Afterlife: Death and Burial Ceremonies in West African Cultures

media release: Every Wednesday at noon — since 1973! — African Studies Program faculty, students, and community members have gathered for AFRICA AT NOON, a one-hour weekly lecture series bringing diverse African research from scholars around the world to a campus and community audience.

You can view available recordings of past Africa at Noon speakers here and on the event page as well. Find the fall 2024 schedule here.

Fall 2024 Zoom link.

Speakers Bios:

Olusegun Soetan

Olusegun Soetan is a film specialist and a cultural studies scholar focusing on Nollywood, Global Anglophone auteur cinema, African oral literature, and witchcraft studies.  He holds a Ph.D. in African languages and literature from the University of Wisconsin—Madison. His works draw on critical theories of gender, class, sexuality, identity, and culture. He has published essays in peer-reviewed journals and contributed book chapters to edited volumes. He is a poet, novelist, and photographer.

Eric Adjetey 

Born in Teshie, on the coast of Ghana, Eric Adjetey Anang began helping his family in the carpentry workshop at the age of eight. As an apprentice following high school, he joined the family business, Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop, and assumed leadership of the shop at twenty. Anang is a third-generation coffin-maker and, along with his father and apprentices, passionately stewards his family’s legacy as he refines and elevates this culturally significant art form. Anang’s work has been shown in exhibitions across West Africa and Europe and is held in private collections across the globe. Since 2008, Anang has participated in a dozen residencies, conducted workshops, and featured in multiple documentaries worldwide. He maintains a dual residency in Madison, Wisconsin, and at Teshie, where he continues to produce coffins for funerary patrons, art collectors, and museum collections, including the University of Iowa Museum of Art.