Penn Museum kicks off 'Imagine Africa'

Thursday night, Penn Museum-goers learned about Africa from an African-American perspective.

Tukufu Zuberi, professor and chairman of the Sociology Department at Penn, kicked off the lecture series for the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology’s Imagine Africa initiative. This is a 12-month-long initiative that includes an exhibit of African artifacts, lectures from guest speakers and shows on African culture.

Director of African Studies Lee Cassanelli introduced Zuberi. “Imagine Africa is our way of trying to learn from the Penn community and neighborhood how they would like us to present Africa to them.”

Zuberi spoke of his documentary project, titled Africa and the World, which he said “moves through 20th-century world history through the lens of Africa.” Zuberi said he “tries to tell a story about Africa in such a way that it is important to include its narrative in our minds when we think about the world.”

He ran the audience through the thought process behind the documentary and the difficulties he faced when shooting the film. These ranged from personality clashes within the crew, to having their vehicle attacked by locals when filming in Ghana. “I tried to capture all voices,” Zuberi said. “We talked to everyone — heads of state, revolutionaries, even cab drivers.”

Zuberi showed the audience several clips from the documentary, while joking about his Twitter account and his expectation of finding his “roots” as soon as he reached Africa. He received spontaneous applause from the nearly filled lecture hall at the mention of his hit television show, History Detectives on PBS, currently in its ninth season.

College senior Arith Reyes said she enjoyed the question-and-answer session at the close of the lecture the most. “It was especially interesting to hear from an African-American woman [in the audience] who said she was called ‘little white girl’ when she went to Africa on a business trip. It is fascinating to see this dynamic between Africans and African Americans.”

Betty Leacraft, resident of West Philadelphia, said she attends many similar events hosted by the University. “I think this documentary is especially unique because it looks at Africa through the lens of an African American, which would open up the continent to the African diaspora everywhere.”

College sophomore Sam Schnittman, and Wharton sophomore Toby Arriaga said they had come to the lecture to earn extra credit for their Africana Studies class. “I was interested to expand my width of African history, and fill up the gaps I had in my mind with respect to modern African history,” Arriaga said.

The museum hopes the initiative will encourage the local community, which is largely African American, to come visit, according to the museum’s website.

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