Date & Time: Friday, December 21, 2018 5:40 pm - 7:10 pm Venue: Room 322, Research and Lecture Building, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Speaker: Dr. Gairoonisa Paleker(Visiting Professor, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies / Senior Lecturer, University of Pretoria) Theme: New Media, New History?: Some reflections on Zulu and its afterlife in historical studies Report: Dr. Gairoonisa Paleker, a visiting Professor from University of Pretoria, delivered a lecture titled: "New Media, New History? Some Reflections on Zulu and Its Afterlife in Historical Studies." Dr. Paleker in her introduction specified that, film in historical studies is approached in two important ways, which are (1) Film as a historical source-which is readily accepted by historians and (2) Film as history-which is hardly accepted by historians. Dr. Paleker highlighted a few criticisms of film considered as history, and they are: film do not represent the complexity of the past; films individualize and romanticize the past; films are subjective and emotive and finally, films are unable to depict details and debate among historians. Moreover, Dr. Paleker said, her research focuses on Zulu (1964) as both primary source and historical text. As a primary source, she indicated that from her perspective, Zulu is read for information about the context of production and context of reception, which means that, Zulu in history as providing information about the social and political concerns of the period of production and reception. Similarly, as a historical text, she read Zulu for the multiple historical meanings that have been created and re-created in its 54 years history, which also means that, Zulu as history, as visual text representing aspect of the past. Coalescing these two perspectives, Dr. Paleker posed a rhetorical question, what this film, and its very long afterlife on both conventional and new media platforms means for the discipline of history? Dr. Paleker concisely recounted the historical battle that ensued between the Zulu Warriors and the British, and its historical importance in film production. She said approximately 400 Zulu warriors march on the mission station "Rorke Drift," and the plot of the film focuses on this encounter between the small British contingent and the numerically superior Zulu force, an encounter that eventually gave the British success in repelling the Zulu force and retaking Rorke Drift. She said the scene ended with the Zulu force singing a song in praise of British Valour, while at the same time, the British responded with the Welsh Marching song concurrently. Dr. Paleker said this film was first premiered in 1964 and screened at the Plaza Cinema in London. She also stated that a turn in the millennium poll conducted by the British institute in 1999, placed Zulu at 31 out of the 100 greatest British films of the twentieth century. Concluding, Dr. Paleker emphasized that, the proliferation of mass digital media not only contributes to the long tail of this film, but in each viewing, each generation of viewers becomes a "prosumer" of history (Producer and consumer). She asserted that, the new history which is enabled by new media has numerous implications on five C's, which are: context, causality, contingency, complexity and Change over time.

Dr. Mabutho Shangase had a lecture at 8th KU-TUFS Seminar at Kyoto University. The seminar was jointly organized by Center for African Area Studies (CAAS), Kyoto University and African Studies Center, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (ASC - TUFS). At the seminar, Dr. Shangase talked about exercise of state autonomy to achieve macro-economic stability and effect incremental policy change in South Africa between 1994 and 2014. He explained the movement of South Africa in this period by using the three elements comprising conjunctual state autonomy: the historical context, the prevailing neoliberal paradigm, as well as a professional bureaucracy.

Date & Time: Monday, December 10, 2018 5:40 pm - 7:10 pm Venue: Room 211, Research and Lecture Building, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Speaker: Professor Owen Greene(Professor, Peace Studies and International Development, University of Bradford, UK) Theme: Human Security, Peace Building and State Building in Peace Missions: Dilemmas and Lessons Learned from Africa Report: Peace Studies and International Development Professor, from University of Bradford, United Kingdom, on invitation by African Studies Center delivered a public lecture on the theme: "Human Security, Peace Building and State-Building in Peace Missions: Dilemma and Lessons from Africa." Professor Owen Greene expounded that the end of Cold War saw the emergence of many intractable intra-state wars across many countries, but largely in the post independent African states. He stated that most of those countries were confronted with fragility related complications, such as profound division and corruption; weak state institutions; low security protection for population, low resilience to shocks and incoherent economic governance system, lack of rule of law, low access to fair, legitimate and dispute settlement, and most importantly, the prevalence of societal cleavages within the context of weak national identity or solidarity. Professor Owen Greene emphasized that the emergence of peacebuilding, state building and human security in conflict and post conflict countries, are intended to strengthen national capacities at all levels for conflict management, resolution and reconciliation, and to lay solid foundation for sustainable peace, development. In the same context, he added that, these approaches will help to build or rebuild institutions of government that guarantees peaceful values, that respect human rights, rule of law and security, and improve on the political process. However, Professor Owen Greene also specified that, there have been substantial lessons learned from conflict and post conflict interventions and on state building efforts in fragile states. These lessons according Professor Owen Greene includes: the understanding that the drivers of fragility are typically powerful and difficult to overcome; that the ongoing piecemeal initiatives are challenging to sustain; that the plausible progress at local level are not solid to scale up or even be sustained; and ultimately, that post conflict peacebuilding requires long term effort by critical mass of elites. With the emerged tensions in peacebuilding, state building and human security missions in conflict affected areas, Professor Owen Greene emphasizes on peacebuilding to begin somewhere in-between the top-down and bottom-up, otherwise known as "community security building." Professor Owen Greene stated that, this approach is a people-centred approach that addresses insecurity and integrates human security, development and state building paradigms. This approach, according to the Professor, is supposed to work in bringing a wide range of state and civil society actors from the security demands and supply sides to identify the root causes of insecurity collectively, and to develops coordinated response to them. In conclusion, Professor Owen Greene reiterated that, such paradigm will build on the capacity and willingness of communities, as well as helps societies with wider reforms that can guarantees people-focused policies, at sub-national and national levels.

