Dr. Kọ́lá Abímbọ́lá ifa priest philosopher Howard university www.abimbola.net Kọ́lá Abímbọ́lá studied the Ifá Literary Corpus as an apprentice underWándé Abímbọ́lá and Babalọ́lá Adébóyè Ifátóògùn. He undertook his PhD studies in Philosophy of Science under John Worrall at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a second PhD in the Law of Evidence and Criminal Justice under C. John Miller at the University of Birmingham. He has taught at Seattle University, Haverford College, Temple University, and at the University of Leicester School of Law. He is currently an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Howard University in Washington DC, United States. Kọ́lá is the Editor of Journal of Journal of Forensic Research and Criminology. He was President of the International Society for African Philosophy and Studies from 2006 to 2010, and a British Council Commonwealth Academic Scholar from 1989 to 1992. Area of Specialization: Practical Reasoning, with expertise in
Orisa Epistemology: Ifá as the GPS of Life Ifá dídá is universally translated, analyzed and studied as Ifá “divination,” which would make it a “practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural means.” This received view of Ifá as a divination system is at best limited and at worst egregiously misleading. I present a robust and comprehensive account of Ifá as it actually functions in the daily lives of over 200 million practitioners of Òrìṣà Religion. When examined within its own proper context, Ifá is a collective/individual doxastic belief system that provides a unique paradigm on the nature and structure of knowledge, belief and practical reasoning. To this end, I will outline the indigenous (but global) paradigm of knowledge that Ifá dídá proffers, and then compare and contrast it with analytic philosophy’s conceptions of knowledge on the one hand, and religious supernaturalistic conceptions of divination on the other hand. This presentation will show that we have been misled by the received view in fundamental ways. I outline the quite different paradigm that emerges from the study of Ifá dídá as an epistemological system. 
Frederick Kwasi Dunyo master drummer vodu priest teacher university of toronto york university www.dunyo.com www.dagbamete.org/shrine/ Frederick Kwasi Dunyo was born at the Ewe village of Dagbamete, in the Volta Region of Ghana. He has been playing the drums from the time he could barely reach the top of them. Since then, he has directed, coached, taught, drummed, and danced extensively in a variety of contexts in Ghana and across North America. Besides mastering the numerous social and sacred styles of drumming in his local area, Kwasi was the lead drummer for Sankofa Dance Theatre from 1977 to 1981 where, under the tutelage of Godwin Agbeli, he learned much of his repertoire of Ghanaian music. In 1992, Kwasi Dunyo was the recipient of a Visiting Foreign Artist grant from the Canadian government, which provided the basis for his first trip to North America. Kwasi's open and generous teaching style and his love of the music has earned him many praises. Kwasi is the son of a renowned hunor (priest) of the Apetorku Shrine in Dagbamete. His upbringing was saturated with the practice and culture of Vodu as found within that shrine. In the late 1990s he was appointed as Humegbeda or “back” of the deity, and returns several times a year to attend and officiate in rituals. 
Dr. Gloria Emeagwali AIK scholar historian CCSU http://africahistory.net/ Gloria Emeagwali received her B.A. in history from the University of the West Indies in 1973. In 1976, she received a Dip. Ed. from the University of London and M.A. in history from the University of Toronto. She received her Ph.D. in history from Ahmadu Bello University [Nigeria] in 1985. She joined the CCSU faculty in 1991. Prior to her arrival, she taught at the University of Ilorin [Nigeria], the Nigerian Defence Academy, and Ahmadu Bello University. She was the founding coordinator of the African Studies Program at CCSU, serving from 1992 until 1997. She was a Visiting Scholar and Senior Associate Member at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University in 1990-91, and also a Visiting Scholar at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford, in Spring 2000. Dr. Emeagwali’s teaching interests include world history, African history, and specific courses on the African Diaspora in the Caribbean, the History of South Africa, and African History through Film. Her current research focuses upon the historical context of African Indigenous Technology and its implications for sustained economic growth. Dr. Emeagwali’s personal website, African Indigenous Science and Knowledge Systems, has been recognized by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as one of the top fifty websites on Africa. She is also the Chief Editor of Africa Update. The 2014 Distinguished Research Excellence Award, University of Texas, Austin 
