. The World Bank notes that Africa's economy is growing, but the indicators for the improvement of the quality of life for the people grow dimmer. Stratfor, a think tank of former CIA personnel who produce a weekly update on various parts of the world, gave a similar assessment. They said, "while it seems depressingly easy to examine Africa's bleak political, economic and social situation and predict more of the same, mustering up optimism for a continent with so much stacked up against it is nearly impossible." (Global Intelligence Update, December 31, 1999)

However, Straffor issued a follow-up assessment of Africa's future the next week. "The only forces interested (in Africa) are multinational corporations involved in exploiting Africa's mineral wealth. We expect to see an intensification of an already existing pattern in which private armies, financed by multi-nationals or governments heavily influenced or controlled by them, provide stability for the multi-nationals." (Global Intelligence Update, January 3, 2000).

PROFILE OF ONE MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATION
From 1990-1997, Seaboard Corporation, an agribusiness that makes $1.~8 billion a year, received at least $15 million in support from U.S. taxpayers. Seaboard owns flourmills in Ecuador, Guyana, Haiti, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and feed mills in Ecuador, Nigeria and Congo. They own 31,000 acres of shrimp ponds in Ecuador and Honduras. They also own 31,000 acres of sugar cane and 4,200 acres of citrus and sugar mills in Argentina. back to top

African Women

The Hunger Project this year launched the African Woman Food Farmer Initiative, which will focus on marshalling the material and financial resources for women farmers. The Hunger Project awarded its "Africa Prize" of $1 million dollars to a group of African women farmers in seven countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda.

Agricultural production, a main source of livelihood for households in Africa, is the principal area of work for 75 percent of working women. African women produce 80 percent of Africa's food but actually own only 1 percent of the land they farm. They work excessively long hours during the course of a day, beleaguered by poor irrigation, a lack of tools and storage facilities. back to top

Important Dates in History to Remember

JUNE
3rd — Dr. Charles Drew, developer of blood plasma, born in 1904.
4th — Acquittal of Angela Davis on charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy in 1972.
10th — Marcus Garvey, Pan-African organizer of the U.N.I.A., died in England in 1940.
12th — Medgar Evers, African Civil Rights activist, was assassinated in 1963.
15th — Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was founded in 1943.
16th — African student uprisings began in Soweto and spread through South Africa, 1976.
19th — Juneteenth Day: African slaves in Texas first hear that slavery is abolished in 1865.
20th — Walter Rodney, Pan-African scholar and revolutionary activist, was murdered in 1980.
27th — Paul Laurence Dunbar, African poet, was born in 1872.
29th — National Black United Front was founded in 1980.

JULY
2nd — Patrice Lumumba, Pan-African revolutionary, was born in 1925.
9th — Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful open heart surgery in 1883.
10th — Mary McLeod Bethune, educator and founder of BethuneCookman College, was born in 1875.
11th — Niagara Movement, predecessor to NAACP, was founded in 1905.
14th — J. Standard patented the refigerator in 1891.
15th — U.N.I.A., the largest Pan-African organization, was founded by Marcus Garvey in 1914.
16th — Ida B. Wells born in 1862.
22nd — In Detroit, Africans rioted eight days for Black Power in 1967.
23rd — Elijah McCoy patented the Heavy Machine lubricator in 1872.
24th — Alexander Dumas, African author, born in 1802.

AUGUST
1st — James Baldwin, renown African writer, was born in 1927.
4th — Dr. Daniel H. Williams, founder of Chicago hospital and heart surgeon, died in 1931.
8th — Matthew Henson, African explorer, was the first to land on the North Pole in 1866.
9th — Over 20, 000 African women, on Women's Day, protested against pass laws in South Africa in 1956.
14th — Ernest Just, African biologist, was born in 1883.
17th — The Honorable Marcus Garvey, founder of UNIA, was born in Jamaica in 1887.
18th — Steve Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania, was arrested in 1976.
19th — Hannibal invades Roman Empire with elephant army in 218 B.C.
20th — Africans brought to Jamestown, Virginia, beginning U.S. slavery in 1619.
21st — Nat Turner led largest slave revolt in South Hampton, VA in 1831.
23rd — O.Brown patented the horseshoe in 1892.
31st — Fannie Lou Hamer demands the right to register to vote in Indianola, MS in 1962. back to top

Recent Faculty Publications

Dr. Osei-Mensah Aborampah, "Systems of Kinship and Marriage in Africa: Continuities and Change," pp. 123-138, and "Economic Achievement and Marital Relations of Techiman Market Women," pp. 201-217, in "Till Death Do Us Part: A Multicultural Anthology on Marriage," Sandra I. Browning and A. Robin Miller, eds., Greenwich, CT JAI Press, 1999; and "Women's Roles in the Mourning Rituals of the Akan of Ghana," Ethnology, Vol. 38, No. 3, Summer 1999, pp. 257-271.

Dr. Barthomelew Armah, "Does Latin America Have More to Gain From Trade Liberalization than SubSaharan Africa," forthcoming in International Economic Journal, 2000.

Dr. Patrick Bellegarde-Smith was editor with Claudine Michel for "The Spirit, the Myth, the Reality: Vodou in Haitian Development," University Press of Florida; and contributor of a 6,000-word entry, "Haiti," for "Encarta Africana,"second edition, 2000.

Dr. Thandeka Joyce F. Kirk, "Making a Voice: African Resistance to Segregation in South Africa." Boulder: Westview Press, 1999.

Mbalia, Doreatha Drummond, "Tar Baby: A Reflection of Toni Morrison's Developed Class Consciousness." Toni Morrison. Linden Peach, editor. NY: St. Martin's Press, Inc., 1998; "Pathways: A Text for Developing Writers." Second Edition. NY: Allyn & Bacon, 1998; "Heritage: An African-American Reader." Second Edition. NY: Prentice Hall, 2001.

Dr. Winston Van Horne was editor for "Global Convulsions: Race, Ethnicity and Nationalism at the End of the Twentieth Century." Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1997. back to top

Poem by Michael Copeland

(After reading Sexton and relating her style to Clifton's in regards to voice and her poem: poem with rhyme in it)

If it seems

If it seems
That I am down
That I am up
that I am black
that I have no clue
what blackness means
that it whitens when washed
or cleans your windows
that it is pop culture
and will fade
that it is cliched and
clinched and cinched and
that something
is missing a little bit of oregano
that I have no flows left
nothing left to give
to a person on the street
and cannot climb up to save my
life in this lobster barrel
that I am competing against
myself
and will never win the race
because I have a funny
darkened
skin color that means nothing
to you
but all to me
then it seems right.
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Department of Africology Faculty and Staff

Mbalia, Doreatha D., Chair
Aborampah, Osei-Mensah
Armah, Bartholomew K.
Austin, Cecil
Van Horne, Winston A.
Bellegarde-Smith, Patrick
Williams, Gary L.
Brown, Valerie L.
Demoze, Saba E.
Gordon, Fredrick
Harris-Hodge, Elizabeth
Kirk, Thandeka Joyce F.
Lanier, Walter
Maier, Brienna E.
Mbalia, Ahmed F.
Ritacca, Carolyn C.
Rogers, William
Smith, Carol Y.
Stamper, Virginia L.
Taylor-Boyd, Pauli
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