Conference Delegates Bios Abraham Abiyi Ford, Ph.D. Prof. Abraham

20 Pages·2016·0.46 MB·English

Conference Delegates Bios

Abraham Abiyi Ford, Ph.D.

Prof. Abraham (Abiyi) R. Ford is Professor Emeritus from the John H. Johnson School of
Communications at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He is also Former Dean of the
Graduate School of Journalism and Communications at Addis Ababa University; Task force
member for the formation of the Center of African and Middle Eastern Studies at Addis Ababa
University; Consultant and advisor for the formation of the Skundar Boghosian College of the
Visual and Performing Arts, also at Addis Ababa University. Currently he is President of the
Mignon Lorraine Innis Ford Foundation.
Adegboye Damola
Adegboye Damola is a Nigerian, from Ayedaade Local Government of Osun State. He is a
graduate of Political Science and International Relations of Osun State University and currently
running a masters degree in the University of Ibadan. He has interests in human rights,
international relations and political theories. He is currently a Graduate Assistant in the
department of Political Science of Osun State University.
Adewale Adepoju

Adewale Adepoju is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History and International Studies,
University of Ilorin. He currently teaches at the Department of History and Diplomatic Studies,
Tai Solarin University of Education (the premier University of Education in Nigeria), Ijagun,
Ogun State. He has written on subjects ranging from culture and military history to conflict and
peace studies. His research interests are in cultural studies; military; conflict and peace studies.

Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika

Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika was the Founder National Secretary of the Movement for
Multi-Party Democracy in Zambia. He has been Member of Parliament, Cabinet Minister,
Special Assistant (Political) to the President, Chairman of the National Economic Advisory
Council, Chairman of the National Governing Council of the African Peer Review Mechanism
and a Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission.

He has served as Managing Director of the Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority, a General
Manager, Group Controller, Group Director of Projects for the Industrial Development
Corporation of Zambia as well as General Manager of the multi-national Blackhood Hodge. He
served on the expert Committee for the Economic Commission for Africa’s African Alternative
Framework to Structural Adjustment Programme; presented papers for the Organisation for
Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa and been a consultant for UNIDO and
the Preferential Treaty Areas of Eastern and Southern Africa. He served as Chairman of
Zambia’s Economic Association. He has been a Committee member of Kitwe District Chamber
of Commerce and founder Chairman of the Zambia Research Foundation.

He holds a Master of Liberal Studies (Boston), Master of Arts in Public Administration and
Comparative Government (Carleton), a Master of Professional Studies in African and African-
American Studies, (Cornell), a Bachelor of Arts (Jackson State) as well as D. Phil (Honori
Causa) by the International Management Centres Association and Revans University of the U.K.
As a student, he was Vice President of the Pan African Students’ Association of the Americas.

Alaneme Justia Chika, Ph.D.

(Mrs) Alaneme Justia Chika (Nee Onyeukwu) hails from Emii, Owerri North L.G.A. married to
Umunachi (in Alaneme’s family) Isiala Mbano LGA both in Imo State Nigeria. She holds B.Sc
degree in Government/Public Administration from Abia State University Uturu, an MSc. Degree
in International Affairs and diplomacy from Imo State University Owerri and Ph.D degree in
International relations from Ebonyi State University Abakiliki. She is a member of association
for the public policy analysis of Nigeria and has attended many conferences in Nigeria and
outside Nigeria of which the last one was at Accra (Ghana) by ICAD (Institute of Corporate
Administration) July 2013. Mrs. Alaneme worked as a banker for 12 years. She is currently an
academic lecturer and a facilitator in the department of Public Administration Imo State
Polytechnic Umuagwo Ohaji, Imo State. She has authored some books and articles of reading
(both published and unpublished) in the Department of Public and Administration and Political
Science. She is currently working with Imo State Government Policy on demolition of Illegal
Structures in Owerri Territory. She is happily married to Mr. Jude Onwuzo Alaneme with
children

