By David King Daily Bruin Contributor Bringing together 56 presenters representing 17 universities, Saturday's conference called "Africa: Past, Present, and Future" was more than a meeting of minds it was also a celebration.
Marking the 30th anniversary of the James S. Coleman African Studies Center at UCLA, the all-day conference at the Public Policy building was attended by people from as far away as Australia, and covered issues surrounding the continent, its cultures and people.
Although the conference included several keynote speakers including Edmond Kellor, director of the Coleman center the focus of the event was on graduate student presentations, said Lahra Smith, co-organizer of the event.
"It's a good opportunity for graduate students to present their work, with the primary focus on students at UCLA," Smith said.
She said that the day also gives them a chance to network and discover what research is done at other universities.
Vivian Nun Halloran, a UCLA comparative literature graduate student and presenter, said such diversity made the day interesting and constructive.
"(The conference) has included different types of dialogues, which are a very important part of my research," she said.
"This was a great opportunity to talk across the disciplines," Halloran added. "I was really encouraged by the response of the other universities."
Halloran's research investigated the implications of references to Africa's metaphoric parental role in novels such as "Crossing the River" and "A Woman named Solitude."
By analyzing specific passages from the books, Halloran concluded that references to Father Africa are associated with care-giving for children and memories, while Mother Africa often represents violence or pain.
Many presentations not only investigated the culture within the continent, but also examined Africans outside of their homeland.
UCLA African history graduate student T.J. Desch-Obi's presentation investigated the evolution of capoeira, a martial arts dance used for self-defense.
According to Desch-Obi, capoeira was originally known as "azanga" and was brought to Brazil by African slaves.
Although early participants in capoeira known as "maltas" were feared and eventually oppressed by the Brazilian government and police force, the martial art form spread to wider segments of society, Desch-Obi said.
In addition to acrobatic defense of themselves, the dance gave the Africans a group identity.
"Through capoeira, enslaved Africans set out to identify themselves with people of the same ethnicity," Desch-Obi said. "They didn't just fight as individuals, but formed groups, like modern gangs."
He concluded by saying where capoeira was once repressed by Brazil's government, it is now widely accepted, and is mandatory in Brazilian police training.
While Desch-Obi focused on the dances and influence of slaves, Kimberly Willis-Praggett of Clark Atlanta University presented her research on the rites of passages for enslaved African women in America.
Willis-Praggett said pre-colonial African initiation processes were very important for young men and women, often involving separation from their parents, endurance tests including fasting and flogging, and a new name. But such traditions vanished with tribes being captured by slave traders.
"The enslavement process disturbed these age-old traditions of initiation," Willis-Praggett said. "Girls went abruptly into womanhood, from womanhood to forced motherhood and a search for true wifehood."
She added that the concept of rites of passages drastically changed in the young African woman's new world, one that posed unique challenges.
"Where once initiations were a celebration, the new initiations taught young girls how to protect themselves against sexual abuse," Willis-Praggett said. "These young women had to come up with completely new means of helping their children, and helping themselves."
Willis-Praggett ended her presentation by suggesting that while initiation practices were upset by slave trading and colonization, they remain an important part of African culture today.