Elder Larry Grant Elder of the Musqueam Nation Larry Grant, Musqueam Elder, was born and raised in Musqueam traditional territory by a traditional hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking Musqueam family. After 4 decades as a tradesman, Larry enrolled in the First Nations Languages Program, which awoke his memory of the embedded value that the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language has to self-identity, kinship, culture, territory, and history prior to European contact. He is presently assisting in revitalizing hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ in the Musqueam Language and Culture Department, and co-teaching the introductory hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ course through UBC with Dr. Patricia Shaw. Larry is the Elder-in-Residence at UBC’s First Nations House of Learning. He is a Faculty Fellow at St. John’s College, and the inaugural Honorary Life Fellow for Green College. In 2010, he received the Alumni Award of Distinction from Vancouver Community College, and in 2014, he became an Honorary Graduate from the Native Indian Teacher Education Program (NITEP) at UBC. http://fnel.arts.ubc.ca/profiles/elder-larry-grant/ 
Dr. Mark Turin CO-CHAIR, INSTITUTE FOR CRITICAL INDIGENOUS STUDIES UBC http://anth.ubc.ca/faculty/mark-turin/ Mark Turin (PhD, Linguistics, Leiden University, 2006) is an anthropologist, linguist and broadcaster whose work focuses on language endangerment and revitalization. Before joining UBC as Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the First Nations and Endangered Languages Program, Turin was an Associate Research Scientist in South Asian Studies at Yale and Program Director of the Yale Himalaya Initiative. Previously, Turin held the post of Research Associate at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. Professor Turin directs both the World Oral Literature Project, an urgent global initiative to document and make accessible endangered oral literatures before they disappear without record, and the Digital Himalaya Project which he co-founded in 2000 as a platform to make multi-media resources from the Himalayan region widely available online. He has also held research appointments at Cornell and Leipzig universities, as well as the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology in Sikkim, India. From 2007 to 2008, he served as Chief of Translation and Interpretation at the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN). Mark Turin writes and teaches on ethnolinguistics, visual anthropology, digital archives and fieldwork methodology. He is the author or co-author of four books, three travel guides, the editor of eight volumes, the co-editor of the journal Himalaya and he edits a new series on oral literature. Mark is a regular BBC presenter on issues of linguistic diversity and language endangerment. |
Gloria Kendi Borona phd candidate Dept. of forestry UBC Gloria Kendi Borona has research interests in sustainable management of natural resources and cultural landscapes, and the interface between the two. She has over the last eight years, worked with diverse communities in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi in programs designed to ensure conservation of natural and cultural heritage and improvement of community livelihoods. Gloria strongly believes that the answers to the long-term conservation of natural resources lies in constructive engagement with local/indigenous communities. This was reinforced through her interaction/work with the Aboriginal communities of northern Australia /Kakadu National Park. Gloria has worked professionally with international non-governmental organizations, national and local governments as well as bi-lateral agencies in resource management programs. She currently serves in the World Archaeological CongressCouncil as senior representative for East and southern Africa. For her PhD research, Gloria will pursue three inter-related areas; sustainable management of forest resources through involvement of forest dependent communities, the inter linkages between conservation and development and decentralization of forest management as a conservation strategy. Forests as sites of anti-colonial struggles: The Mau Mau and the fight against British imperialism in Kenya Forested landscapes play many roles such as supporting community livelihoods, provision of ecosystem services, but they are also sites of struggle in African countries such as in Kenya where they were central to the fight against colonial rule. The Mau Mau guerilla movement retreated to the forests from which they launched an all-out war believed to be the most spirited and protracted battles for self-determination in the British Empire. The author will demonstrate the use of indigenous knowledge systems in fighting for ithaka(land) and wiyathi(self-rule) and how the forest sustained the movement. 