Ama Biney, Ph.D.
Ama Biney is a historian and political scientist. She has over 20 years teaching experience in the
UK. She has taught courses in African history (ancient and modern); Caribbean History; African
American history; post-independence African politics; the history of Pan-Africanism and the
history of black people in Britain. Her publications include: The Political and Social Thought of
Kwame Nkrumah published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2011; Speaking Truth to Power: Selected
Pan-African Postcards of Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem compiled by A. Biney & A. Olukoshi,
published by Pambazuka Press in 2010. She was Editor in Chief of the Pan-African weekly
electronic newsletter, Pambazuka News, which is a platform for radical debate on both African
socio-political justice matters and African diaspora issues.
Amon Saba Saakana, Ph.D.
Amon Saba Saakana is a graduate from London University and currently lectures at the College
of Science, Technology & Applied Arts Trinidad & Tobago. His latest book is the poetry
collection, God in the Song of Trees and the non-fiction Ntr Nfr Wa: The Perfect One,
Groundings in the Nuibio-Kmtan African Paradigm, a book which deals with Nubio-Kmtan
science & technology, philosophy and the role of Kmt’s influence in the formation of the Italian
Renaissance, architecture, the arts and literature. He is currently working on two new books: The
Song Philosophy of Bob Marley: Folk Wisdom & the Human Process of Knowing, and
Makemba Kunle Hidden Myths, Revered Memories: In Search of Mysteries, The Artist as
Insurgent.
Andy Reid
Andy Reid is a graduate student at Georgia State University, where he is receiving his MA in
African-American Studies. Andy currently holds a BA in History from his undergraduate
institution, Elizabeth City State University. He is a 2014 Melvin L. Murphy Research Scholar
recipient and a MAC-CAE Scholar. He is a 2013 graduate of the Moore Undergraduate
Research Apprentice Program (MURAP), where he conducted graduate-level research at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A 2012 inductee of Phi Alpha Theta National
History Honor Society, Andy has presented his own academic research at regional and national
academic conferences. He has published his own interviews with Civil Rights Movement
participants and has also created educational documentaries. His forthcoming research focuses
on the southern Garvey movement and it presence in southern black churches.
Ann Marie White
Mrs. Ann Marie White is an employee of the Sidney Martin Library, Cave Hill Campus and has
worked in the university’s library service for over 25 years. She has presented papers at 4
conferences on varying topics one of which has been published. The publication is on record-
keeping for small farmers. She is a member of Cancer Support Services and the cause for
Cancer is dear to her heart
Anthony Reid
Anthony Reid is an MPhil student in the History Department of the Cave Hill Campus. Having
done his best to avoid history while at secondary school he then suffered himself by applying to
pursue a degree in history, but this was only after hearing history being used by the likes of
Malcolm X, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles and Dr. Ivan VanSertima and being told by Dr Richard
Goodridge not to waste time in getting to Cave Hill before he has to pay.
Having done his undergraduate thesis entitled “Black Power in Barbados, An Imported but
Relevant Ideology”, he is currently investigating the Black struggle against cultural hegemony in
twentieth century Barbados.
Arinola Bello
Arinola S. Bello holds both a First and Second Degree in Economics from the Obafemi
Awolowo University and the University of Lagos respectively. She started her work life with
PanAfrican Strategic and Policy Research Group (Panafstrag-Nigeria) working majorly in
Administration and Finance function in her first seven years at the organization. She later
worked for a private software firm and worked briefly as a teacher in Vivian Fowler Memorial
College for Girls, Lagos. Presently, she is the Programme Coordinator for PANAFSTRAG.
Aurélien Mokoko Gampiot, Ph.D.
Aurélien Mokoko Gampiot holds a Ph. D. in Sociology earned at the University of Rennes 2
Haute Bretagne (France). His doctoral research focused on Kimbanguism, an African
independent church in Congo and in the diaspora context in France. He has published several
articles and two books on Kimbanguism; the English version will be published soon at Penn
State University Press. He is currently a postdoctoral scholar at GSRL-CNRS-EPHE (hosted by
the Sorbonne University). His current research focuses on Black Judaism (converts and native
Black Jews) in France, a topic on which he has already published four articles.
Aurora Vergara Figueroa, Ph.D.
Aurora Vergara-Figueroa has a PhD and MA in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts-
Amherst, USA. Currently, she is director of the African Diaspora Studies center (CEAF- Centro
de Estudios Afrodiaspóricos) at Icesi University in Cali-Colombia. Her main research interests
are sociology of race and ethnicity, land dispossession and the intersection of race, class and
gender. Her current research investigates the connection between events of violence against
Blacks in Colombia, removal from their collective and ancestral lands and the long term
exclusion of Afrocolombians.
Avery Pilgrim
Avery Pilgrim has a background in labor and employment, product liability and food and drug
law. He is an employment relations consultant. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree, Law,
History and Politics from University of Durham, Durham, England; Juris Doctor, Western New
England College, Massachusetts and LL.M. (Labor and Employment) (Law History, Politics)
New York University, New York.
Buddy A. Larrier, Rev.
Reverend Buddy Aaron Larrier was born on 2nd July 1943. In 1963 he immigrated to England as
part of the British recruitment programme ‘Your Mother Country Needs You’. In 1977 his
human rights were violated and he became conscious for the first time of himself as an African.
Rev. Larrier is a race first Pan-Africanist, social historian, human rights activist and advocate.
His special interests are training and consultancy in race relations, with a passion for mental
liberation. He resettled to Barbados in 1994; from 1998 to 2008 he was a staff member of the
Government’s Commission for Pan-African Affairs. Presently he is a board member of the
Government’s Task Force on Reparations and General Secretary of Non State Actors
Reparations Commission Inc.
Charles Quist-Adade, Ph.D.
Dr. Charles Quist-Adade is Sociology professor and past immediate chair of the Sociology
Department at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. His research and teaching interests are: Social
justice, Globalization, Racialization and Anti-racism, Media and Society, and Social Theory. His
other areas of teaching and research interest revolve around Global South issues and Sociology
of Religion. He is the founder and co-convener of the Biennial Kwame Nkrumah International
Conference series,

