I was amazed at the prevalence of tired old stereotypes about Africa when I spoke to Ekene Ajufo and Polly Anna Sanches Martinez about a discussion forum event they organised on behalf of the African Student Union at the University of Florida to discuss the theme of ‘Us v Them’. They called them National Geographic images. The problem is that not enough everyday news comes out of Africa and that only leaves the stereotypes on which to fall back. I wondered what the advantage of scheduling a discussion was. Surely the topic can be discussed spontaneously? But Ekene Ajufo who is the Vice President of the African Students Union at Florida University pointed out that in a scheduled event such as this the discussion can be moderated professionally and this could lead to more productive discussions than spontaneous dinner party talk. When I saw the video recording of the discussion I had to agree. Unfortunately I could not include extracts from the video into the latest podcast but you can hear the discussion I had with Ekene Ajufo and Polly Anna Sanches Martinez in the latest Absolutely Intercultural show.
The show also includes two more extracts from the Anna Lindh Foundation forum including one very noisy conversation I had with Merlijn Twaalfhoven, a Dutch composer who uses his music as a way of confronting cultural differences.