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Date: 31 March 2011
Time: 15.30-17.00
Place: Room 3A06, Pieter de la Court building, Wassenaarseweg 52,
Leiden.
Speaker:
Dr Eric Komlavi Hahonou, Assistant Professor/Postdoc at Roskilde
University, Denmark
Discussant:
Han van Dijk
You are kindly requested to register for this seminar.
The documentary ‘Yesterday's Slaves. Democracy and Ethnicity in
Benin’ by Camilla Strandbjerg and Eric Hahonou (2011, 29 minutes) will
be screened during this seminar.
15.30-15.50 Introduction by Eric Hahonou
15.50-16.20 Film
16.20-16.30 Comments by Han van Dijk
16.30-17.00 Discussion
Abstract:
Slavery, emancipation, democracy, citizenship and ethnic groups are
some of the topics covered in this film. Shot in northern Benin (West
Africa), the film traces the long march to freedom of one man. His
personal trajectory, both singular and archetypical, shows how the
marginalized Gando seized the opportunity to access political
representation and citizenship during the recent implementation of
democratic decentralization in Benin. As explained by a mayor and
municipal councillors, the Gando's trajectory to power and citizenship
started with an awakening and mobilization around Gando identity via a
cultural and social movement. The documentary looks at this universal
and complex process: the construction of collective identities.
Eric Hahonou is an Assistant Professor/Postdoc in the Department of
Society and Globalisation/International Development Studies at Roskilde
University, Denmark. He is a member of LASDEL (Laboratory for the Study
and Research on Social Dynamics and Local Development, Niger and Benin).
He will be at the African Studies Centre as a visiting fellow until 16
April 2011.
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