Panel Discussion on Bakweri Pregnancy Rituals to take place at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Professor Babila Mutia, of the University of Yaounde I and presently a Visiting Professor at Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, will on Friday April 16, 2004 chair a panel discussion on Bakweri pregnancy rituals at the 30th Anniversary Conference of the African Literature Association, currently taking place at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The discussion, which is part of the session on "Poetry, Poetics, and the Power of the Word”, is titled "Performer, Audience, and Performance Context of Bakweri Pregnancy Rituals and Incantations".

For more details visit the conference website at: http://africa.wisc.edu/ala2004/program/16-friday.htm

It should be noted that Prof. Mutia is the author of the groundbreaking article on Bakweri funeral songs, “Stylistic Patterns in Oral Literature: The Form and Structure of Bakweri Dirges”, which will appear on this site in the near future.

Professor Mutia – A Profile

Babila Mutia joins Dickinson College as a Visiting Assistant Professor for the year 2003-2004 from the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon. Professor Mutia holds a Ph.D. from Dalhousie University in Canada. His teaching interests include comparative African literature; African oral literature and performance; modern drama; and creative writing. Professor Mutia was a Visiting Fulbright Scholar in Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA in 1996/1997 and Visiting Professor of African Literature at the University of Bayreuth, Germany in 2000.2001. Mutia is a published prose fiction writer, playwright, and poet. His academic articles have appeared in American, African, and European journals. He is currently working on the interrelationship between African literature and historical experience in sub-Saharan Africa.

Babila Mutia
Visiting Professor of English from Cameroon
Email: mutiab@dickinson.edu
Website: http://www.dickinson.edu/~mutiab

Comments

[Rita Ebude Ewane]

Dr Babila Mutia was my teacher at The Advance Teacher Training College (E N S) Yaounde I for two years. During this years, he taught me African Literature ( poetry, prose,and Drama) and Research Methodology. I further had the privilege to be supervised by Dr Babs at my end of course desertation entitled ‘Disappearances and Reappearances in Bakossi Oral Narratives.’
He is a beacon and agent of the redemption of the falling standards of education in Cameroon. He is an epitome of realism and optimism.
His zeal for excellence, passion for hard work and commitment to a job well done earned me and a few classmates who went in for originality in choosing Oral African Literature, the reward for a job well done.

I invite everyone to read Dr Babila’s inspiring books and articles to tell the world what the think about them