Description

Kofi Awoonor is a visiting scholar at the University of Iowa, whose visit is the result of the three-year grant from the U.S. Department of State for the development of a linkage between the Universities of Iowa and Ghana. He is a noted Ghanaian poet, novelist, and scholar as well as a former diplomat. Prior to serving as Ghana's ambassador to the United Nations, Awoonor served as ambassador to Brazil with concurrent accreditations to Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Guyana, and Surinam; then as ambassador to Cuba with concurrent accreditations to Nicaragua, Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago. He has held several academic appointments at the University of Ghana at Legon, where he is currently Writer-in-Residence. Awoonor earned his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at SUNY, Stony Brook. Contact the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council: http://icfrc.org/contact/ DVD .vob format converted to Flash 7.0 video for display. [Joel Barkan]- Today's program has been made possible through the cooperation of International Programs of the University of Iowa and with the additional support from Lumas Construction Incorporated and Helen Lee Hensley and Howard Wegner. And to thank our sponsors for supporting this event. Today's topic, African Traditional Governments in the Western Liberal Democratic Systems is a particularly important timely one for those of you who have followed the process of Democratization over the last 10 to 15 years. Not only in Africa, but in other plural societies, such as in Central Asia. Where you have countries with indigenous groups that predated the formation of the Nation State....

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Iowa City Foreign Relations Council Community Television Service (Iowa City, Iowa)