The Daily Bulletin Archive

Africa, the world’s second-largest continent, has a population of more than 1 billion people. Add to that number the millions of people around the world who are part of the African diaspora, and the result is a glimpse of the scope and ambition of contemporary African and African American studies.

“In many colleges and universities, the name of such programs is now Africana studies,” said Aimable Twagilimana, professor of English and coordinator of Buffalo State’s African and African American Studies (AAAS) Interdisciplinary Unit. “The change in name reflects a change in focus from the programs established following the 1960s civil rights movement in the United States. People of African descent live not only in the United States, but also in Canada, the Caribbean islands, Europe, South America, and other places in the world. In fact, more people of African descent live in Brazil than in America. The discourse of African studies has shifted to a diasporic discourse. Africana studies encompass the study and production of knowledge concerning African, African American, and Caribbean people in a broad range of disciplines including but not limited to anthropology, history, culture, language and literature, political science, sociology, and women’s studies.”

Twagilimana himself was born in Rwanda, where he went to an exclusive boarding school at the age of 12. “I was lucky to get into that high school,” he said. “In Rwanda, attending high school was—and still is in many ways—like having your life handed to you on a gold platter. Just 2 percent of the people who finished elementary school in the mid-1970s went on to high school. The number has jumped to about 18 percent in recent years.” He said it saddens him when he sees students’ lack of appreciation for the opportunity to obtain an education.

He came to the United States in 1992 as a student on a Fulbright scholarship and earned his doctorate in English at the University at Buffalo, focusing on African American literature, nineteenth-century American literature, and critical theory. In 2008–2009, he went back to Africa as a Senior Fulbright scholar and taught American literature at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal. He also furthered his research on Senegalese poet Léopold Sédar Senghor, who, with Aimé Césaire and Léon Damas, founded the Négritude Movement in Paris in the 1930s. Later, Senghor became president of Senegal (1960–1980) and was inducted into the prestigious Académie Française (French Academy) in 1983, the first African to be elected to that illustrious body.

Twagilimana’s studies and his chairmanship of theAssociation of African Studies Programs inform the way he seeks to shape the African and African American Studies Interdisciplinary Unit, which he sees as valuable to all students for many reasons. “Being a student is about acquiring knowledge,” said Twagilimana. “The study of Africa and its people is important to students interested in today’s global village.”

Because Africa is rich in natural resources, it is of critical importance to the developed nations as well as the emerging and developing countries. Therefore, studying the culture and politics of Africa is relevant to students of many disciplines, including political science and economics. “In today’s world,” Twagilimana said, “we need to be exposed to the complex and intertwined realities of our times.”

Students in his English courses who studied African American literature and world literature (which include African and Caribbean authors) have told him that the experience helped them function more effectively as tutors and teachers in Buffalo schools attended by children whose families emigrated from Africa and other places around the world. These courses and the many others offered in the African and African American studies minor, as well as the events organized by the unit, contribute a great deal to the infusion of diversity and global issues in the curriculum.

On October 29, Carl Wilkens will speak on campus at 12:15 p.m. in Bulger Communication Center North. Wilkens, the only American who stayed in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide started, helped to prevent the deaths of hundreds of people. His story has been told onFrontline, by Human Rights Watch, and in the New York Times. The campus community is invited.