He is the author of several books—In the Shadows of the Kremlin and the White House: Africa’s
Media Image from Communism to Post-Communism, and Social Justice in Local and Global
Contexts, From Colonization to Globalization: The Intellectual and Political Legacies of Kwame
Nkrumah (Co-editor), Introduction to Critical Sociology: From Modernity to Postmodernity (Co-
editor)—several chapters in books, and scores of scholarly and popular press articles and blog
posts.
Cheikh Thiam, Ph.D.
Cheikh Thiam is Associate Professor of African American and African Studies and French at
The Ohio State University. He is the author of Return to the Kingdom of Childhood: Re-
envisioning the Legacy and Philosophical Relevance of Negritude (Ohio State University Press,
2014) and the editor of Negritude Reloaded, Journal on African Philosophy. His articles appear
in major journals such as Ethiopiques, West Africa Review, La Revue Africaine, La Revue du
Graat, French Review, Research in African Literature, Dalhousie French Review (forthcoming),
and Journal on African Philosophy. He is an associate editor for Research in African Literatures
and a founding member of the Dakar Institute of African Studies. His current projects include a
comparative analysis of Negritude and contemporary Black Atlantic scholars such as Paul Gilroy
and Edouard Glissant.
Chenzira Davis Kahina, Ph.D.
Chenzira Davis Kahina is an educator, cultural artist, naturopathic therapist, ordained minister,
community developer and visionary. With Diasporan Indigenous Afrakan Caribbean ancestry
complimenting interdisciplinary studies, research and publications at Rutgers, Pepperdine,
University of California, Natural Health Institute and more. She is a co-founding director of Per
Ankh, Inc.- a UN ECOSOC Special Consultative NGO organizing Culture, Health, Arts,
Technology & Spirituality-CHATS4LIFE©; NUWOMANRising2LIVEUP© —a community
health enterprise; HEAL365©; and Our Legacy Initiatives (OLI)— inter-generational cultural
heritage restoration and media enterprises. Dr. Davis Kahina serves as director of the Virgin
Islands Caribbean Cultural Center (VICCC) –College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and
the Center for the Study of Spirituality and Professionalism—both at the University of the Virgin
Islands (UVI).
Christine Musisi
Christine Musisi has a Bachelor's in Business Administration and Management; Postgraduate in
Rural Extension and Women; Master's in Gender Analysis in Development. She has more than
20 years' experience in senior management, programme direction and policy advisory positions;
has pioneered innovations in social mobilization, local self-governance, local economic
development, women's economic empowerment and leadership and civil society empowerment.
She is a specialist in poverty reduction, civil society, gender equality and women's
empowerment. Christine has held in-country positions in Uganda, United Kingdom, Mongolia,
Kyrgyzstan and Ethiopia; also served as Senior Regional Policy Adviser, Eastern Europe and
CIS, Slovakia, and as Policy Adviser and Head, Policy and Technical Cluster, Regional Service
Center, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Johannesburg, covering Eastern and
Southern Africa; former Deputy Country Director, Ethiopia, UNDP. Since 2012, she has been
the Regional Director, UN Women East and Southern Africa.
David Jamison, Ph.D.
Originally from Queens, New York, Dr. Jamison is Visiting Assistant Professor of Black World
Studies at Miami University -- Middletown. He is a historian by training and earned his doctorate
at Indiana University this year in 2014 with a specialization in the African diaspora. He attained
his Master’s in history from Cal State LA and his Bachelor’s in English from UCLA. His
dissertation research explored Caribbean slave resistance and identity formation through the use
of communication networks and maroon communities. His current research is on slaves’ struggle
for natural rights in the New World and has had publications in the Journal of Caribbean History,
Perspectives: A Journal of Historical Inquiry and the forthcoming SAGE Encyclopedia of War.
David Horne, Ph.D.

