The defeat of apartheid in South Africa will go down as one of the great victories in the struggle for human rights, an achievement that bound people and governments throughout the world in common cause to overcome oppression. This triumph stands as an example today for other African nations in which rights violations go on amid poverty, war, and disease.

The African Studies Center of the University of Pennsylvania examines human rights in Africa in a day-long interdisciplinary conference, followed by the Forum's evening program of discussion and documentary film. Ngugi wa Thiong'o, one of Africa's foremost authors, will appear in conversation with Professor Farah Griffin, an expert on African-American literature, and Professor Tukufu Zuberi, a specialist in race and demographics and Director of African Studies at Penn. These scholars will introduce Bill Moyers's extraordinary documentary on the aftermath of apartheid, Facing the Truth.

African Studies Center

The African Studies Center of the University of Pennsylvania examines human rights in Africa in a day-long interdisciplinary conference. For conference information, please consult the African Studies Center's website or call 215-898-6971.
Cosponsored by the Penn Humanities Forum

Ngugi wa Thiong'o, acclaimed African writer and Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience (Kenya 1977), and author of several books, including Moving the Centre: The Struggle for Cultural Freedom and Writers in Politics. His award-winning works promoting the role of indigenous languages in decolonization have been translated into more than 30 languages
Farah Griffin, Associate Professor of English, and author of Who Set You Flowin'?: The African-American Migration Narrative.
Tukufu Zuberi, Associate Professor of Sociology, Director, African Studies Center, and authority on race and demographics in Africa.

Facing the Truth with Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers travels deep into the heart of South Africa, a land seeking to heal the wounds left by an amoral system of apartheid, and meets with the faces it has left behind. The program covers the amnesty and the Truth and Reconciliation hearings where victims at last confront their torturers, their rapists, and the murderers of their loved ones. Speaking with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former South African president F.W. De Clerk, Moyers seeks to give viewers an understanding of the steps both black and white South Africans are taking to reconcile their differences, forgive past wrongdoings, and move their nation into a new and brighter age.

Facing the Truth with Bill Moyers
(see Penn Humanities Forum Film Series for description)