Dark Continent: Day 2 in Cape Town

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Day 2 in Cape Town

Yesterday was such an exciting day that I'm just trying to recover from it. We started out at around 11:30 with our old friend from the States, Judyie Al-Bilali, who brought with her a guide, Mary Hegarty, who took us on a great ride from Cape Town to Hout Bay then up the the east side of Table Mountain to Bloubergstrand and Table View. During the trip, we saw lots of lovely coastline, Table Mountain from many views, and had lunch at a winery.

Judyie is someone who Ellen and I met through our friend Terry Jenoure but at very different times. Judyie, who unfortunately for us, leaves for the States on Tuesday, has done wonderful things for us here like make sure we got picked up at the Cape Town airport and get Mary to give us a tour. Mary is an American who moved here for love about 10 years ago. She makes a living as a CranioSacral Therapist, what ever that is. It reminds me of craniology.

Judyie saved the best for last. We went to a party of women artists that was hosted by Evelyn Bester. We had a fabulous time and didn't get home until about 2AM. They were all women of color: some "Black Afrikaans," some mixed Indian and San, and some mixtures that I couldn't guess at. The energy in the room was exciting. There were both straight and bisexual women there and they were all so open to me and Ellen. More on some of the formidable women later.

Table Mountain

Atlantic Coast

Vinyard

Evelyn Bester's Party

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Academic Biography

Professor White's first book, Sierra Leone’s Settler Women Traders: Women on the Afro-European Frontier, was winner of the Letitia Brown Memorial Publication Price in 1987. Her book with Iris Berger, Women in Sub-Saharan Africa: Restoring Women to History, has become a standard reference text and has been translated into Japanese. Her most recent book is Dark Continent of Our Bodies: Black Feminism and the Politics of Respectability. She has been named a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in Sierra Leone and a Mellon Scholar and has received a Kidder-Peabody Grant for research in The Gambia. Her appointments have included chair of the Five College Black Studies Executive Committee and member of the Graduate Faculty of the University of Massachusetts. She has a B.A. from Wheaton College, an M.A. in African history, and a Ph.D. in history from Boston University.

Along with her teaching and scholarly career, she has had a distinguished career in academic administration. At NYU, she was appointed Vice Provost in 2005. She advised the Provost on faculty appointments, tenure, and promotion. She worked closely with the Faculty Senators Council to enhance work-life conditions for faculty. She also spearheaded the university’s efforts to diversify the faculty and has responsibility for the Office of Academic Appointments, the Center for Teaching Excellence, and the Faculty Resource Network, a faculty development consortium of 52 institutions of higher education.

From 1998 to 2005, Professor White was dean of NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where she greatly increased the school’s visibility and reputation. From 2001-05, she was chair of NYU’s Deans Council. Prior to coming to NYU, she was a professor of history and Black studies at Hampshire College, where she also served as Dean of the School of Social Science and Dean of Faculty. While completing her Ph.D. at Boston University, she was an instructor at the University of Sierra Leone and a research assistant at the Afro-American Studies Center at Boston University.