David Horne has a PhD in African history and political economy, UCLA. He is currently a full
professor in the Department of Pan African Studies, California State University, Northridge. He
is also Faculty Coordinator of the Model African Union Program and Founder of the Reparations
United Front (RUF). He is a columnist in Our Weekly Newspaper, Los Angeles and was winner
of Best Political Column, 2011, National Black Newspaper Publishers’ Association. He is the
author of Meeting Maat: A Handbook for Goal-Oriented Meetings and Gatherings; Straight to
the Point: A Primer for a Logical Introduction to Critical Thinking;, and Introduction to
American Politics: A Black Perspective.
Dawn Duke, Ph.D.

Dawn Duke is Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese. She is Chair of Africana Studies
and faculty in the Latin American Studies and Cinema Studies Programs. Her graduate studies
were completed at UNICAMP, the University of Guyana, and the University of Pittsburgh,
completing PhD at Pittsburgh in 2003. Her research focuses on Afro-Latin American Literature
with a special interest in women's writings however she continues to spend a lot of her research
energies on Cuba and Brazil. Her first book, Literary Passion, Ideological Commitment (2008) is
a record of that. She has expanded her research field and in addition to Cuba and Brazil, has also
published on Santo Domingo and Panama. She is currently working on a second monograph that
will include writers from Colombia and Nicaragua.
Dladla Thabang
Dladla Thabang was born and raised in Diepkloof Soweto where he finished his schooling before
enrolling for a BA Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Johannesburg. He
then enrolled for an honours degree in philosophy which he completed in 2013. He is currently
busy with his MA in philosophy with the working title "Archie Mafeje's contribution to African
Philosophy". He is currently a junior researcher at the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership institute

Edith Phaswana, Ph.D.

