Topicalities: the years 2002 and 2003
  news on the Shikanda portal : Wim van Binsbergen's publications and work in progress

1. Intro

This page (established February 2002; here only 2002-2003 is given; click here for the years 2004-2005; and here for the years 2006-2007; and here for the years 2008-2009; and here for the years 2010-2011; and here for the years 2012-2013 ) is to alert the visitor of new additions and changes in the Shikanda portal, and reports on recent and forthcoming developments in Wim van Binsbergen's professional activities inthe fields of African Studies, Intercultural Philosophy, Long-Range Cultural Analysis, and Poetry. Hyperlinks give access to the texts in question, and photographs accompany the entries. The information appears in tabulated form. The closer to the top of this page, the more recent an event is. Some events have a page of their own, accessible via a hyperlink; others are merely summarised below, and may then have a simple illustration to mark them.

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if you are through with the topical information below, proceed to the Shikanda portal in order to access all other websites by Wim van Binsbergen: general (intercultural philosophy, African Studies); ethnicity-identity-politics; Afrocentricity and the Black Athena debate; Ancient Models of Thought in Africa, the Ancient Near East, and prehistory; sangoma consultation; literary work  
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5. Topicalities: Wim van Binsbergen's recent publications and work in progress 2002-2003;
this pages only documents the first two years of the series initiated in 2002; click here for the years 2004-2005; and here for the years 2006-2007; and here for the years 2008-2009; and here for the years from 2010-

 

current year: 2005 (begins above this line; the closer to the top of the page, the nearer to 2006)
2004 would have begun above this line
click here for 2004-2005 topicalities
December 2003
1st December 2003: Publication of Wim van Binsbergen, Intercultural Encounters: African and anthropological lessons towards a philosophy of interculturality, Berlin etc.: LIT, 610 pp. (click for details and electronic order form)

Due to the hosting company one2host going totally incommunicado, the domain www.shikanda.net has become inaccessible in the second week of December 2003; a temporary accommodation was meanwhile established at http://ethnicity.bravepages.com ; apologies for the inconvenience

Het gedicht 'Friesland' uit Wim van Binsbergens bundel Vrijgeleide is opgenomen in de gezaghebbende bloemlezing van de Nederlandse poezie van de 19e en 20e eeuw van Gerrit Komrij, te verschijnen 1 februari 2004

Rupture and fusion in the approach to myth (Situating myth analysis between philosophy, poetics, and long-range historical reconstruction, with an application to the ancient and world-wide mythical complex of leopard-skin symbolism) (PDF) paper to be read at the International Conference ‘Myth: Theory and the Disciplines’, 12 December 2003, University of Leiden: Research School CNWS (School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies), IIAS (The International Institute for Asian Studies); and NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) (click for abstract) (click for the full revised article as PDF)

4 December 2003: 'The leopard's unchanging spots: Long range comparitive research as a possible clue to enduring patterns of African agency', PowerPoint-based seminar, core group, theme group on Agency in Africa, African Studies Centre, Leiden, 10:00; click to access the full Internet version of this slide presentation
November 2003 20 November 2003: 'The leopard's unchanging spots: Long-range comparitive research as a possible clue to enduring patterns of African agency (simplified version)', PowerPoint-based lunch seminar, theme group on Agency in Africa, African Studies Centre, Leiden; postponed to 2 December 2003; click to access the full Internet version of this slide presentation
October 2003
30 October 2003: 'Mogelijkheden en onmogelijkheden in de dialoog over waarden', key note op de conferentie 'Normen van waarde in onderwijs en opvoeding: Interreligieuze conferentie van het Christelijk College Henegouwen, het Melanchthon College en het Rotterdamse Studentenpastoraat (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam) over waarden en normen in de verschillende religie'; daarna gespreksleider over het thema 'homosexualiteit, middelbare school en de multiculturele samenleving'.

completed and submitted: 'Genadendal: poem for Vernie February one year after his death' (in Dutch), to be published in a memorial volume for Vernie February, now going to the press

goes to the press: Situating globality: African agency in the appropriation of global culture, edited by Wim van Binsbergen & Rijk van Dijk, Leiden: Brill, African Studies Centre Yearbook 2003; published 15 December 2003 (click for details and orders)

Quest: An African Journal of Philosophy, established by Pieter Boele van Hensbroek and Roni Bwalya at the University of Zambia in 1987, was directed by Pieter Boele van Hensbroek until he found Wim van Binsbergen prepared to succeed him in that responsibility, early 2003. In the meantime Quest has been adopted by the African Studies Centre Leiden, with substantial support also from the Erasmus University Rotterdam. A new Editorial Team has been formed (comprising Sanya Osha, Kirsten Seifikar and Wim van Binsbergen, with one African vacancy), and the intercontinental Advisory Editorial Team consolidated. The structure of peer review has been tightened and made more efficient. The gigantic task of preparing the journal for access online has now largely been completed. The Quest website is fully operational now, and is also beginning to develop into a tool for much more rapid and topical exchange of information and views than the printed form could ever be. However, given the desirability of enduring hard copy, and the patchy and uncertain access to the Internet in Africa, printed issues of the journal will continue to be produced along with the online version. Online access is free, while the printed issues are available detachedly as well as under subscription. Subscriptions may be initiated or renewed electronically from the Quest website; there also any irregularities in subcribers' reception of earlier issues may be reported. The two issues of volume XVI (the first volume of Quest to be published under the new structure), will be published autumn 2003. Authors of articles in the philosophical, academic and general intellectual field are requested to submit their contributions to Quest in the form stipulated in the website. Any mail for Quest: An African Journal of Philosophy may be addressed to: editor@quest-journal.net

