Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world

The present contribution is concerned with scalar concessive conditionals (SCCs) in 9 Bantu languages. The Bantu data will then be compared to data from 30 non-Bantu languages spoken in Africa, revealing broader cross-linguistic tendencies.

Graag nodigen we jullie uit op woensdag 22 april 2026 voor de feestelijke opening van het nieuwe Patrice Lumumbapark (Nieuw-Gent).

De keuze voor deze naam is een belangrijke mijlpaal in de gedeelde inzet voor dekolonisering van de publieke ruimte. In het rapport ‘Dekoloniseer mijn stad’ wordt onder punt 5 ‘Een publieke ruimte waar elke Gentenaar zich in herkent en erkend voelt’ de vraag gesteld naar een inhaalbeweging bij het toekennen van straatnamen. Deze toekenning dient een weerspiegeling te zijn van de samenstelling van de Gentse bevolking en een link te hebben met ons gedeeld koloniaal verleden en migratiegeschiedenis.

Upon invitation of Peter Coutros and Sara Pacchiarotti, Prof. Dr. Karen Lupo, SMU Distinguished Professor at the Department of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University (Dallas, Texas, USA), will give a talk titled Unsettling the Frontier: Rethinking Forager-Farmer Interactions in Prehistoric Central Africa. This is the second talk of the CongUbangi Lecture Series in Archaeology.

The event is open to anyone interested. No registration needed. The talk can also be followed online via Zoom.

Karine Ramondy is a historian and associate researcher at UMR SIRICE, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Her research focuses on the history of Europe-Africa relations in the 20th century, the history of decolonization/independence in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Central Africa, war violence and the circulation of combatants.

In this presentation she will address the many acts of repressive violence perpetrated by colonial authorities and the French army before and after independence of Cameroon in 1960.

This presentation focuses on one of New Orleans’ most enigmatic performance traditions, the Mardi Gras Indians. By interpreting the tradition in an Atlantic context, Dewulf traces the “Black Indians” back to the ancient Kingdom of Kongo and its war dance known as sanga(mento).

By comparing Kongo dances in Latin America, the Caribbean and Louisiana, Dewulf demonstrates that the dances on New Orleans’ Congo Square were part of a much broader Kongolese performance tradition. Dewulf’s groundbreaking research suggests a strong impact of Kongolese traditions on the development of African-American music, dance, and parading culture.

This 19th multidisciplinary conference of the Africa Platform will be co-organised by Ghent University’s Human Rights Research Network and Conflict Research Group. Voices, Rights & Justice in Africa remain highly relevant today due to ongoing challenges related to human rights, environmental rights, rights to health & education, access to legal systems, etc. across the continent. Studying these issues academically will inform policymaking, activism, and international engagement to promote accountability, equity, and sustainable development in African societies.