Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftliche Fakultät - Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften

Africa Colloquium

Sommersemester 2025

Venue & time: Invalidenstraße 118, r. 315; 16-18 h c.t.

The Afrikakolloquium is organised this semester jointly by
Dr. Lamine Doumbia (Department for African Studies, HU) and
Dr. Susann Baller (Centre Marc Bloch Berlin)

The colloquium is open to the public. Students, colleagues and guests are welcome!

Prof. Dr. Jacqueline Bethel-Mougoué

(Bayreuth Academic of Advanced African Studies/ University of Wisconsin-Madison)

‘Human Power’: Black American Women’s Activism in West Africa

This talk examines a chapter of a book project on Black American women who traveled to West Africa from the 1950s to the 1970s for the Baha’i Faith, a religion founded in 19th-century Persia that promotes racial, cultural, and gender equity. I analyze how these women, many former Christians and active in civil rights movements like the NAACP and the Black Power Movement, redefined their activism by embracing the Baha'i Faith to foster racial and gender equity. A 1972 advertisement for the Baha'i Faith in Ebony, an African American magazine, encapsulates this shift with the statement, “True Black Power is Human Power.” The talk emphasizes their activism both in the United States and internationally, particularly in Africa, where they reconnect with ancestral roots, reshape gender and racial unity, and engage with local kinship practices. By adopting a “human power” approach and situating their activism within a Baha’i framework, I show how their Baha’i belief in individual potential and societal responsibility empowered them to create a significant intersection of racial and gender advocacy, ultimately redefining their identities and enhancing their prominence within and outside their religious communities across the Atlantic.

Mougoué Biography: Mougoué is an Associate Professor of African Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States. She possesses a Ph.D. in history, focusing on women’s and gender history in mid-20th century West Africa. Mougoué is the author of the 2019 award-winning book, Gender, Separatist Politics and Embodied Nationalism in Cameroon. Additionally, she co-edits a book series on women and gender in Africa published by the University of Wisconsin Press.