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Spencer Museum commissions new painting for KU Common Work of Art
LAWRENCE — The Spencer Museum of Art commissioned artist Fahamu Pecou to create “Parable of the Sower: Oya’s Dream” as the KU Common Work of Art for the 2023-2024 academic year. The painting is Pecou’s response to the KU Common Book, “Parable of the Sower,” by Octavia Butler. “Oya’s Dream” will be featured in the Spencer Museum’s fall exhibition “Black Writing,” which explores the power, politics and complexity of language in contemporary Black culture, on view at the Spencer Museum beginning Aug. 19.
Book expands on legacy of Nigerian women’s Islamic scholarship
LAWRENCE — “Winning the peace” through education — and the crucial role of women in this process — is the subject of a new book titled “Equals in Learning and Piety: Muslim Women Scholars in Nigeria and North America” (University of Wisconsin Press) by Beverly Mack, University of Kansas professor emerita of African & African-American studies.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Elizabeth Kanost, Spencer Museum of Art, 785-864-0142, [email protected], @SpencerMuseum
Spencer Museum commissions new painting for KU Common Work of Art
LAWRENCE — The Spencer Museum of Art commissioned artist Fahamu Pecou to create “Parable of the Sower: Oya’s Dream” as the KU Common Work of Art for the 2023-2024 academic year. The painting is Pecou’s response to the KU Common Book, “Parable of the Sower,” by Octavia Butler.
The Common Work of Art depicts a pregnant Black woman reclining with a copy of Butler’s novel held over her face and a portrayal of the “orisha,” god or goddess, Oya balancing on her hip. The protagonist in the KU Common Book is named Lauren Oya Olamina.
Pecou further explains the painting’s symbolism: “Oya, the orisha of change and transformation, serves as a powerful symbol in Ifá cosmology. Through the character of Lauren, we witness the importance of mentally, spiritually and physically preparing for the storms of life. Oya teaches us that change is not something to be feared, but rather a catalyst for growth and evolution.”
This painting is part of Pecou’s “Trapademia: Lit” series, which juxtaposes Black bodies with famous literary works by Black authors. “Oya’s Dream” will be featured in the Spencer Museum’s fall exhibition “Black Writing,” which explores the power, politics and complexity of language in contemporary Black culture. The show is in partnership with the History of Black Writing (HBW), a research center at KU that specializes in the recovery and preservation of texts by Black writers.
“Black Writing” and the KU Common Work of Art will be on view at the Spencer Museum from Aug. 19 through Jan. 7, 2024. Pecou will give a talk at the Spencer Museum at 4 p.m. Nov. 30.
Resources for expanding conversation about the KU Common Work of Art are available online.
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Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, [email protected], @RickHellman
Book expands on legacy of Nigerian women’s Islamic scholarship
LAWRENCE – The stereotype of Islam as patriarchal and averse to educating women misrepresents the legacy of the egalitarian leader of the Sokoto Jihad who reformed Islamic rule in early 19th century northern Nigeria. Not only did leader Usman ’dan Fodio approve of education for women, but he endorsed its promotion in his caliphate by his daughter Nana Asma’u through her outreach program called Yan Taru, or in English, the associates.
“Winning the peace” through education — and the crucial role of women in this process — is the subject of a new book titled “Equals in Learning and Piety: Muslim Women Scholars in Nigeria and North America” (University of Wisconsin Press) by Beverly Mack, University of Kansas professor emerita of African & African-American studies.
It is an exclamation point on a career’s work in bringing to light the contributions of women scholars in the region. Her 2004 book, “Muslim Women Sing: Hausa Popular Song,” explains the social importance of contemporary women poets and performers, but this, Mack’s fourth book that focuses on Nana Asma’u, extends to the legacy of the Yan Taru in the United States today, where groups of this women’s study program were established in the late 20th century.
“West African history has always been about the battles, the kings, the men in power, and Asma’u had been literally a footnote — maybe two footnotes,” Mack said. “Scholars have said, ‘She’s an exception.’ This book demonstrates that Asma’u is not an exception. She is one of many women scholars and students. Her Yan Taru program is indicative of regional women’s activism that was more widespread than has been acknowledged. In fact, Yan Taru teachers may be more responsible for the 19th century institutionalization of Sunni/Sufi Islam in northern Nigeria than any man or battle.”
This grassroots program in northern Nigeria and southern Niger continued to operate under the radar throughout the late 19th century post-jihad years, the first half of the 20th century during British and French colonization, during early years of the countries’ independence and into the present. Because it was self-maintained by local women and not tied to government structures, it was unaffected by political change and thus may continue to be operating in Niger, even in the face of the current coup.
Mack said that Usman ’dan Fodio was a member of the region’s minority Fulani tribe. Before his successful jihad, as a literate Muslim, he preached and sometimes advised local kings of the majority Hausa tribe. When the jihad was won, there remained the task of disseminating Sunni/Sufi reformations to local Islamic practices throughout the region. That required teachers who spoke the dominant Hausa language.
Led by Nana Asma’u, Yan Taru women undertook this social reform. As Mack has written in the current book and others about Asma’u’s poetic work, poems functioned as lesson plans for Yan Taru teachers, who taught women, who then taught their children, both girls and boys. For most, Yan Taru education was transmitted orally.
“Most women in the rural areas at that time were not literate, but literacy was not necessary for learning adab (Arabic), the Islamic concept of ethical behavior, morality,” Mack said. “These lessons were meant to educate women in Islam as a structure that could support the acquisition of knowledge as a means of moving closer to God and practicing right behavior towards others. It’s just that simple. It has nothing to do with Sharia or an eye for an eye, or any of that. It’s hard enough, just learning to be good in this world.”
The Yan Taru’s Islamic education program aims to prepare individuals to use their intellectual gifts to better understand the world and their place in it, to help them to move closer to God.
“The Quran consistently promotes the use of one’s reason, one’s intellect. The point of being human and having intellectual capabilities is to develop them by knowing everything that you can, depending on what your interests are. If you want to be a chemist, an architect, a journalist, that’s great. Pursue whatever your interest is, because the more you know about anything, the closer you get to knowledge of God, although spiritual knowledge ultimately is inexhaustible,” Mack said. “The lifelong pursuit of knowledge is a means of developing the spirit, so for anybody to deny someone the opportunity to develop their mind is, ultimately, to deny them the opportunity to deepen their spirituality.”
While the Nigerian Yan Taru program continues in the 21st century, it has diasporic links in North America today. The U.S. Yan Taru movement was started in the 1990s at the urging of an African American scholar, Sheikh Muhammad Sharif, who had learned about Asma’u when he studied among Fodio family scholars in West Africa. He asked Mack to speak to his Pittsburgh Islamic community when her book of translations of Asma’u’s poems was published in 1997, and he suggested to women there that they start their own Yan Taru chapters to take control of educating themselves and others. Mack said she has continued to consult with them since they organized.
“Now they have North American Yan Taru chapters in places as disparate as Los Angeles, Georgia, Florida. These Yan Taru chapters expand and contract, depending on demographic changes, but technology allows them all to stay in touch with the Pittsburgh chapter, the hub of North American Yan Taru activity,” Mack said. “Instead of having women go out to the villages on foot, women go out to the cities virtually, on Zoom, to teach. Local groups meet regularly in person or virtually, and the entire North American contingent can meet annually or biannually by Zoom, even when separated by time zones. It saves money, time and energy. I think that’s very cool. Asma’u was very practical. If she were alive today, she would be using Zoom all the time — without a mute button.”
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