Dr. Wade Davis explorer writer professor UBC www.daviswade.com An ethnographer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker, Davis holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. Mostly through the Harvard Botanical Museum, he spent over three years in the Amazon and Andes as a plant explorer, living among fifteen indigenous groups in eight Latin American nations while making some 6000 botanical collections. In 1974, at the age of 20, he crossed the Darien Gap on foot in the company of the celebrated English author and amateur explorer, Sebastian Snow.[1] His work later took him to Haiti to investigate folk preparations implicated in the creation of zombies, an assignment that led to his writing Passage of Darkness (1988) and The Serpent and the Rainbow (1986), an international best seller and, loosely, the basis of a horror film. His other books include Penan: Voice for the Borneo Rain Forest (1990), Shadows in the Sun (1993), Nomads of the Dawn (1995), The Clouded Leopard (1998), Rainforest (1998), Light at the Edge of the World (2001), The Lost Amazon (2004), Grand Canyon (2008), Book of Peoples of the World (ed. 2008) and One River (1996), which was nominated for the 1997 Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction. His books have been translated into fourteen languages, including Basque, Serbian, Japanese and Malay. A native of British Columbia, Davis, a licensed river guide, has worked as park ranger, forestry engineer, and conducted ethnographic fieldwork among several indigenous societies of northern Canada. He has published 180 scientific and popular articles on subjects ranging from Haitian vodoun and Amazonian myth and religion to the global biodiversity crisis, the traditional use of psychotropic drugs, and the ethnobotany of South American Indians. Davis has written for National Geographic, Newsweek, Premiere, Outside, Omni, Harpers, Fortune, Men's Journal, Condé Nast Traveler, Natural History, Scientific American, National Geographic Traveler, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, and numerous other international publications. Davis is a Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) His photographs have appeared in some 20 books and more than 80 magazines, journals and newspapers, including National Geographic, Time, GEO, People, Men’s Journal, Outside, and National Geographic Adventure. They have been exhibited at the International Center of Photography (I.C.P.), the Marsha Ralls Gallery, Washington, D.C., the United Nations (Cultures on the Edge exhibition 2004), the Carpenter Center of Harvard University, and the Utama Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Select images are part of the permanent collection of the U.S. State Department, Africa and Latin America Bureaus. Davis is the co-curator of The Lost Amazon: The Photographic Journey of Richard Evans Schultes, first exhibited at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and currently touring Latin America. A first collection of Davis’ photographs, Light at the Edge of the World, appeared in 2001 published by National Geographic Books, Bloomsbury and Douglas & McIntyre. A second collection is under contract for fall 2011 publication with Douglas & McIntyre. Davis’ research has been the subject of more than 800 media reports and interviews in Europe, North and South America and the Far East, and has inspired numerous documentary films as well as three episodes of the television series, The X-Files. A professional speaker for over twenty years, Davis has lectured at the American Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, California Academy of Sciences, Missouri Botanical Garden, Field Museum of Natural History, New York Botanical Garden, National Geographic Society, Royal Ontario Museum, the Explorer's Club, the Royal Geographical Society, the Oriental Institute, the Chattauqua Institute, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank as well as some 400 renowned educational institutions, including Harvard, M.I.T., Oxford, Yale, Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, Duke, Vanderbilt, University of Pennsylvania, Tulane, Georgetown, and St. George's School. He has spoken at the Aspen Institute, Bohemian Grove and on numerous occasions for the Young Presidents' Organization and at the TED Conference. His clients have included amongst others Microsoft, Shell, Hallmark, Fidelity Investments, Bank of Nova Scotia, Mackenzie Financial, Healthcare Association of Southern California, National Science Teachers Association, NDMA (Non-prescriptive Drug Manufacturers Association), International Baccalaureate, European Council of International Schools, Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Canadian Association of Exploration Geophysicists, American Trial Lawyer’s Association, American Judges Association, American Bankers Association, Centaur Technology, Canadian Association of Actuaries, Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, as well as several leading pharmaceutical companies including Warner-Lambert, Bayer, Miles, Bristol-Myers, and Abbott Laboratories. An Honorary Research Associate of the Institute of Economic Botany of the New York Botanical Garden, he is a Fellow of the Linnean Society, Fellow of the Explorer's Club, and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Davis was a founding board member of the David Suzuki Foundation and he recently completed a six-year term on the board of the Banff Centre, Canada’s leading institution for the arts. He has served on the Board of Directors since 2009 for the Amazon Conservation Association, whose mission is to conserve the biological diversity of the Amazon. In 2009 he delivered the CBC Massey Lectures, Canada’s most prestigious public intellectual forum. Davis was the series creator, host and co-writer of Light at the Edge of the World, a four-hour ethnographic documentary series, shot in Rapa Nui, Tahiti, the Marquesas, Nunuvut, Greenland, Nepal and Peru, which is currently airing in 165 countries on the National Geographic Channel and in the USA on Smithsonian Networks. Davis is a principal character in the MacGillivray Freeman IMAX film, Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk, (http://www.grandcanyonadventurefilm.com) released in the spring of 2008. Currently playing in 55 theatres worldwide, the film has grossed more than $25 million. Other television credits include the award winning documentaries, Spirit of the Mask, Cry of the Forgotten People, Forests Forever, and Earthguide, a 13 part television series on the environment, which aired on the Discovery Channel in 1990. Davis has recently completed a new four-hour series for the National Geographic, Ancient Voices/Modern World, which was shot in Australia, Mongolia, and Colombia. It is currently airing worldwide on the National Geographic Channel as the second season of Light at the Edge of the World. Davis is a member of the International Advisory Board, Hunt Consolidated, PLNG, and is also currently engaged in a three-year campaign, Journey to Zero, an effort sponsored by Nissan and TBWA to support zero emission vehicles. When not in the field, Davis and his wife Gail Percy divide their time between Washington, D.C., Vancouver and the Stikine Valley of northern British Columbia. They have two children. In late 2013, Davis joined the University of British Columbia as research and teaching faculty. 
