As a historian of colonial and post-colonial West Africa, I specialize in the political history of Guinea Bissau, with a focus on the meaning of women's participation in national liberation struggles. My current research explores the ways in which a focus on the perspective of women fighters leads to re-writing current historical narratives of the Guinea Bissau national liberation war. This research has methodological implications for historical research on national liberation struggles more broadly. In addition to considering women as active agents in reshaping the narrative of the war, I also take seriously their reasons for participating, based on concerns for family and community. Their perspective serves to refocus the historiography of national liberation struggles on concrete lived reality rather than clichéd political abstractions. My research also examines the ambiguous relations between African national liberation movements and movements for women's rights and emancipation within those movements. For many years, I have also had a research interest in the Haitian Revolution of 1791 to 1803, and the dissemination of the idea of this revolution throughout African political and intellectual circles in the 19th and 20th centuries.

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BOOK MANUSCRIPT:

Women of the Portuguese Guinea Liberation War: De-Gendering the History of Anticolonial Struggle” Bloomsbury Publishing Company, UK. April 2024. 

BOOK CHAPTERS: 

1. “Amilcar Cabral and the PAIGC Exile in Guinea, 1959-1962: Women and the Salvation of the Nationalist Organization.” African In Exile: Mobility, Law and Identity from Atlantic Slave Trade to Counterterrorism, edited by Benjamin Lawrence and Nathan Carpenter, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2018.   

2. “Gendered Patterns of Migration and Changes to Gender Relations in Guinea-Bissau.” Guinea Bissau: From Micro-State to Narco-State, edited by Patrick Chabal and Toby Green. London and New York: C. Hurst/Oxford University Press. 2016.

JOURNAL ARTICLES:  

1. Cabral and Revolution in Portuguese Speaking Africa Book Review of Antonio Tomas: Amilcar Cabral. The Life of a Reluctant Nationalist. to the African (United Kingdom; Oxford University Press, 2021, pp. 266; price?) and Peter Karibe Mendy: Amilcar Cabral; Nationalist and Pan-Africanist Revolutionary, (Athens; Ohio University Press, 2019), African Studies Review Journal, Cambridge University Press, 2024, 1-5.   

2. “The Women Emancipation in Senegal during the 1980s and 1990s: The Case of the “Yewwu Yewwi” movement.” The Journal of African Policies Studies, Volume 27, Number 1 (2021)   

3. “Methodological Analysis of the Guinea Bissau Nationalist Movement 1963-1974: Amilcar Cabral-Marxist or Pragmatist?” The Journal of African Policies Studies, Volume 21, Number 1 (2015)   

“Revisiting the Guinea Bissau Liberation War: PAIGC, UDEMU and the Women's Rights and Emancipation Question, 1963-1974.” Portuguese Journal of Social Science, Volume 14 Number 3 (2015), p. 361-377.   

4. “Promise and Betrayal: Women fighters and National Liberation in Guinea Bissau.” Feminist Africa, Issue 19 (September 2014), p. 24-42       

BOOK REVIEWS:   

1. Book Review for the Journal Of East Tennessee History: I Cannot Write My Life: Islam, Arabic and Slavery in Omar Ibn Said’s America. By Mbaye Lo and Carl W. Ernst. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2023. P.p. 178. Cloth, $99.00; $24.95.) 

2. Book Review for the Journal Of West Africa History: KIMOUKRO, Sanctuaire de L’Houphouëtisme Préface de son Excellence M. Inza Camara EMMANUEL Y. NGORAN (Côte d’Ivoire, Abidjan; L’ Harmattan, 2021, pp. 105; price?) Journal of West African History; Michigan State university Press, 2022, /PUBLICATION IN FRENCH     

3. Film Review EDUARDO WILLIAM, dir. With MARIONO BLATT’s Parsi. 2020, 23 minutes. Creole and Spanish (with English Subtitles). Argentina, Guinea Bissau, and Switzerland. Commissioned by the Center for Contemporary Art in Geneva for the Biennale de l’Image en Movement 2018. African Studies Review Journal Volume 64, June 2021, pp. E72-E73     

4. Book Review Jessica CAMMAERT’s Undesirable Practices; Women, Children, and the Politics of the Body in Northern Ghana, 1930-1972 (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2016), African Studies Review Journal (Cambridge University Press), Volume 62, Number 3, September 2019   

5. Book Review CAROLINE MELLY’S, BOTTLENECK; Moving, Building, and Belonging in An African City (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), 224 pp., $30.00 Transfers Journal “Bottleneck” in Dakar: from Metaphor to Anthropological Analytical Tool, (Vo. 9, Issue 1, 2019)   

6. Book Review TAMBA M’BAYO’s Muslim Interpreters in Colonial Senegal, 1850-1920 (Lanham, Boulder, New York and London: Lexington Books (ISBN 9781498509985), AFRICA: Journal of the International African Institute, (Cambridge, UK Vol. 88, Issue 1 February 2018, pp. 186-187.

