A two-day conference, “Recreating Africa in the Americas Through Rhythms and Rituals,” will be held at the DePaul University Student Center, 2250 N. Sheffield Ave., April 4 and April 5.

The multi-disciplinary conference will bring together leading scholars from West Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and North America to present recent findings in the study of the African Diaspora. Cultural continuities in worldview, language, music and movement will be explored.

The conference kicks off at 4 p.m. April 4 with a reception and preview of the DePaul University Art Gallery exhibition, “Readers Advisors and Storefront Churches,” by Renee Stout. The art gallery is located at 2350 N. Kenmore Ave.

An opening and welcome will be conducted at 6 p.m. in Room 120 of the Student Center by Sandra Jackson, director of the Center for Black Diaspora, a major sponsor of the conference.

A panel discussion focused on “Cross River Influence in Cuba” will be held from 6:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Discussion panels will focus on “New Evidence for the African Diaspora in the Cuban Abakua Society” and “Efik Presence in Cuban Abakua Language.” Presenters are: Ivor Miller, visiting professor in the Africa and Black Diaspora program; and Bruce Connell, linguistics professor at York University in Toronto.

The Omi Odara Troupe, featuring Roman Diaz as director, will perform Cuban Abakua dance and music at 7:30 p.m.

The conference schedule and speakers for April 5 are as follows:

9 a.m. – 11 a.m. “Yoruba-Speaking Peoples in Cuba, Trinidad and the United States.”

Panelists: Wanda Abimbola, moderator and professor of African studies, Boston University; Mareen Warner-Lewis, Yoruban language scholar, the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica; and George Brandon, professor and director of the Program in Sociomedical Sciences at Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education of the City University of New York; and a representative from the Yoruban community of Chicago.

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. “Southeastern Nigeria and its Diaspora in the Americas”

Panelists and Papers: Victor Manfredi, moderator and professor of languages at Boston University, “Philological Perspectives on the Southeastern Nigerian Diaspora”; Joseph Inikori, professor of African history at the Frederick Douglass Institute at the University of Rochester, “Women in the Transatlantic Slave Trade from Southeastern Nigeria.” A representative from the Igbo community of Chicago will also join the panel.

12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. One hour break

1:30 p.m. – 4 p.m. “Fon and Kongo-Speaking Peoples in Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and the Americas.”

Panelists and Papers: C. Daniel Dawson, moderator and an independent scholar, filmmaker and photographer, “Palo Monte and Kongo Inheritance”; Ken Bilby, professor of anthropology, Bard College, “Kumina Performance in Jamaica”; Gerdes Fleurant, associate professor of music, Wellesley College, “Haitian Vodun.” Representatives from the Angolan, Haitian and Jamaican communities of Chicago will join the panel.

“Recreating Africa in the Americas Through Rhythms and Rituals” is free and open to the public. For more information about the conference, contact the Center for Black Diaspora at 773/325-7512.