“Who Owns the Oil?
Corporations, the State, Heritage, and the Politics of Claim-Making in Africa”
Friday April 3, 2015
Vandenberg Room, Michigan League
Organizers: Omolade Adunbi with Charisse Willis
Conference Schedule
8:15-8:45 a.m.: Registration
8:45 a.m.:Welcome Address - Kelly Askew (Associate Professor of Anthropology and Afroamerican and African Studies and Director of the African Studies Center, University of Michigan)
9:00-10:00 a.m.: Panel 1
Chair: David Doris (Associate Professor in the Department of the History of Art, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, and the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, University of Michigan)
• His Royal Majesty Afolabi Odidiomo, Larada I, The Olu of Igbokoda - “Crude Oil in Ilaje: Claim-making and the Politics of Underdevelopment”
• His Royal Majesty Dr. Lawrence A.A. Omowole, III, Amapetu of Mahinland
• His Royal Majesty Dr. Frederick E. Obateru Akinrutan, Okoro Ajiga I, Olugbo of Ugboland
10:00-10:20 a.m.: Tea & Coffee Break
10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. : Panel 2
Chair: Derek Peterson (Professor of History and Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan)
• Howard Stein ( Professor School of Public Health, Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan) – “Oil and the Structure of African Economies”
• Isaac Osuoka (Postdoctoral visitor at the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University) – “Privatizing Dissent: Oil and the Politics of Resistance and ‘Development’ in the Niger Delta”
• Babajide Ololajulo (Senior Lecturer at the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan) – “‘It is Our Oil’: Communities, Heritage and the Politics of Claim-making in Nigeria”
• Anne Pitcher (Professor, Afroamerican and African Studies, Associate Chair for African Studies, University of Michigan) – “Buying Contentment? Oil Revenues, Housing Delivery and Distributive Politics in Angola”
12:30-2:00 p.m.: Lunch Break
2:15 - 4:15 p.m.: Panel 3
Chair: Adam Ashforth (Professor, Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan)
• Lori Leonard (Cornell University) – “The ‘first well’ and Other Heritage Stories: Inventions, Exclusions, and the Politics of Belonging in Chad”
• Lucia Cantero (Assistant Professor of International Studies,University of San Francisco) – “A Carbon Commons? Crude Sovereignty in Petrobras and Sonangol “
• Hannah Appel (Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of California- Los Angeles) – “The Contract Form: Ownership and Legal Liberalism in Equatorial Guinea”
• Omolade Adunbi (Assistant Professor, Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan) “Imagining Communities, Contesting Cultural Heritage: Oil and the Production of Cultural Meanings in Nigeria”
4:15-4:30 p.m.: Tea/Coffee Break
4:45-5:00 p.m.: Closing Remarks – Frieda Ekotto (Chair,Department of Afroamerican and African Studies and Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Michigan)
Dinner directly following in the DAAS Conference Room (4701 Haven Hall)