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1.   Presentation: “Faculty-led Intercultural Understanding and Academic Engagement: The MTSU History in Senegal Program” at the African, African Diaspora and Tertiary Education: Study Abroad Programmes and their Impact on Cross-cultural Understanding” Panel of the “Re-Examining our Historical identity within the Context of Internationalization of Higher Education” Conference at the University of Cape Coast (Ghana/West Africa), October 28-Novemebr 1, 2024. 

2.     MTSU History Department Brown Bag Talk, "The Women emancipation struggle in Senegal during the 1980s and 1990s: the Case of the “Yewwu Yewwi” movement.”," Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro.

3.     Senegambian Studies Group's ATAYA Talk Series, "Senegambian Studies and Guinea Bissau: Continuities, Ruptures and the Dream of a Greater Senegambia," Senegambian Association, Zoom Talk.

4.     International Seminar on the (IN)Stability in Guinea-Bissau, Lisbon, Portugal: October 14th, 2022, "The Guinea Bissau Liberation War, 1963-1974: Motherhood and Self Paradox in the Discourses of Women Fighters," Lisbon (Portugal), The Autonomous University, International Conference, Lisbon, Portugal.

5.     Association General and Liberal Studies Meeting, Orlando (Florida), September 20-21, 2019

6.     THEC/MTSU General Education Summit, Murfreesboro, TN August 07, 2019

7.     The Governmental Relationships between Senegal and the Gambia from the 1980s to 2017: Brotherhood or Enemies? At the 61st Annual African Studies Association Meeting, Atlanta, (November 29-December 01, 2018))  

8.     “The Women Emancipation in Senegal during the 1980s and 1990s: The Case of the “Yewwu Yewwi” movement.” At the 60th Annual African Studies Association Meeting, Chicago, (November 16-18, 2017))

9.     “Methodological Analysis of the Guinea Bissau Nationalist Movement 1963-1974: Amilcar Cabral-Marxist or Pragmatist?” 59th Annual African Studies Association Meeting, Washington DC, (December 1-3, 2016)

10.     “The Guinea Bissau Liberation War, 1963-1974: Motherhood and Self Paradox in the Discourses of Women Fighters” at the 58th Annual African Studies Association Meeting, San Diego (November 19-22, 2015)

11.  “Amilcar Cabral and the PAIGC Exile in Guinea, 1959-1962: Women and the Salvation of the Nationalist Organization” at the Conable African Studies Symposium Exile, Deportation, and Forced Labor in Colonial Africa, Rochester, New York (April 2-4, 2015)

12.  “Gendered Patterns of Migration and Changes to Gender Relations in Guinea-Bissau.” At the 57Th Annual African Studies Association Meeting, Indianapolis (November 20-23, 2014)

13.  "Gender Roles and the First Republic of Guinea Bissau: The Beginning of the Destruction of the Macro-State,” at the 56th Annual African Studies Association Meeting, Baltimore (November 21-24, 2013)

14.  “Revisiting the Guinea Bissau Liberation War: PAIGC, UDEMU and the Women’s Rights and Emancipation Question, 1963-1974,” at the 55th African Studies Association Meeting, Philadelphia (November 29-December 02, 2012)

15.   “African National Liberation Movements and the Role of Women: A Case Study of Guinea Bissau,” Sponsored by the Sonoma State University History Department of History and School of Social Sciences at Sonoma State University in honor of Women’s History Month, Sonoma, March 13, 2012

16.  “The Guinea Bissau Liberation Through the Perspective of Women Fighters: The Gendered and Unfinished Liberation War, 1961-1974,” at the 54th African Studies Association Meeting, Washington DC (November 17-20, 2011)

17.  "Courage does not come from a Sardine Can but from the Heart:" Realms of Power during Guinea-Bissau's National Liberation Struggle, 1963-1974”. Paper presented at the UC Davis African- African American Studies Brown bag (April 10, 2009) and Cross-Cultural Women’s and Gender History Brown Bag UC Davis History Department (May 29, 2009).

