http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa Facilitate cutting-edge research about Africa at UCLA en-us UCLA Professor Alain Mabanckou will celebrate the American debut of his award-winning and recently translated book "Memoirs of a Porcupine" with a reading at the Hammer Museum on May 1. In 2006, the tale of a porcupine who acts as the alter ego of a murderer, won the Prix Renaudot, one of France’s two top literary prizes. http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/article.asp?parentid=125352John Wooden's impact felt halfway around the worldhttp://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/article.asp?parentid=124516It’s important for Americans to think of Africa and South Africa as places to learn and grow, says university leader.http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/article.asp?parentid=124254As the newest director of UCLA’s James S. Coleman African Studies Center, and the first woman to hold the position in the center’s 52 year history, Professor Françoise Lionnet is eager to build upon the center’s successes and expand in new directions.http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/article.asp?parentid=122843by Meg Sullivan, UCLA Newsroomhttp://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/article.asp?parentid=122091Peek into Judith Carney’s background and you can understand her interests. "In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa's Botanical Legacy in the Atlantic World," co-written with her husband, is one of two winners of the most recent Douglass prize, awarded to the best book written in English on slavery or abolition.http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/article.asp?parentid=120155Associate Professor of History Ghislaine Lydon interviewed more than 200 legal scholars, Saharan traders and descendants of traders for her 2009 book, "On Trans-Saharan Trails: Islamic Law, Trade Networks, and Cross-Cultural Exchange in Nineteenth-Century Western Africa."http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/article.asp?parentid=118670Geography Professor Judith Carney and a co-author demonstrate, in "In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa's Botanical Legacy in the Atlantic World," not only the legacy of farming that the slaves brought with them from Africa, but also the importance of the botanical gardens that they kept in America, as well as the impact that they had on the developing American food culture.http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/article.asp?parentid=118594The UCLA Bixby Center on Population and Reproductive Health and James S. Coleman African Studies Center organize a two day-gathering to assess how family planning policy and anti-HIV/AIDS efforts would look different with greater attention to African boys, men and masculinities.http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/article.asp?parentid=117867Sudan's civil war killed more than 2 million people and, in a well-known episode, sent 20,000 boys in the country's South on a 1,000-mile march to Ethiopia and Kenya. Beset by thirst, hunger, wild animals and bombing attacks, fewer than half of them survived. John Dau, one of about 4,000 so-called Lost Boys of Sudan who were helped to relocate to the United States, told his story at the law school.http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/article.asp?parentid=117334