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The African Students Organization (ASO) Forum is a yearly event that creates a medium for intellectuals from different disciplines who care about Africa to contribute to Africa’s development process. The theme of this year’s forum, organized by Cosmo resident Stephen E. Armah, a Ph.D. Candidate from Ghana, in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, was “Development in Africa: Are We Ready to Participate in the Globalized World?” The forum theme reflected the observation that the ideals envisioned for development for Africa have yet to be realized in most of the countries in the continent. African students at the U. of I. chose to explore these issues and to intellectually contribute to African development, realizing that African problems need input from Africans from different parts of Africa, as the American perspective on African problems is almost always based on inaccurate assumptions about Africans’ preferences. The guest speaker for the Forum was Dr. Leo Zulu of Michigan State University, whose talk was entitled “Around Africa and Back in an Hour: Staking a Place for Africa at the Globalization Table.” Stephen served as the chair of the forum committee and was responsible for drawing up the program and reviewing abstracts. He also served as the MC for the forum and presented two papers. About fifty people attended from different departments at the U. of I. and from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Michigan State University, and the University of Chicago, leading to lively discussions. Congratulations, Stephen, on a job well done! |