Dr. Kofi Gbolonyo MUSICIAN PROFESSOR OF AFRICAN STUDIES & ETHNOMUSICOLOGY UBC http://music.ubc.ca/person/j-s-kofi-gbolonyo/ Dr. Kofi Gbolonyo joined the UBC School of music in September, 2009, soon after completing his Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology with a Graduate Certificate in African studies, at the University of Pittsburgh. Since joining UBC faculty, he has been teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in Ethnomusicology and in the UBC African Studies Minor Program. He also founded and directs the UBC African Music and Dance Ensemble. Prior to his appointment at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Gbolonyo was the director of the University of Pittsburgh African Music and Dance Ensemble (2005-2009), taught as a part-time instructor (2008-2009), and as a teaching fellow (2005-2008) at the Department of Music, University of Pittsburgh. He served as a production assistant at the School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana, worked with Abibigromma, the resident theater company of the university (2002-2003), and directed the University of Ghana’s African Brass Ensemble (1999-2001). He was also the site coordinator of the Annual International Summer Course in African Music and Dance organized by the World Music Center, West Virginia University in Ghana (1995-2003) directed by Dr. Paschal Yao Younge. Dr. Gbolonyo is a scholar, music educator, and performer. He is a clinician in African music and dance, Orff Schulwerk (Orff-Afrique), and multicultural music education. He has taught at different levels of education in Ghana, Togo, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, Holland, Spain, Singapore, Brazil, Finland, France, Taiwan, Dubai, China, Germany, Austria, and in many states in the United State of America and provinces in Canada. Dr. Kofi Gbolonyo is the founder and director of the Ghana School Project and Nunya Music Academy at Dzodze, Ghana (www.ghanaschoolproject.com), an educational project that aims to provide free education in both traditional and Western music and dance for any willing child, especially those from financially underprivileged backgrounds. He also co-founded and directs Adanu Habobo, a Vancouver based community Ghanaian dance-drumming ensemble. Ewe Musical Texts as Vehicles of Indigenous Knowledge and Concepts: A Linguistico-Philosophical Exposition This talk presents Ewe song texts as vehicles of philosophical thought. It is well known that language makes and channels concepts and embodies philosophical points of view (Deutscher, 2010). It is also accepted that indigenous African thought systems (“traditional African philosophy”) comprise a body of knowledge contained in and constructed out of the traditions of language, art, “collective” wisdom, and memory (Oruka 1990). These systems developed through processes in which the beliefs, behavior, and deep thoughts of certain special members of a community are recorded. Often labeled and regarded as deep thinkers or sages, these special members attain high levels of knowledge and understanding of their culture’s world-view through deep thinking, reflection, and questioning of received knowledge. My close reading of selected song texts performed by master musicians reveals a deep and profound residue of philosophical thought expressed in terse musical language. Ewe master musicians are indigenous ‘scholars’ who use their creative musico-linguistic talents and skills to express thoughts that shape their society. To support my argument, I draw from my ethnographic research work (Gbolonyo, 2009), including interviews with custodians of Ewe traditional knowledge and analysis of song texts. I expose three foundational concepts that embody notions of metaphysics, gender and humanity. Metaphysics is signaled by Etoe nye agbe (the triality of life and trinity of Mawu/Se), dzodzome (the three-pronged conception of existence), amegbeto (tripartite conception of personhood), and agbelekusi (life-death complementarity); gender by No (the concept and power of femininity); and humanity by Novi, amedzro, and agoo-ame (concepts of sibling, stranger, permission). I show that while the concept of God (including ‘trinitarian’) was never borrowed or informed by any external agents or ideology, such concepts as “heaven,” “hell,” “sin,” “satan” are not indigenous to the Ewe but are Euro-Christian colonial indoctrinations. I argue that the deeper and wider significance of the concepts of novi, amedzro, and agoo-ame in Ewe culture is to deter people from confining their view of relations to the purely biological or blood level and to embrace the wider social and human stage—the level where the essence of humanity is held as transcending the contingencies of biological relation, race, or ethnicity. The fact that songs are a repository of such deep thinking suggests that we may yet profit from closer attention to what musicians say in song. 
