February is…
Black History Month

OLLI at CSUDH celebrates Black History Month in February!
OLLI is offering three courses led by faculty experts in the area of African
and African-American studies. A field trip to the California African-American
Museum (CAAM) launches our recognition of the contributions of African
and African-American cultures.
There are 4 events planned for Black History Month.
• February 2 – Field Trip
• February 8 – Black Historiography and the Founders of
Black History Month
• February 15 – African Cultural Knowledge in the U.S.:
Reimaging African-American Identities
• February 22 – Celebrate the Elders and the Ancestors of
The African Diaspora - 2012

Black Historiography and the Founders of Black History Month
The class begins with an examination of Africana interpreters of African
World History. The class therefore asserts the fundamental importance of
Africanahistoriography in the interpretation of world cultural histories. The
class will highlight the lives of pioneer African American historians such as
Carter G. Woodson, Drusilla Dunjee Houston, W.E.B. Dubois, William
Leo Hansberry, Lorraine Williams, Chancellor Williams and Anna Julia
Cooper. The goal of this class is to provide students with an opportunity to
re-conceptualize the historical foundation of not only Black History, but also
world history and the role that African-descended peoples have played in
developing the intellectual and cultural traditions of our present society.
Instructor: Salim Faraji, PhD, Associate Professor, Africana Studies.
1 Wednesday, February 8 • 1:30 – 3:30 pm
Extended Education building, EE - 1218
Free and open to OLLI members and the public (OLLI members must register)
NLLL 155 Section 02, Course No. 22574

African Cultural Knowledge in the U.S.: Reimagining
African-America Identities
This presentation critically examines discourses on the formation of African
and African Diaspora cultural identities. We will focus specifically on the
discourses that engage the questions of continuities and changes in African
cultural knowledges in the African Diaspora in the U.S. These are discourses
that provide broad discussions on the conceptual issues relating to the
study of politics of identity construction in Diaspora societies. Utilizing the
terminology of “the politics of identity construction” at the group or societal
level as well as individual or personal dynamics allows one to perceive,
according to Homi Bhabha, where memory acts as the hazardous bridge
between trauma of the past experience and cultural identity. Furthermore,
the study recognizes the interactions between perceptions of the African
American self and the contexts within which identities are performed and
conceptualized as well as the need to confront the struggles and conflicts of
African identities in exile. Both phenomena are deeply embedded in power
dynamics at both the group and personal levels. As Nawal El Saadawi puts it,
identity politics remains the exclusive tool of the powerful against the peoples
who are being postcolonized (1997). Consequently, perceptions of individual
and group identities tend to evolve from relational economic, political, and
cultural dynamics within a given society. Research shows that marginalized
groups are more cognizant of their unique identities as part of processes
of self-affirmation (Steck et al., 2003). Cultural identity is also often times
conceptualized and theorized as dynamic, incomplete, always in process, and
always constituted within and not outside (Stuart Hall). This class therefore
investigates the subject of African cultural identity in the diaspora with its
enduring themes of “migrating words and worlds” (Saadawi), difference and
belongingness, “authenticity” and “hybridity” as both a theoretical and an
existential question (Stuart Hall).
Instructor: Munashe Furusa, PhD, Associate Professor, Africana Studies.
1 Wednesday, February 15 • 1:30 – 3:30 pm
Extended Education building, EE - 1218
Free and open to OLLI members and the public (OLLI members must register)
NLLL 155 Section 03, Course No. 22580

Celebrate The Elders and The Ancestors of
The African Diaspora – 2012
This class will introduce African Diaspora cultural history by spotlighting
exemplary bicentennial, centennial, 150th and 50th anniversary people
and events. History was changed by the inspiring vision of Ida B. Wells
Barnett, William Henry Juba Lane, Roland Hayes, Robert Johnson, Machito,
Dorothy Height, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Grace Bumbry, Henry
Ossawa Tanner, Bessie Smith, James Cleveland and so many others. The
Black aesthetic will be discussed, and, in general, information and resources
will be provided that will assist artists, students, teachers and program
designers in eliminating the practice of race exclusion from 21st century
programs and curriculum.
Instructor: Hansonia L. Caldwell, PhD, Emeritus Faculty, Music
Department, CSUDH
1 Wednesday, February 22 • 1:30 – 3:30 pm
Extended Education building, EE - 1218
Free and open to OLLI members and the public (OLLI members must register)
NLLL 155 Section 04, Course No. 22584