9 October 2003: AFRICAN SPIRITS
op het spreekuur: winti, voodoo & witchcraft
Calypso, Mauritsweg 5, Rotterdam
organised by Studium Generale, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR),
with: Djembe by Bawana & DJ UFonaut (music), prof. dr. Wim van Binsbergen (chair of intercultural philosophy, EUR), prof.dr. Carla Risseeuw (chair of anthropology, Leiden University) Gloria Benzane (medical student from Mozambique). Presentator: dr. Otmar Buyne (psychiatrist); TV coverage on the TV Rijnmond Network, 17-18 October 2003, 5 minutes interview with Wim van Binsbergen, repeatedly broadcast at hourly intervals
September 2003 Wim van Binsbergen, 2003, 'Improvising away from fixed verbal formulae in the four-tablet oracle of sangomas in contemporary Botswana', paper presented at the session 'Het discours van de expert, orale traditie tussen formule en uitvoering' ('the expert's discourse: oral tradition between formula and performance'), Convenor: Jan Jansen, Netherlands Association of African Studies, 2003 Conferentie 'Power, Politics and Poetry: Dutch perspectives in Africa studies', 26 september, Faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen, Pieter de la Courtgebouw, Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden (click for details)
publication of: van Binsbergen, W.M.J., eds. (with the collaboration of Riekje Pelgrim), The dynamics of power and the rule of law: Essays on Africa and beyond: In honour of Emile Adrian B. van Rouveroy van Nieuwaal, Hamburg/Münster: LIT Verlag, 337 pp. (click for details and electronic order form)

as was long overdue, the site owner's web-based vitae and list of publications were fully updated, and a beginning was made to link this list systematically to all of the author's publications available on the Web

Leeftocht (gedichten, 1977) nu beschikbaar gemaakt op Internet / now made available on the Web

Een buik openen (novel on fieldwork on popular Islam in Tunisia, 1988) nu beschikbaar gemaakt op Internet / now made available on the Web

gepubliceerd in September 2003: van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2003, ‘Sangoma en filosoof: Eenheid in de praktijk, dilemma in de theorie’, in: Bulhof, I.N., Poorthuis, M., & Bhagwandin, V., eds., Mijn plaats is geen plaats: Ontmoetingen tussen wereldbeschouwingen, Kampen: Klement-Pelckmans, pp. 219-231

door de welwillendheid van de redactie, vertalers en uitgever kon tegelijkertijd afzonderlijk gepubliceerd worden: van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2003, ‘Sangoma en filosoof: Eenheid in de praktijk, dilemma in de theorie’, in: Humanisme en spiritualiteit, themanummer van Antenne (orgaan van de Unive van Vrijzinnige Verenigingen) (Brussel), 21, 3: 36-43.

August 2003 Intercultural encounters: African, antropological and historical lessons towards a philosophy of interculturality (600 pp.), presenting conceptual and empirical research spanning three decades, finally went to the press (appeared on 1st December 2003; click for details and electronic order form)

in the process, one large section of this book was removed so as to form a book on its own: The leopard’s unchanging spots: Towards a world history of shamanism from the perspective of the Southern African sangoma cult; this unexpected by-product is now in an advanced state of preparation and is hoped to be completed shortly; for a slide presentation selectively covering this book's contents, click here

assessor, on behalf of the United National Educational and Scientific Commission (UNESCO), Paris, of an African country's national proposal towards the UNESCO's Intangible Masterpieces of Mankind programme
July 2003 Wim van Binsbergen, 2003, 'Challenges for the sociology of religion in the next fifty years: The case of Africa', paper prepared for the 50th Anniversary Conference, International Society for the Sociology of Religion (ISSR), section ‘prospects for the next 50 years’, Turin (Italy), 24 July 2003; paper forthcoming in Social Compass, Spring 2004.
high over Turin towers the Mole Antonelliana; originally designed as a Jewish synagogue, and the tallest brick building in the world, it now houses the famous Museum of the Cinema
Turin boasts one of the finest and richest Egyptological museums in the world. The collection includes this statue of Ramesses II, generally considered one of the finest pieces to be produced in the three millennia of Ancient Egyptian art. At a time when the Hellenistic Apollo of Belvedere was ranked as the paroxysm of Greek (and by myopic Eurocentric extension, of all human) art, Champollion (the decipherer of hieroglyphic script) declared this statue of Ramesses II to outrank the Greek artefact.
June 2003 'The translation of Southern African sangoma divination towards a global format, and the validity of the knowledge it produces', paper read at the symposium ‘World views, Science and Us’, Brussels, Centre Leo Apostel, Free University Brussels, Belgium, 10 June 2003 (click for details)