Edith Phaswana (PhD) is a senior lecturer at the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute based
at the University of South Africa. She has more than 20 years teaching experience both in South
Africa and the UK. She holds several awards including the University of Johannesburg
Distinguished Teaching Award in 2014 where she previously worked as a lecturer. In 2008, Dr
Phaswana obtained her PhD at the London South Bank University in the UK. Other prestigious
awards she holds include the Ford Foundation Fellowship Award (2003), Leadership for Social
Justice Award (2006), the National Research Foundation Study Abroad Programme (2006); the
National Research Foundation Knowledge Integration and Collaboration Award (2013) and the
RAU Merit Bursary (2001). She is the former deputy president of the South African
Development Studies Association, deputy chairperson of the Ford Foundation International
fellowship Alumni Programme, sits on several boards nationally and also serves in journal
editorial advisory boards. Her research interests centres around the following: educational
transformation, children and youth participation, global youth policies and their impact on youth,
decolonisation of knowledge and curriculum, African-centred epistemologies.
Eesuola, Olukayode Segun, Ph.D.
Eesuola, Olukayode Segun teaches and does research in the Department of Political Science,
University of Lagos, Nigeria. A Fulbright scholar and an aficionado of African culture, his
research focus is to analyze and explain a broad spectrum of individual and group behavior
towards the state , what determines and influences it, with a view to achieving a better
understanding of Africa and how to solve her problems. He has published widely in national
and international journals, using behavioral and theoretical approaches in most cases. He
attended and presented a paper in a similar Pan Africanist conference in 2010, to mark the
centenary of Kwame Nkrumah in Accra, Ghana.
Eric Michael Washington, Ph.D.

Eric Michael Washington is assistant professor of history at Calvin College, Grand Rapids,
Michigan, where he teaches African history, African-American history, an interdisciplinary
course on the African Diaspora in the Americas, and World History. He also serves as Director
of the African and African Diaspora Studies Minor program. Dr. Washington earned his Ph.D.
from Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan within the major field of African
history with minor fields in African-American and Latin American histories.

Francis Njubi Nesbitt, Ph.D.

Francis Njubi Nesbitt is a Kenyan associate professor of African Studies at San Diego State
University. He is the author of Race for Sanctions (2014) and Politics of African Diasporas
(2014).

Francis Onditi, Ph.D.

Dr. Francis Onditi, is currently program analyst (Leadership & Governance) with UN Women
Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) in Gigiri, Nairobi, Kenya. In this
position he is the Focal Person for the UN Women’s initiative-The African Centre for
Transformative and Inclusive Leadership (ACTIL). Francis has over 9 years’ experience
programming and implementing Pan-African programs/projects, including Peace Support
Operation (PSO) and children & women protection in armed conflict (CAAC). Francis holds a
Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) in Peace and Conflict Studies with specialization in Civil-
Military Relations and Comparative International Peacekeeping Operations from Masinde
Muliro University of Science and Technology. He also holds an MA (International
Development) and B.ED (Geography & Economics), both from the University of Nairobi.
Josephine Odera, Ph.D.
Dr. Josephine Odera, is the immediate former Director, UN Women West Africa based in Dakar,
Senegal and currently the Regional Senior Policy Adviser (Leadership & Governance), UN
Women, ESARO, based in Gigiri, Nairobi, Kenya. Josephine, also has several years of
experience in academics at various universities.
Fred Ayokhai, Ph.D.
Fred Ekpe F. Ayokhai, Ph.D, teaches West African History at the Department of History, Federal
University Lafia, Lafia, Nigeria. He has published in several national and foreign journals and
contributed chapters to several books. He is also the editor of a book titled, Concepts in
Historiography: Essays in Honour of Olayemi Akinwumi. His research focus spans development
and social history, with special interest in gender, economy, peace and conflict studies. He is also
interested in historiography and African indigenous knowledge systems.
Giulia Bonacci, Ph.D.

Giulia Bonacci is a researcher at the Institute of Research for Development (IRD, France). After
four years in Ethiopia, she is currently based in France. She is specialized on the social history of
Pan-Africanism in the 19th and 20th Centuries and the University of the West Indies Press
recently published the translation of her book: Exodus! Heirs and Pioneers, Rastafari Return to
Ethiopia. Her research on the African Diaspora, the Rastafari movement, the Back to Africa
movement, and black organizations appears regularly in academic journals as well as in the
press, in French and in English. Her latest publications include:
G. Bonacci, “Mapping the Boundaries of Otherness. Naming Caribbean Settlers in Ethiopia”,
African Diaspora. Forthcoming, 2015
G. Bonacci, “La fabrique du retour en Afrique. Politiques et pratiques de l’appartenance en
Jamaïque (1920-1968)”, Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, 29 (3): 33-54, 2013
G. Bonacci, “L’Hymne éthiopien universel (1918). Un héritage national et musical de
l’Atlantique noir à l’Ethiopie contemporaine”, Cahier d’études africaines, LIV (4): 1055-1082,
2014.

