8.4.17

WRITING MIDDLE CLASS

16.30h Presentation of forthcoming publications

Moderation: Maike Voigt (Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies)

Prof. Dr. Dieter Neubert: “The Kenya we want”

Dr. Lena Kroeker: “Middle Classes in Africa. Changing Lives and Changing Realities.”

Based on new empirical findings by Kroeker, L., Scharrer, T. & D. O‘Kane, the authors aim at challenging a European concept with a view from the south. Examples drawn from a diverse range of African contexts address the history of class formation, the political role of the middle class in Africa, and examine the interdependencies that cut across intergenerational, urban-rural and class divides.

18.00h

DORPHAN (artist, Nairobi)

Spoken word performance

19.00h ROUNDTABLE

Middle-classness through Art, Literature and Film

This panel investigates the topic of a ‘middle class‘ in different art forms. Is it high time to “sort out fact from fiction,” as “The Conversation” stated in a headline. Point taken. But isn‘t there also the critical potential of talking about ‘middle class‘ as an entry point to talking about ‘class,‘ access, and belonging? The potential lies exactly there: in fiction, imagination, in artistic production.

With: Billy Kahora(Kwani managing editor and writer), Judy Kibinge (film maker and writer), and GADO (cartoonist)

Moderation: Zukiswa Wanner (journalist and novelist)