Professor Keith Hart: Africa and Europe at the Crossroads
| When: | Tuesday, 16 May 2023 - Tuesday, 16 May 2023 |
| Where: | Hybrid Event Parktown Management Campus SCIS Seminar Room, North Lodge, Parktown Management Campus, 2 St David’s Place, Parktown |
| Start time: | 13:00 |
| Enquiries: | david.francis@wits.ac.za |
| RSVP: |
RSVP to david.francis@wits.ac.za before 11 May for catering purposes. |
| Cost: | Free |
SCIS invites you to a hybrid Lunchtime Seminar: Africa and Europe at the Crossroads to be presented by Professor Keith Hart on 16 May, 13:00 - 14:30 (SAST).
Africa and Europe at the Crossroads
https://www.academia.edu/99925313/Africa_and_Europe_at_the_Crossroads
Africa and Europe are actors in a three-act drama: the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. In 1900 Europe had 25% of the world’s population, Africa 7.5%. In 2100 Africa will have 40%, Europe 6%. The EU’s institutional defects -- its inability to resolve its monetary, economic and political problems -- point to inevitable decline, while Africa’s prospects in an aging world have never been more promising. Africa doubled its population since 1900 in an urban revolution. Its disparate regions now converge on the model of the Old Regime and are ripe for liberal revolution. Fragmented nation-states need to build more effective regional trade federations. African exports, apart from minerals, should focus on supplying the rapidly expanding world market for cultural services. A recent World Bank/IMF conference focused on global demographic change: India now surpasses China, and in 2100 half the world’s children will be African. The Asian exporters already plan for this future, but the West is nostalgic for the world its racist empires once made.
Professor Keith Hart
Keith Hart is Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, Goldsmiths, University of London. He is a full-time writer who has lived and worked in 24 countries on four continents. He has homes in Paris and Durban. Keith believes that engaged intellectuals should try to understand and shape emergent world society. He was Distinguished Visiting Professor at Wits School of Social Sciences (2007); Honorary Professor in the School of Social Development, UKZN (2008-13); and Co-founder and International Director of the Human Economy Programme, University of Pretoria (2011-18).
Self in the World https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/HartSelf can be purchased through Ike’s Books, Durban https://ikesbooks.com/. An inspection copy is available in the Department of Anthropology. A colourful Lagos interview with an African slant is at https://bordersliteratureonline.net/globaldetails/keith_hart. For more information, see his website at https://keithhart.academia.edu/.
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