The International African Institute (IAI) warmly invites you to the book
launch and symposium discussion of
Among the Mende in Sierra Leone: the letters from Sjoerd Hofstra (1934-36)
Edited and translated by Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra. Published 2014 by the
African Studies Centre, Leiden
Panel discussion with:
Paul Basu, Krijn Peters, Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra, Paul Richards
Thursday 19 June 2014, 5.30-7pm, Room 116, SOAS. Thornhaugh Street, Russell
Square, London WC1H OXG
All welcome - rsvp/enquiries to [log in to unmask]
Sjoerd Hofstra was one of three anthropologists sent to British West Africa
in the 1930s by the International African Institute to implement a
programme of 'deep immersion' fieldwork, mentored by Bronislaw Malinowski.
Hofstra's fieldwork in Panguma, Lower Bambara chiefdom in eastern Sierra
Leone, was cut short by Blackwater Fever. The monographs by his peers,
Frederick Nadel and Meyer Fortes, which appeared in the 1940s, became much
better known. But Hofstra's letters from the field written to his adoptive
mother are of considerable interest as ethnographic output. Marijke
Gijswijt-Hofstra (a former professor of social history at University of
Amsterdam, and authority on European witchcraft) has newly edited and
translated them from Dutch. Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra will introduce the
work of Sjoerd Hofstra and discuss the detailed project of translating and
editing his letters. Krijn Peters, author of the IAI's War and the Crisis
of Youth in Sierra Leone (Cambridge Univ. Press 2011) will contribute a
current anthropological perspective on the Lower Bambara region in Sierra
Leone.
'...deserves to become a key reference in debates in anthropology about the
nature and purpose of ethnographic writing. Here is the anthropologist
unadorned - frank, straightforward, subtle and humane.' - Paul Richards
For further details see
http://www.gatewayforafrica.org/event/book-launch-among-mende-sierra-leone
--
Stephanie Kitchen
Chair of the Publications Committee
International African Institute
School of Oriental and African Studies
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H OXG
www.internationalafricaninstitute.org
Tel: +44(0)20 7898 4435 (o)
+44(0)7966 045144 (m)
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