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August 19, 2008

World-Renowned Agricultural Economist Mandivamba Rukuni to Visit IAIA Campus

Contact: Hayes Lewis
Director, Center for Lifelong Education
505.424.5701 (ph)
505.424.0707 (fax)
hlewis@iaia.edu

Santa Fe, NM – The Institute of American Indian Arts is proud to host Professor Mandivamba Rukuni, a world-renowned agricultural economist, and Regional Director of the American W. K. Kellogg Foundation, for a lecture August 29, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. in the auditorium of the Library and Technology Center on the IAIA Campus (83 Avan Nu Po Road). Professor Rukuni is in Santa Fe to promote his new book Being Afrikan – Rediscovering the Traditional Unhu-Ubuntu-Botho Pathways of Being Human. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Rukuni is a world-renowned agricultural economist who was also the youngest Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare. He chaired Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s Land Commission and is a consultant to the World Bank and other international institutions. Currently, he is the Regional Director of the American W. K. Kellogg Foundation, a foundation which has played a major role in building the Center for Lifelong Education at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Rukuni is a key partner of IAIA’s, supporting and participating in programs such as the “Answers Lie Within” Economic and Cultural Exchange between South African and Native American artists. Rukuni’s passion lies in empowering rural communities to develop themselves by drawing on their cultural heritage and adapting it to a modern context, a philosophy that parallels what many Native Americans are practicing within the United States to revitalize their communities.

Being Afrikan is the first conversational piece published by the renowned Zimbabwean academic author. In it, Rukuni speaks about his personal journey of rediscovering the traditional way of life according to the Ubuntu philosophy, an Africa-wide approach known as Unhu in the Shona and Botho in the Sotho languages. The book is a fascinating read as he shares age-old Afrikan wisdom on how to live life in today’s modern world.

For more information about Rukuni’s appearance at IAIA, please call Hayes Lewis at 505.424.5701 or the Center for Lifelong Education offices at 505.424.2387. For more information about the Institute of American Indian Arts, please visit www.iaia.edu

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To empower creativity and leadership in Native arts and cultures through higher education, lifelong learning and outreach


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