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Posted: 1/28/21

TAMIU Continues African American History Month Observance with Live, Interactive, Virtual Africa Tours and Lecture Feb. 23

 

South Africa
A virtual tour of Africa is part of TAMIU's African American History Month observance.  

 

Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) continues its observance of African American History Month in February with two live, interactive and virtual tours of historical and contemporary sites in Africa.

Presented in partnership with Oiada International, a non-profit educational organization, and TAMIU’s Office of Information Technology, the virtual tours will provide informative perspectives on Africa’s past and present.

Free and open to all, the first event, titled “Eye Opener” will take participants on a live, virtual tour of the African continent in the present. Remote viewers will get to ask questions about the continent, its vast cultures, seasons, and its people’s 2,000 languages.

The second tour will feature the picturesque coast of Ghana and the historic Cape Coast Castle, an ancient fortress that marks the dark past of the Atlantic slave trade. The fortress was the last memory enslaved Africans had of their homeland before being shipped off across the Atlantic, never to return again.

Participants can RSVP for the two interactive tours, offered Feb. 11 – 23, by visiting the TAMIU Dustdevil Diversity website.

Dr. Peter Haruna, co-chair of the TAMIU Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (TIDE) Committee, said TIDE is proud to present educational, thought-provoking and engaging virtual events during African American History Month.

“We  invite the  public to actively participate in the various educational events we’ve organized, which are easily accessible to all as they are offered mostly virtually,” Dr. Haruna said, “Activities also include a movie screening and Social Justice Leadership dialogues on Hip-Hop and its importance in the Black community as well as the art of African head wrapping.”

On Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m., TAMIU’s Liberation in the America Series will also present a lecture titled, “Black Lives, Black Liberation.” It features Dr. Gabby Yearwood, director of Undergraduate Studies for the University of Pittsburgh Department of Anthropology and Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Program.

Dr. Yearwood’s virtual lecture, free and open to the public, asks: "What are the ways in which liberation has been theorized, dreamt and longed for in Black social and intellectual life? Black people have had to imagine liberation in the context of enslavement, structural violence, state sanctioned violence, police brutality, incarceration and social death. What can the actions of Black people inform us about how to think critically about liberation?"

To register for TAMIU’s African American Heritage Month events, visit the TAMIU Dustdevil Diversity website at www.tamiu.edu/diversity

Charged by the office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, TIDE is committed to The Texas A&M University System’s normative principles of diversity, equity and inclusion. It is further committed to advancing the cause of these principles by pursuing cross-cultural exploration, inter-cultural relationship- building, and mutual learning and growth through events and activities that celebrate the unity of cultures in a democratic environment.

For more information, please contact Haruna at 956.326.2613  or email pharuna@tamiu.edu