Dr. Sheryl Lightfoot canada research chair in global indigenous rights & politics UBC http://fnis.arts.ubc.ca/persons/sheryl-lightfoot/ Sheryl Lightfoot (PhD – University of Minnesota, Political Science) is Anishinaabe, a citizen of the Lake Superior Band of Ojibwe, enrolled at the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in Baraga, Michigan. She is an associate professor in First Nations and Indigenous Studies and the Department of Political Science. Sheryl is Canada Research Chair in Global Indigenous Rights and Politics. She holds a Master’s Degree from the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, with specialties in Foreign Policy and International Affairs as well as Economic and Community Development. She also has fifteen years’ volunteer and contract experience with a number of American Indian tribes and community-based organizations in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, including nine years as Chair of the Board of the American Indian Policy Center, a research and advocacy group. Her book, Global Indigenous Politics: A Subtle Revolution, was published in May 2016 by Routledge Press in their “Worlding Beyond the West” critical international relations book series. Sheryl is currently engaged in a SSHRC-funded project, “The Politics of State Apologies to Indigenous Peoples,” a major multi-national comparative study of state apologies to Indigenous peoples. 
Kurai Blessing Mubaiwa shona mbira master vancouver, bc www.zimbamoto.com www.zhambai.com Kurai Blessing Mubaiwa was born in 1976 in the village of Mutimbanyoka, in Murewa district, Zimbabwe. With an exceptional interest as a young child he began playing mbira at the age of six. This keen learner watched while his father, uncles and other village elders played mbira in traditional ceremonies and soon he began his journey as a young child singing, dancing, playing mbira and drums in traditional ceremonies and other village gatherings. In 1994 Kurai moved to the city of Harare where he joined the cultural group Savannah Arts where he learned to play marimba and trained as an actor. Here he facilitated and coordinated the Streets Ahead programme which focused on teaching street youth to play marimba. In 1995 he participated in The Youth Forum and taught cultural arts in Copenhagen, and Arhus, Denmark. In 1998 Kurai toured West Africa and Europe with Chiwoniso Maraire and opened for Cesaria Evora. In 2000 he joined Theatre Talipot in Reunion Island performing in the production, Passage, which also toured South Africa, France and Scotland. Kurai immigrated to Vancouver in 2002 where he began his Canadian musical journey. Here he began teaching at the Britannia World Music Program facilitating and instructing children, youth and adults marimba classes until 2010. He continues to facilitate and instruct marimba, singing, mbira and drumming workshops across Vancouver, Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Canada, North America and Europe. Kurai also continues to perform as the lead musician with the group ZimbaMoto and Zhambai Trio. As a solo act, Kurai also tours the world performing and teaching, singing, marimba and mbira at festivals as WOMAD, ZimFest and Montreal Jazz Festival. |
Adanu Habobo
west african drum & dance Ensemble
vancouver, bc
vancouver, bc
www.adanuhabobo.com
Adanu Habobo was formed in August 2012 by Dr. Kofi Gbolonyo and Curtis Andrews who share a common love and passion for the culture of Ghana, especially that of the Ewe and related peoples of Togo and Benin. Together, they laid the foundation for Adanu and lead the group together in teaching their repertoire of Ghanaian cultural dances to members of the ensemble.
Adanu Habobo itself is made up of a wide variety of people from various backgrounds who also share a love for learning and performing African music and dance.
The word "adanu" refers to the Ewe concept "artistic wisdom" to put it briefly. "Habobo" refers to an association of members, usually that of music/dance.
The ensemble, co-directed by Gbolonyo and Andrews operates as a semi-professional entity, with a defined structure, mandate and purpose. The group also features special guest musicians including dancer/drummer Awal Alhassan (Ghana/Seattle), dancer/musician Kurai Mubaiwa (Zimbabwe/Canada), and from time to time, a horn ensemble of saxophones, trumpet and sousaphone(!!).
Adanu Habobo was formed in August 2012 by Dr. Kofi Gbolonyo and Curtis Andrews who share a common love and passion for the culture of Ghana, especially that of the Ewe and related peoples of Togo and Benin. Together, they laid the foundation for Adanu and lead the group together in teaching their repertoire of Ghanaian cultural dances to members of the ensemble.
Adanu Habobo itself is made up of a wide variety of people from various backgrounds who also share a love for learning and performing African music and dance.
The word "adanu" refers to the Ewe concept "artistic wisdom" to put it briefly. "Habobo" refers to an association of members, usually that of music/dance.
The ensemble, co-directed by Gbolonyo and Andrews operates as a semi-professional entity, with a defined structure, mandate and purpose. The group also features special guest musicians including dancer/drummer Awal Alhassan (Ghana/Seattle), dancer/musician Kurai Mubaiwa (Zimbabwe/Canada), and from time to time, a horn ensemble of saxophones, trumpet and sousaphone(!!).