A diversity of knowledge and cultures

Africa Talks Community Lectures

Last Wednesday of the month, 5:00 to 6:30pm

Goodman South Library, 2222 S Park St, Madison, WI 53713

Africa Talks is a monthly talk series purposefully launched by the African Studies Program at UW-Madison in collaboration with the UW African Studies Program to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of Africa at Noon. This year, we want to celebrate 50 years of sharing scholarships on campus by reminding our community that the work we do must extend beyond the walls of the university. Every last Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., advanced graduate student affiliates of the African Studies Program will present a one-hour talk to community members in Madison and its environs.

Don’t miss a talk! Subscribe to the ACCD newsletter to get notified about each event.

Fall 2026 Schedule (click here)

Our Next Event

Oct 28 – Embodied Archives and Community Performance: Tess Onwueme’s Theatre in Nigeria

This presentation examines how Nigerian playwright Tess Onwueme’s theatre functions as both an embodied archive of collective memory and a mode of political mobilization. I argue that Onwueme reimagines Nigerian political theatre by shifting attention from the singular hero toward communities as historical agents, with particular emphasis on rural women, youth, and intergenerational forms of female struggle.

Drawing on performance studies scholarship on repetition, improvisation, social drama, and restored behavior, I propose that Onwueme’s theatre should be understood as a living archive: a form of performance through which communities remember, reinterpret, and contest histories in response to changing political and social realities.

For more details, Visit the UW African Studies web page.

Community Panelist: TBA

Moderator: Erica Ayisi

Speaker: Lin Wu

Lin Wu, also known by her Hausa name, Samira, completed her Bachelor’s degree in Hausa Language and Literature at Beijing Foreign Studies University. During her undergraduate studies, she participated in an exchange program at Bayero University, Kano, where she studied Hausa for four months. She is currently a second-year PhD student in the Department of African Cultural Studies. Her current research focuses on Nigerian female playwrights, particularly Dr. Tess Onwueme. She also hopes to expand her research to include Hausa theatre troupes in Northern Nigeria and to conduct fieldwork there to further enrich her research materials.