Professor Hofmeyr will provide an accessible history of the Indian Ocean world by focusing on five objects: a tombstone in Yemen; a piece of fabric from inland southern Africa; a ship, HMS Columbine; a world famous book (Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj); and a jelly fish.  Each object will illuminate a set of transregional networks while throwing light on the forms of knowledge and intellectual creativity that transoceanic mobility and connectivity make possible.

Professor Hofmeyr has been invited in conjunction with the exhibition World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the Indian Ocean opening at Krannert Art Museum on August 31, 2017. World on the Horizon will be the first major traveling exhibition dedicated to the arts of the Swahili coast and their long and enduring connections to eastern and central Africa and the port cities of the Indian Ocean world.

Hosted by: Krannert Art Museum

In conjunction with: Center for African Studies, Center for Global Studies, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Department of Anthropology, Department of Asian American Studies, Department of English, Department of History, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, International and Area Studies Libraries, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Program in Comparative & World Literature