Africana Studies
Conference on Religion and Religious Identities in Africa and the African Diaspora
Date: October 10-11, 2008 
Venue: Room 208 Bernhard Center, Western Michigan University.
Hosted By:
Africana Studies Program, WMU
College of Arts & Sciences
&
African Studies Program, Kalamazoo College
Conference Program
*All conference Panels will be held in Room 208 Bernhard Center, Western Michigan University.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Welcome Reception for Conference Participants
Venue: Hicks Center Banquet Room, Kalamazoo College
Time: 7-8:30p.m.
Friday, October, 10, 2008
8:00-8:40a.m Registration
8:45-9:00a.m. Welcome
Dr. Tom Kent, Dean College of Arts Sciences, WMU
9:15-10:30a.m. Panel I
Chair: Kiran Cunningham, Kalamazoo College
Mariam Deme, Western Michigan University, “The Portrayal of the Supernatural in the African Epic as a Reflection of the Religious Belief Systems of the Society that produced the Oral Epic.”
Israel Akanji, The University of Edinburgh, UK, Global is Local: A Study of Religious Conflict in Nigeria.”
Ayo Wheto, University KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, “Religious networks and conflict transformation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
10:45-12 Noon Panel II
Chair: William F. Santiago-Valles, Western Michigan University
Afe Adogame, The University of Edinburgh, UK, “Show me your friend and I will tell you who you are! Negotiating Fluid Pentecostal Identities in the African religious Diaspora.”
Danielle N. Boaz, Florida International University, “Obeah on Trial: the Prosecution and Persecution of African Religion in Jamaica.”
Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesus, Stanford University, “Diasporic Relationality: Competing Africas, Genders and Nations”
12 Noon to 1:00p.m. Lunch Room 210 Bernhard Center, WMU
1:30-2:45p.m. Panel III
Chair: Afe Adogame, The University of Edinburgh, UK,
Andrea C. Mosterman, Boston University, “Africans in New Netherland’s Dutch Reformed Church.”
Matthew Kustenbauder, Yale University, “Religious Incitement or Political Manipulation?: The Role Of Religious Identity in Conflict in Sudan, With Special Reference to The Oral Histories of Sudanese Diaspora.”
Garnet A. Parris, The University of Birmingham, U.K., “ The African Diaspora in Germany seen through the axes of Storytelling: of Law and Security and of Religious Traditions and Theology.”
3:00-4:15p.m. Panel IV
Chair: Joseph Bangura, Kalamazoo College.
Rhonda M. Gonzales, University Texas at San Antonio, “ Precarious Empowerment: African Women, Enslavement, and Religion in 17 th Century Mexico City.”
Celestina O. Isiramen, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria, “Pentecostalism in Nigeria: A Therapy or Delusion?
John P. McCarthy, Cultural Resources Services Group, “The Archaeology of Community Identity and Resistance in Antebellum Philadelphia: African-Influenced Burial Practices at the Cemeteries of the First African Baptist Church.”
Saturday, October 11, 2008.
8:00-8:45a.m. Registration
9:00-10:30a.m. Panel V
Chair: Shreena Gandhi, Kalamazoo College
Mara E. Donaldson, Dickinson College, The Redemptive Art of Max Lyonga Sako
Lilian Dube, University of San Francisco, “Culture-bound Women in the African Diaspora: Female Genital Modifications”
Ben Okolo, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, “Relics of Indigenous Religious Belief as a Precursor to Human Rights Violations: The Osu Caste System in Umuode Community, Nkanu East, Enugu State, Nigeria.”
10:45-12 Noon Panel VI
Chair: Ahmed Hussen, Kalamazoo College
Christine Ahmed-Saidi, Hunter College, New York, “Leza, the Mother: New Conceptualizations of the Creator God in East-Central Africa.”
Elijah O. Obinna, The University of Edinburgh, UK, “ Contesting Space: dynamics of Indigenous Leaderships and Modernity within Amasiri, Nigeria.”
Silvia Chiarelli, University of Milan Via Pace, Italy, “Political Islam and democracy in Northern Nigeria.”
12 Noon to 1:00p.m. Lunch Room 210 Bernhard Center, WMU
1:30-2:45p.m. Panel VII
Chair: Sisay Asefa, Western Michigan University
Anene Ejikeme, Trinity University, San Antonio, “Happy, Holy, Homosexual": The House of Rainbow, Lagos, Nigeria.”Uyilawa Usuanlele, State University of New York-Oswego, “N Fiancée, No Baptism: An Episode in the Roman Catholic Church Encounter with School Girls in Benin City Nigeria, 1952.”
John A. Onimhawo, & Peter Oghene Ottuh, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria, “Conflict Prevention and Management in Nigeria: The Role of the Christian Religion.”
3:00-4:15p.m. Panel VIII
Chair: Mara E. Donaldson, Dickinson College
Leonard Gadzekpo, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, “Africana Religious Ethos.”
Douglas Thomas, Southern Arkansas University, “ Renegotiating Islam: Limamou Laye and the Layennes of Senegal.”
Abolade E. Olagoke, “Religion and Global Justice: An African Diasporic Overview.”
6:00p.m.Conference Dinner
President’s Dinning Room, Bernhard Center, Western Michigan University.
Sponsors of the Conference:
Africana Studies Program, WMU
African Studies Program, Kalamazoo College
African Students Association, WMU
Anthropology Department, WMU
Dean’s Office, College of Arts & Sciences, WMU
English Department, WMU
Geography Department, WMU
History Department, WMU
Gender & Women’s Studies, WMU
Provost’s Office, Kalamazoo College.