18.  "Nineteenth-Century Haitian Intellectuals and pseudo-Scientific Theories of African Racial Inferiority" at the 49th African Studies Association Meeting, San Francisco (November 16-19, 2006)

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April 8, 2024,              MTSU CLA Faculty Student Mentoring Award 

2018/19                      MTSU Outstanding Teaching AWARD in General education

May 02. 2023              MTSU 2023-2024 President’s Commission on the Status of Women Recipient of the Curriculum Integration Grant.

2017/18                       Nomination for 2017/18 MTSU Outstanding Teaching Award in General Education

2017/18                       Nominated for 2017/18 MTSU Teaching Award in History

May 19, 2025,             CONGRATULATORY LETTER, Office of the Vice President For Student Affairs and Vice Provost for Enrollment and Academic Service

May 08, 2024,             CONGRATULATORY LETTER, Office of the Vice President For Student Affairs and Vice Provost for Enrollment and Academic Service

May 11, 2022,             CONGRATULATORY LETTER, Office of the Vice President For Student Affairs and Vice Provost for Enrollment and Academic Services

May 19, 2021,             CONGRATULATORY LETTER, Office of the Vice President For Student Affairs and Vice Provost for Enrollment and Academic Services

June 20, 2018,             CONGRATULATORY LETTER from the Office of the PRESIDENT

Sp.-Sum. 2019             MTSU Africana Studies Interim Director

une 11, 2015,            CONGRATULATORY LETTER, Office of the Vice President For Student Affairs and Vice Provost for Enrollment and Academic Service      

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MTSU Faculty-led Study Abroad HISTORY in SENEGAL since 2016/  HIST 3075 (Undergraduate) HIST 6940 (Graduate)

This 16-day-Study Abroad Senegal will expose MTSU students to different cultural, economic and social environment, in which American students will be able to see the differences between the two worlds (USA and Senegal) and by the end of the trip will be able to understand through group discussions and interactions with Senegalese people that they all have the same goals, aspirations even though they live in different places and socio-cultural and economic contexts. In order to understand to understand this African community, the students will visit different places related to different historical facts such Goree (slave castle), Saint Louis (first colonial French city in Sub Saharan Africa), Touba and the Mouride community (Africanization of Islam)(Saint Louis) and Fadiouth (representation of religious cohabitation (African Traditional religions, Christianity and Islam) in harmony). We will explore debates related to underdevelopment, unemployment, informal economy youth and politics etc. The case of Senegal will be seeming as a case study in a larger context of Africa and African politics and societies.

For more info see attached document Senegal Study Abroad

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INTERVIEWS:

A.   O. T. Adegboyega (Feb. 18, 2025) MTSU Oral History Project: Interview with History Tenured Professor Dr. Aliou Ly

B.    OBEHI Podcast: Dr. Aliou Ly talks about The Role of Women in the Guinea Bissau National Liberation Struggles-Obehi Podcast (by Obehi Owanfoh, Verona, Italy)

C.    Ricci Shryock (American Journalist based in Dakar Senegal); Journalist/. Photographer who was working on stories of female freedom fighters contacted me for an interview after reading one of my articles (04/19/2019). Finally, the interview happened on May 30, 2019.   D.   The Economist (UK): Interviewed and cited by Eleanor Whitehead in: “The Veil in West Africa: Banning the Burqa,” in the British journal of The Economist, volume 418, number 8976, 2016. (London, United Kingdom)

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 HIST 6010-001: Historiography.

HIS 6304/7304: Graduate Seminar: COLLOQUIUM ON COLONIAL AFRICA

MALA 6000: Topics in Science and Reason: Block 2: The Art of Communication in Africa

HIST 6940 Study Abroad Senegal

HIST 4950 Public History Internship

HIST 4425-001/AAS 4600-002: Nationalism and Decolonization in Africa

HIST 4525 Nationalism and Decolonization in Africa. ONLINE

HIST 4550-001 Women and Politics in modern Africa.

HIST 3070-001 Topics in World History: Women and Politics in Africa

HIST 4430-001/AAS 4600-003: Sub Saharan Africa

HIST 4430-001/AAS 4600-003: Sub Saharan Africa ONLINE

HIST 4435-001 African Slave Trade

HIST 3070-005 Study Abroad Senegal

HIST 2010 D01 US Survey (ONLINE)

HIST1110-D01 World Civilizations 1 (ONLINE)

HIST 3070-003 Topics in World History: Revolutions in Africa: African Struggles for Changes: From Jihad to Genocide

History 376.2: Africa Since Independence   

HIST 2020-005 Survey US History; 1865-Present

HIST 2010 Survey US History to 1865 HIST 1110 World Civilizations

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