Quick Hits From London

Cheers! I am now in London where I am participating in a conference being jointly sponsored by the African Studies Centre at the prestigious School for Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and the Institute for Commonwealth Studies. The conference theme is 'Looking Back: South Africa Ten Years After,' the implied continuation of the title being 'the end of Apertheid.' It is an amazing gathering. It is pretty small, but the list of names here is staggering. Just off the top of my head: Colin Bundy, Shula Marks, Sofile Ndlovu, Christopher Saunders, Clifton Crais, Martin Legassick, William Beinart, Jan Hofmeyr, John Daniel, Roger Southall, Patrick Bond, and Laurie Nathan are here. I know there are not a lot of Africanists who read Rebunk, but trust me when I say that is just part of a murderers' row of really big names.

My panel went rather well. I gave a paper on Eugene DeKock, the TRC and the 'New South Africa' that met with a nice response by John Daniel and Shula Marks in the audience. Christopher Saunders was the chair, and he and I are going to sit doen tomorrow for a chat, as he and I are both on the editorial board of Safundi: The Journal of Comparative SA-US Studies though I am at best a junior partner in comparison with him. In any case, it has been a wonderful experience and has gotten me back in touch with my Africanist half, which is always nice. The University of London is in a great location, and if I am lucky, someday I will be able to have some sort of affiliation with SOAS.

A few random quick hits because I am too lazy and pressed for time to expound:

Colin Powell has called what is occurring in the Sudan 'genocide' which should mean that we are going to act in this area. It is about time. I just hope it is not a cynical campaign gesture that will come to naught.

Looks like there is mounting evidence that President Bush was not where he ought to have been, where he has said he was, and he was granted special favors in the National Guard. No surprise. I hope this does not become a major issue in the campaign, though it is based on a lot more truth than the Swift Boat Veterans' duplicitous nonsense. All I would ask is that it help to readjust for whatever benefit the Bush campaign got from the SBVT nastiness, but that will not happen.

Last week: Tom Brady and the Pats on the cover of SI. This week: The Sox on the cover of SI. Cover jinx outcome? Pats won a thriller last night against the Colts to show why they are the Super Bowl champs, 27-24. Sox lost for the first time in ages to the less-than-sterling Mariners. But I expect the Sox to rally tonight. I cannot wait for those two copies of SI to be sitting in my mailbox at home.

Tomorrow is the second day of the conference. I may be going to a premier league game in the afternoon/evening if all works out well. We'll see.