Joining Theory and Empiricism in the Remaking of the African Humanities. Public Space, Infrastructure, and Informality in the Splintering City

The event is part of a 5-year collaboration with the University of the Witwatersrand funded by the Mellon Foundation.

Monday, May 4 – 9am
Roundtable: The Open City
Speakers: Leslie Bank, University of Fort Hare), Catherine Fennell (Columbia University),  Martin Murray (University of Michigan Ann Arbor), Gavin Shatkin (Northeastern)
WiSER

5th May – Tuesday – 4:30pm
Roundtable: The Johannesburg Conundrum: Key Dimensions of the Materialities of Delivering Infrastructure
1st Floor Seminar Room, John Moffat Building

6th May – Wednesday – 10 am
Panel: Violence and the Immigrant
Speakers: Khadija Patel (Journalist and WISER Fellow), Bishop Paul Verryn (Civil Rights Activist), Prof Sarah Nuttall (Director of WISER), Neo Muyanga (WISER Resident Composer)
Workers Museum, Newtown

6th May – Wednesday –  (5:30 for 6pm)
Uniti Hymn Concert, with the House of Prayer for All Nations Choir featuring Neo Muyanga
Wits Theatre
The House of Prayer for all Nations Choir comprises members of the Congolese community now living in inner city Johannesburg. They perform gospel songs from the Congo, South Africa and other parts of the continent in the many languages of africa, with the express aim of fostering a spirit of collaboration between Africans in South Africa.

WiSER composer-in-residence, Neo Muyanga, collaborates with the HPN chorus in creating a new hymn - the Uniti anthem, based on the preamble to the national planning commission written by poets, Njabulo Ndebele and Antjie Krog.
The concert premier of the Uniti anthem will be recorded live to form part of an art installation at the African union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, set to open in 2015.


7th May – Thursday – 12
Talk by Rita Barnard: "Temporality as Narrative Infrastructure"
WiSER