The Holocaust was a catastrophe for its direct Jewish victims in Europe. For the non-Jewish and non-European “distant observers” of the Holocaust in sub-Saharan Africa, the Nazi anti-Jewish campaign in Europe had a particular significance. The Speaker, Dr. Edward Kissi, author of Africans and the Holocaust: perceptions and responses of colonized and sovereign peoples, will look at how particular groups of people in East and West Africa obtained and interpreted news reports about the Nazi persecution and attempted destruction of German and other European Jews in the 1930s and early 1940s. The talk focuses on how these groups in sub-Saharan Africa used their indigenous cultures and memories of European colonialism to make moral and analytical judgements about the Holocaust.

Edward Kissi is Associate Professor at the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies, University of South Florida, and a member of the Africana Studies faculty. Kiss’s research focuses on the post-20^th century history of West and East Africa, the comparative history of genocide and human rights, and sub-Saharan African perspectives on the Holocaust. He has published on a wide range of issues including genocide and human rights in Africa, and the prospects and challenges of genocide prevention and global Holocaust and Genocide Education. In 2009, Kissi was invited by the United Nations to write “The Holocaust as a Guidepost for Genocide Detection and Prevention in Africa” for the landmark United Nations’ Discussion Papers Journal.  He has since been involved in major national and international activities on Holocaust and Genocide Education, including  UNESCO’s on-going initiatives on Holocaust and Genocide Education in Africa. His latest book Africans and the Holocaust (2019) is a pioneering effort to integrate sub-Saharan African perspectives on the Holocaust into Holocaust Studies and incorporate Holocaust content into African history, and Africana Studies. Kissi has also been featured in the new National Geographic documentary Nazis at Nuremberg: The Lost Testimony which made its international debut in December 2022.

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