Africa, the Measure of the Human. Nile Baby. Mandela.

Professor Elleke Boehmer

Professor Elleke Boehmer will be reading from her two new books: Nile baby & Nelson Mandela: A Very Short Introduction . This will be followed by a conversation with Dr Kai Easton (SOAS) and Dr Mpalive Msiska (Birkbeck) and a general Q&A.

There will be a book signing/launch during the Centre for Gender Studies Welcome Reception from 6:30-9pm in the Staff Common Room, 1st floor, main building.

Bio

Professor Elleke Boehmer was born of Dutch parents in Durban, South Africa in 1961, and was educated in South Africa, Canada, and Britain. To date she has published three widely praised novels, Screens again the Sky (short-listed David Higham Prize, 1990), An Immaculate Figure (1993) and Bloodlines (short-listed Sanlam Prize, 2000), as well as short stories and memoir sketches, many of which are set in Africa. Internationally known for her research in international writing and postcolonial theory, she is the author of the world best-seller Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors (1995, 2005), The Monographs Empire, the National and the Postcolonial, 1890-1920 (2002) and Stories of Women (2005), and of the acclaimed edition of Robert Baden-Powells Scouting for Boys (2004). Elleke Boehmer is the Professor of World Literature in English at the University of Oxford. Her study of Nelson Mandela appears this year, concurrently with Nile Baby , to coincide with his 90th Birthday in July.

Dr Mpalive Msiska is a Senior Lecturer in English and Humanities with research interests in Post-Colonial Literatures and Critical and Cultural Theory at Birkbeck College.

Dr Kai Easton is a Lecturer in African Literature and Diaspora Studies at SOAS.

Contact email: N.S.Al-Ali@soas.ac.uk