Imani Tafari-Ama, Ph.D.
Dr. Imani Tafari-Ama qualified academically at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague:
(Ph.D. in Development Studies, 2002 and M.A. in Women and Development, 1989) and at the
University of the West Indies, Mona: (partial fulfilment of requirements for M.Sc. in Sociology,
1985-87 and partial fulfilment of requirements Ph.D. in Development Studies, Consortium
Graduate School of the Social Sciences, 1994-96; and B.A. in Communication with Language
and Literature, 1982.Dr. Tafari-Ama has lectured internationally and in several departments of
the University of the West Indies since 2004, including the Institute of Gender of Development
Studies, (Feminist Methodology and Epistemology); the Caribbean Institute of Media and
Communication (The Policy Process and Participatory Action Research); the Institute of
Caribbean Studies (The Culture of Rastafari, Rastafari in the Global Context, Caribbean Folk
Philosophy and African Religious Retentions in the Caribbean) and currently, she teaches in the
Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work (Thought and Action in the African
Diaspora and Race, Ethnicity and National Identities in the Caribbean).
Since May 2013, Dr. Imani Tafari-Ama has been co-host on Fresh Start, the programme that airs
6-9 a.m. on NewsTALK93FM, (www.newstalk93fm.com), the University of the West Indies
Mona Campus content-driven radio station and also a member of the NewsTALK 93FM's
Sales/Marketing team.
Jeremiah Dibua, Ph.D.
Dr. Jeremiah Dibua holds the BA and MA degrees in History from the University of Ibadan,
Ibadan, Nigeria, and the Ph.D. degree in History from the University of Benin, Benin City,
Nigeria. He has taught courses on History, African, and African American Studies, at the Bendel
State University (now Ambrose Alli University), Nigeria, University of Benin, Nigeria, and
North Carolina Central University, United States. He is currently Professor of History and
Coordinator of Graduate Programs in History and African American Studies at Morgan State
University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States. He is the author of Modernization and the Crisis
of Development in Africa: The Nigerian Experience, Ashgate , 2006, and Development and
Diffusionism: Looking Beyond Neopatrimonialism in Nigeria, 1962-1985, Palgrave Macmillan,
2013, as well as numerous book chapters and articles in various international scholarly journals.
He has presented papers in scholarly conferences and serves on the editorial board of scholarly
journals.
Jonathan Egesi
Veverable Jonathan Chidomere Egesi is a priest of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican
Communion) and equally a senior lecturer in the Department of General Studies (GNS) Imo
State Polytechnic Umuagwo - Ohaji, Owerri, Nigeria. A sociologist of profound intellect and
consummate skills in research and teaching, Venerable Egesi, holds M.Sc (Hons) Degree in
Sociology, B.Sc (Hons) Degree in Sociology and Anthropology, both of which were received
from the prestigious Imo State University, Owerri 2007 and 2001 respectively in addition to
National Certificate in Education (NCE) in Political Science/Religious Studies (2009) Diploma
in Theology (2009) Ph.D in Sociology (in view). With an outstanding proficiency in computer
literacy, Venerable Egesi, has garnered long years of teaching experience, many of which he has
spent at Imo State Polytechnic Umuagwo - Ohaji, Owerri, Nigeria (2007 to date) and at the
National Open University (NOUN) Owerri Study Centre where he serves as a co-facilitator.
Venerable Egesi, has several books to his credit and has contributed to countless articles in both
local and international journals and magazines. A widely traveled academic, he has participated
in innumerable national and international conferences in Nigeria and overseas.