Cornell's Africana Studies and Research Center and Institute for African Development will host a symposium, "Power and Nationalism in Modern Africa," Sept. 22-23 at 310 Triphammer Road. The conference is free and open to the public.

The gathering of international scholars is in memory of the late Don Ohadike, a scholar of West African history who joined the Cornell faculty in 1989 and was director of the Africana Center from 2001 to 2005. His daughter, Sandra, a Ph.D. candidate in international relations at American University, will speak at Friday's reception at 6:30 p.m.

Cornell Provost Biddy Martin, Africana Center director Salah M. Hassan and historian Toyin Falola of the University of Texas-Austin will give welcoming remarks on Friday at 2 p.m. Vice Provost Robert L. Harris Jr., professor of Africana studies, will chair the first session, "Colonial Order and Resistance in Africa," at 2:45 p.m. Presenters include Anene Ejikeme, Trinity College, San Antonio, Texas, on infanticide in Nigeria; N'Dri Assié-Lumumba, Africana studies, on resistance to the colonial establishment from 1888 to 1960 in Côte d'Ivoire; and Felix Ekechi, Kent State University, on resistance among the Igbo people.

Ali Mazrui, director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University, is the symposium's keynote speaker, Friday at 5:15 p.m.

Saturday's events feature a two-part discussion of "The Question of Modernity and Africa." The first session, "Culture and the Arts," includes presentations by Ayele Bekerie, Africana studies, on "The Idea of Ethiopia: Ancient Roots and Modern African Diaspora Thoughts," and historian Ahmad Sikanga of Ohio State University on the literary activities of Sudanese railroad workers. The second session, "Colonialism and Its Aftermath," explores such topics as urban manhood and protests.

Saturday sessions also include "Diasporic Africans and Nationalism." Paul Tiyambe Zeleza of Pennsylvania State University is Saturday's plenary speaker and will address "The Historic and Humanistic Agendas of African Nationalism."

Other participants from Cornell are Whitney Battle-Baptiste and Abdul Nanji, Africana studies; Fouad Makki, development sociology; Muna Ndulo, law, director of the Institute for African Development; Natalie Melas, comparative literature; and Sandra Greene, history.

Other symposium sponsors include the Society for the Humanities, Department of History and Nigerian Studies Association.

For more information, contact Judith Holley at (607) 255-4291 or jsh2@cornell.edu.