ÌÇÐÄTV

A buffet lunch will be available from 12 noon with a time for networking, before the seminar begins at 12.30pm.  For catering purposes, RSVP Ros Lucas on Rosalind.Lucas@warwick.ac.uk  by Thursday 11 June. 

This seminar is open to anyone - all are welcome.

There will be two talks. 

1.Dr Dan Branch (History): 'The Kenya We Want? Nationalism and Nation-Building in Post-Colonial Kenya.' 

The paper will discuss competing ideas of nationhood and the debates surrounding nation-building in newly independent Kenya.  Covering the period between independence in 1963 and President Kenyatta's death in 1978, the paper will explore the range of communities imagined by the citizens of the new nation.  These alternative visions included the irredentist efforts of Somalis in northern areas of the country, the devolved regionalism advocated by political leaders in the Rift Valley and at the Coast, as well as the eventually triumphant centralist model championed by Kenyatta and other leading lights within the ruling party.  What tied these otherwise disparate notions of Kenya's future together was an assumption that the purpose of nationalism was to deliver development to Kenyans.  How that development was to be delivered and to whom thus formed the substance of Kenyan political debate through the first decade of independence.  The paper will examine these debates and consider the lasting effects for post-colonial Kenya.

The Faculty of Law of the University of Malawi and the School of Law of the University of ÌÇÐÄTV have since 2007 been collaborating on research on indicators of justice in Malawi. Research on the measurement of the delivery of justice or production of injustice is not novel. However orthodox methods and indicators have predominantly focussed on rules, institutions, activities, and results of processes related to what is regarded as a justice system. Regarding justice and injustice as bio-political outcomes, the collaborative research attempts to identify how the performance of various duties related to people’s well-being affect the delivery of justice and the production of social justice and injustice, as experienced by people. Using the results from a preliminary compilation of public duties related to justice in Malawi and a paper on the trends about justice indicators, seminars held at ÌÇÐÄTV and in Malawi respectively in October and November, 2008 significantly qualified the research design with two research activities, which have been implemented. The first was a political economy analysis of the institutions related to the delivery of justice in Malawi. The second activity involved participant observations on fairness and unfairness in communities. Nine students from the University of Malawi stayed in a variety of communities and compiled short essays on perceptions and experiences of justice and injustice. The research is currently analysing these essays, with the aim of highlighting major themes on the measurement of justice and injustice in Malawi’s communities. Research teams from the two Universities will in 2009 and in subsequent years, focus on aspects related to those themes.