Date & Time: Thursday, December 6, 2018 5:40 pm - 7:10 pm Venue: Room 317, Research and Lecture Building, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Speaker: Dr. Raymond Lumbuenamo(Professor, University of Kinshasa and Unesco Regional School of Tropical Forest and Land Management (ERAIFT) / Senior Natural Resources Management Specialist, World Bank) Theme: Inter-basin water transfer: From the Congo basin to Lake Chad: Challenges and opportunities Report: Professor Raymond Lumbuenamo, of the University of Kinshasa and UNESCO Regional School of Tropical Forest and Land Management and, a Senior Natural Resources Management Specialist of the World Bank, on the invitation by the Africa Studies Center at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, delivered a public lecture on the theme: "Inter-Basin Water Transfer: From the Congo Basin to Lake Chad, Challenges and Opportunities." In his opening statement, Professor Lumbuenamo expatiated that over the past 50 years, the Lake Chad has lost 90 percent of its waters. He also referenced Sub-Saharan Africa generally that, of the 800 million people, 300 million live in a water stressed environment. As regards the Lake Chad crisis, Professor Lumbuenamo allotted the cause of its occurrence on two factors. On the natural cause, he stated that desert advancement and climate change has impacted notably on prolonged drought and declining rainfall since 1973. On other hand, the human cause which he termed "Anthropogenic Causes," emanate from each riparian country deciding unilaterally to build dams on rivers that feed the lake and diverting water away, which has resulted into over 50 percent of the lake waters been diverted. For example, he mentioned that, Chari-Logoe River which contributes to more than 80 percent of the Lake Chad water, was drastically altered after Chad built dams and dikes on the Logon in 1970 and diverted two third of its waters; Nigeria built three dams and is planning a fourth on the Komadugu-Yode River Basin which contributes two and half percent of the Lake Chad water, and Nigeria also built dam on the Yedsaram-Ngadda River in Borno. Professor Lumbuenamo identifies Cameroon, Niger, Central African Republican (CAR), Chad and Nigeria as the main actors leading to these brewing crisis, with each having an appreciable proportion of access to the territory in question. Amidst the aforementioned, Professor Lumbuenamo asserted that, there is a growing consensus that Sahel is re-greening compared to the 1980s and this trend is due to the increase in rainfall in the region. He also mentioned about the Lake Chad replenishment project called the "Transaqua Project," which was meant to build a 2400 km canal to collect five percent of the waters of northern tributaries of the Congo River, fifty to hundred billion cubic meters of water per year to restore Lake Chad to its original surface, as well as ends desertification, develop agriculture in the region and generates substantial amount of hydropower. However, Professor characterized it as part of a series of dams and a continuous channel dug at constant attitude. In his conclusion, he mentioned that the question of transferring water from the Ubangi to the lake Chad must take into account the maintenance of the Congo Basin Forest Cover, the biodiversity of the Congo River and its tributaries, the decrease in the amplitude of the water flow variation, the preservation of peatlands, the inland waterways and the welfare of the residents, etc. He therefore, suggested the solar option which would not require a dam construction and therefore will not generate flooding, low environmental hard, cost effective in solar panel installations, no displacement, 3000km2 of water surface of Lake Chad will be installed in a year and the cost for the installation of the solar panels would be much more less than the Transaqua's cost.