A $10,000 grant to help foster development of African art and cultural resources in the Rocky Mountain region has been awarded to J. Terrence McCabe, associate professor of anthropology at CU-Boulder, and Laura DeLuca, a doctoral candidate in cultural anthropology.
They are working to bring together and provide resources to area residents, teachers, artists and nonprofit and private businesses with an interest in African culture. The funding will benefit the community through teacher workshops and a public celebration with African food, music and dance.
"The grant is good for all the people who are interested in Africa and want to get a perspective that goes beyond what we see in the American press," McCabe said.
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation grant was written in conjunction with the Boulder-based, nonprofit Foundation for African Resources, co-directed by Karen and Brian Cockburn.
Local interest in African culture is bolstered by the relatively large number of American travelers and volunteers who have lived or worked in Africa, and is reflected in Boulder's healthy market for Afro-pop music recordings and live performances, DeLuca said. And while not as large as other minority populations in baby直播app, increasing numbers of African immigrants are settling in the Front Range area.
"One of the really interesting things are these people from southern Sudan who are coming to baby直播app from refugee camps in Kenya," McCabe said. "I don't think many people here know what's happened to them -- some pretty horrendous things, but also some wonderful things in terms of being able to come here and assimilate into American society."
McCabe's extensive fieldwork with nomadic East Africans' adaptations to arid land and savanna ecosystems has included study of the Turkana of Kenya and the Maasai of Tanzania. DeLuca recently returned from Tanzania after a yearlong trip to research the balance between wildlife conservation and rural development near national parks and protected areas in the Serengeti region.
In baby直播app, the CU team's grant will help fund workshops designed to provide resources and contacts for K-12 teachers. For example, a class review of African culture might include a visit from a Swahili instructor such as Boulder resident Francis Macharia, from Kenya.
"The ability to bring in someone in the area who has kept in close contact with people in Africa is a tremendous resource," McCabe said. "Hopefully, kids will then have a more sophisticated perspective than otherwise. Africa just doesn't get news coverage in the United States."
DeLuca is excited about three days of teacher workshops culminating in a public celebration that likely will take place in September. The celebration is intended to generate awareness and appreciation in the whole community, not just among scholars or those with a direct connection to Africa, she said.
The Woodrow Wilson grant program is unique because it encourages scholars to design projects that involve and enrich the local community, according to DeLuca. In their quest for the grant, McCabe and DeLuca received letters of support from CU-Boulder English professor and native Nigerian Adeleke Adeeko and a number of community organizations including Ujama News, edited by Rob Oyugi, and Bantaba Dance.
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation is participating in a national effort called "Imagining America" to further the ways in which university-based artists and humanists contribute to society's civic heritage and future.
The CU team's project, titled "Africa-related Resources in the Rocky Mountain Region: Conservation, Culture and Arts," was among seven projects around the country awarded grants by the Wilson Foundation in 2001. Since its inception in 1999, the foundation has awarded seven grants each year to support projects by scholars working in collaboration with community partners.
For more information visit the CU-Boulder department of anthropology Web site at or the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation at .