'Manchester als geboorteplaats van agency', paper read at the international conference on 'Agency in Africa: An old theme, a new issue', Erasmus University Rotterdam (chair of intercultural philosophy) and Theme Group on Agency in Africa, African Studies Centre (convenors Rijk van Dijk, Wouter van Beek and Wim van Binsbergen, 16 June 2003 (Dutch version)

click here for the English version of this paper: 'Manchester as a birthplace of modern agency research: The Manchester School explained from the perspective of Evans-Pritchard’s’ book The Nuer'
April 2003

Grenzen en wereldbeschouwingen: Waarom wereldburgerschap ook heden een moeilijke opgave is (PDF): bijdrage aan het symposium ‘Wereldburger tussen culturen in conflict’, ter gelegenheid van het afscheid van Prof.dr U. Libbrecht van de Stichting Filosofie Oost-West, Utrecht, 11 april 2003 (inmiddels verschenen, klik voor details)
March 2003 Virtuality as a key concept in the study of globalisation, WOTRO Working Paper 3 (1997), now as Web-book in original pagination, with colour illustrations and index, as PDF file

February 2003 'Mi-figues, Mi-raisins: L'oscillation des Africaines éduquées entre les desseins féminins traditionnels et cosmopolites', joint seminar by Julie Duran-Ndaya Tshiteku (African Studies Centre, Leiden/Erasmus University Rotterdam), Cécile Dolisane-Ebossé Nyambé (Université de Toulouse), and Wim van Binsbergen (African Studies Centre, Leiden/Erasmus University Rotterdam)

(also see ASC website)

January 2002 publication of the English (click for PDF) and the Italian (click for PDF) versions of Wim van Binsbergen 1999 Dutch inaugural lecture in the chair of Foundations of Intercultural Philosophy, Erasmus University Rotterdam:

van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2002, ‘’Cultures do not exist’: Exploding self-evidences in the investigation of interculturality’’, Quest—Philosophical Discussions: An International African Journal of Philosophy, 1999: 37-115.

van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2002, ‘Le culture non esistono: Critica dell’autoevidenza negli studi interculturali’, in: Miltenburg, A.F.M., ed., Incontri di sguardi: Saperi e pratiche dell’intercultura, Padova: Unipress/ Master in Studi Interculturali, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, Università di Padova, pp. 5-51.

January 2003 Completion for publication of the paper ‘Islam as a constitutive factor in African ‘‘traditional’ religion: The evidence from geomantic divination’’ (PDF) (paper read at the conference on Transformation processes and Islam in Africa, African Studies Centre and Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden, The Netherlands, 15 October, 1999; forthcoming in: Breedveld, A., van Santen, J., & van Binsbergen, W.M.J., eds., Islam and transformations in Africa)
2003 begins above this line
December 2002 'Sangoma en filosoof: Eenheid in de praktijk, dilemma in de theorie (PDF)' (bijdrage aan de bundel Mijn plaats is geen plaats, inmiddels verschenen September 2003; klik voor details)
October 2002 visit to the Institute for West Asian and African Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China, on behalf of the African Studies Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands, in order to give guest lectures on African ethnicity and African religion, and to discuss further co-operation
September 2002 participation in the Colloquium ‘La rencontre des rationalités’, organised by the African Centre for Advanced Studies, the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies (CIPSH) and UNESCO, Porto Novo, Benin, September 18-21, 2002, where a paper was presented entitled

'The underpinning of scientific knowledge systems: Epistemology or hegemonic power? The implications of Sandra Harding’s critique of North Atlantic science for the appreciation of African knowledge systems'. (click for details)
May 2002
short fieldwork in north-western Tunisia towards the finalisation of a book Religion and social organisation in north-western Tunisia, Volume I: Kinship, spatiality, and segmentation, Volume II: Cults of the land, and Islam (click for details)

in the course of 2003, work on these books (long overdue) has made tremendous progress, thanks to the assistance of Riekje Pelgrim as an editor
'Culture and development: Perspectives from African Studies and Intercultural Philosophy', paper presented at the conference on 'Culture and development', Faculty of Business Administration, Dokuz Eylul Universitesi, Izmir, Turkey, May 3-4 2002
January 2002 As a first leg in the analysis of African mythical structures as evidence of early patterns of agency, completion of the extensive analysis: 'From an African bestiary to universal science? Cluster analysis opens up a world-wide historical perspective on animal symbolism in divine attributes, divination sets, and in the naming of clans, constellations, zodiacs, and lunar mansions'; now being prepared for publication

this pages only documents the first two years of the series initiated in 2002; click here for the years 2004-2005; and here for the years 2006-2007; and here for the years 2008-2009; and and here for the years 2010-2011; and here for the years 2012-2013

proceed to the Shikanda portal in order to access all other websites by Wim van Binsbergen: general (intercultural philosophy, African Studies); ethnicity-identity-politics; Afrocentricity and the Black Athena debate; Ancient Models of Thought in Africa, the Ancient Near East, and prehistory; sangoma consultation; literary work
 

 

page last modified: 21-04-2013 11:47:49