IIT Chicago-Kent to host "A Conversation About Land Dispossession in South Africa"

IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law's Institute for Law and the Humanities and Documentaries to Inspire Social Change (DISC) will co-sponsor "A Conversation About Land Dispossession in South Africa" at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, 565 West Adams Street (between Clinton and Jefferson streets), in Chicago. The program, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 6 p.m.

"Sifuna Okwethu" ("We Want What's Ours"), a short documentary film about land dispossession in South Africa directed by IIT Chicago-Kent Professor Bernadette Atuahene, will be screened at the beginning of the program. "Sifuna Okwethu" is the story of the struggle between the Ndolila family whose land was taken in the 1970s without compensation by South Africa's apartheid government and the working-class family who purchased the land in the interim. For nearly four decades the Ndolilas have struggled to regain the property. The documentary examines both parties' legitimate right to the land and encourages viewers to ponder whose rights should prevail. Professor Atuahene will participate in a discussion about land dispossession in South Africa and the legacy of apartheid. A reception will immediately follow the discussion.

Professor Bernadette Atuahene has been a member of the IIT Chicago-Kent faculty since 2005, where she teaches courses in law, policy and international development; property; and international business transactions. After graduation from Yale Law School, Professor Atuahene was a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa. She has served as a judicial clerk at the Constitutional Court of South Africa, working for Justices Madala and Ngcobo, and has practiced as an associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York, where she focused on sovereign debt and real estate transactions. Professor Atuahene won a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship and worked with the South African director general of land affairs.

Professor Atuahene's research interests deal with the confiscation and restitution of property. In addition to the film, she is working on a forthcoming book titled We Want What's Ours: Land Restitution in South Africa, which is based on 150 interviews she conducted with program beneficiaries.

There is no charge to attend the program, but reservations are required. To RSVP, or for more information, please contact Professor Atuahene at batuahene@kentlaw.iit.edu.

Founded in 1888, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law is celebrating "125 years of distinctive legal education." IIT Chicago-Kent is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, a private, Ph.D.-granting institution with programs in engineering, psychology, architecture, business, design and law.

IIT Chicago-Kent's Institute for Law and the Humanities was created to facilitate, support and encourage symposia, lectures, scholarship, and faculty discussion on the relationship between law and other humanistic disciplines. It provides opportunities for faculty and students to integrate humanities-based studies with the study of law and to explore the increasingly rich and diverse scholarship in areas such as legal philosophy, legal history, law and literature, and law and religion.