Episode 135:

06/11/24 • 50 min

Michelle Sikes (Kinesiology, African Studies, and History, Penn State University) on her new book, Kenya’s Running Women: A History (Michigan State University Press, 2023). The conversation begins with Sikes's journey from NCAA champion and professional runner to Rhodes scholar and academic. She then delves into the book's main arguments and sources and methods. Sikes elaborates on women athletes' biographical narratives and transformational changes in global athletics since the 1990s. The interview closes with a discussion of gender-based violence, what makes Kenyan runners great, and the impact of sports on the broader quest for Black freedom, equality, and justice.

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Episode 134:

Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi (History, University of the Free State) on his new book, Cultural Resistance on Robben Island: Songs of Struggle and Liberation in South Africa (Skotaville 2024). After discussing the genesis of his scholarly interests, Dr. Ramoupi describes prisoners’ music— instruments, genres, styles—and its impact on surviving apartheid’s harshest prison. He then reflects on the relationship between prisoners and guards, and changes in Robben Island prison culture over time. The interview closes with Ramoupi’s reflections on the film, Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, and a preview of his new Mellon Foundation-funded research project.

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Episode 136:

Lauren Jarvis (History, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill) on her new book, A Prophet of the People: Isaiah Shembe and the Making of a South African Church (Michigan State University Press, 2024). Dr. Jarvis discusses the remarkable life of Shembe, the building of a religious community of people left behind by industrial capitalism, strategies of evasion, and the key role of women in the church. She then reflects on written, oral, and visual sources, white authorities’ anxieties about the Nazaretha church, and what happened to the community after Shembe’s death in 1935.