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Class of 2010
Elizabeth (Liz) Allan received her B.A. in English from Grinnell College in 2004. In 2005, she taught English language and literature at a girls' secondary school in rural Lesotho, southern Africa. During her year in Lesotho, she witnessed the impact of major global trends, including southern Africa's HIV and AIDS epidemic and the expiration of the World Trade Organization's Multi Fiber Agreement, on the ability of young women to complete their educations. In December 2005, she moved to Benin City, Nigeria to work as a Program Officer at a local women's health NGO. There, she coordinated the launch of a public health advocacy and education program and assisted the NGO in grantwriting and capacity-building activities. Her stay in Nigeria introduced her to the immense complexities and contradictions of governance in a petrol-rich nation-- and also to the rich political and cultural life of Africa's most populous country. For the past two years, she has worked at the War Crimes Research Office in Washington, DC, a small organization that provides legal research to war crimes tribunals, including those trying serious violations of international humanitarian law in several African nations. At Yale, Liz hopes to explore how human rights demands are articulated and implemented in regions beset by resource-based violence. She is particularly interested in the relationship of global human rights and environmental activism to ethnic conflict, and she looks forward to combining study of political theory, geography, and Arabic in pursuit of this interest.
Philip Bonney is currently a Major in the United States Army where he serves as a Foreign Area Officer in the region of Sub-Saharan Africa. He and his family spent the last year living in Dakar, Senegal. Philip spent a good part of his time traveling to 20 different African countries to gain familiarity of the peoples, cultures, history, and political and military structures. He also worked as the humanitarian assistance officer for the US Army’s Office of Defense Cooperation in Senegal, supervising projects in orphanages, schools, and health clinics.
An accomplished musician, Philip earned a Bachelor of Music Degree from Indiana University and Master of Music Degree from the University of Southern California in Horn Performance. He also holds a M.S. in Geology and Geophysics from the University of Missouri-Rolla. After initially learning French as an LDS missionary in France and Switzerland, he received a Minor in French from Indiana University. In addition to French, he speaks Portuguese and German, and will study Swahili at Yale.
In the future, Philip will serve either a defense attaché, chief of defense cooperation, or as an analyst on the US military African Affairs
While studying at Yale, Philip will focus on better understanding Africa’s environmental and developmental challenges with an end goal of being able to provide decision makers with comprehensive information regarding military and social needs.
Philip, originally from Salt Lake City, UT, and his wife, Georgia, are the parents of 14 children, which include a girl and a boy adopted from Guinea-Bissau.
Seraphine (Phine) Hamilton received her B.A. in English and Africana Studies from William Smith College in 2006 with honors. Since then she has been teaching English and coaching soccer and basketball at the Peddie School in Hightstown, NJ. While at Peddie, she developed the curriculum for two courses: “Unheard Voices” and “Africa Through the Novel”. As an educator, she strives to open windows, doors, even crevices for her students in an attempt to shed light on different perspectives and experiences. These classes gave her that opportunity.
Her love for African literature and history developed at an early age. But her desire to focus her life’s work in these areas solidified during a 6-month residency at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa. During this time she came face to face with a new culture and a tremendously exciting and satisfying way of life. Phine, a two-time NCAA Division III All-American and one-time Academic All-American soccer player, integrated herself naturally by playing on the University soccer team as well as a regional semi-professional team. During her time at UWC, she had the privilege of meeting and speaking with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of her personal heroes and role models. This experience showed that the Archbishop was authentic and real, unmarred by decades of fame and recognition. His messages of equal civil rights and a common education system resonate with her. His approach and commitment inspires her. While at Yale, she plans to explore the impact of current and historical political events on educational systems in the Southern African nations. With that said, she plans to return to southern Africa as an educator, explorer, and proponent for peace.
Andrew Iliff
received his B.A. ('04) magna cum laude in Social
Studies and African Studies from Harvard University. He has
also studied at Lester B. Pearson United World College in
Canada and at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
Andrew grew up in Zimbabwe and has spent time in Rwanda and
South Africa. He hopes by studying both African political
history and law that he can help tailor innovative transitional
justice programs to the unique circumstances of African countries
like Zimbabwe.
 Mohamed Yunus Rafiq will be pursuing his MA in African studies as a Jacob-Javits Fellow. Mohamed comes with eight years experience working in the community development and cultural sector in Tanzania, where he co-founded Aang Serian,a Global NGO (www.aangserian.org.uk). Mohamed Yunus grew up and lived in Arusha, Tanzania for 26 years before pursuing his B.A. in Bloomington, Indiana at Indiana University (IU). He graduated from IU in the summer of 2007 with a B.A. in Telecommunications and Near Eastern Cultures and Languages. For his McNair research at IU , he studied the role of poetic performances in airing grievances in Tanzania. He is hoping to extend his undergraduate research interest as he commences his graduate studies. Specifically, he would like to explore how classical Swahili texts dealt with the issue of health and then connect it to how contemporary forms such as Bongoflava frame this issue.
Mohamed Yunus continues to be an active participant in various UN forums such as the Permanent Forum for Indigenous Peoples Issues and UN-Habitat. In his leisure, he likes to compose poetry and write short stories. One of his fictional works will be published in an anthology, at the beginning of 2009, under the title of Modern Short Friction Stories from Kenya. He is moving to New Haven with his wife and two small sons.
Jason Warner graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 2006 with a BA (Highest Honors) in International Studies - Africa. In addition to spending a year at the Université de Montpellier (France) as an undergraduate, he also backpacked through Senegal researching linguistic policy in the public schooling domain, culminating in a thesis centered on Senegal’s potential to achieve Millennium Development Goal Number Two, the provision of universal primary education.
Following graduation, Jason worked for the French Government as a public school teacher in French Guiana. Intrigued by its neo-colonial relationship with France, he is now compiling the first comprehensive history of French Guiana available in English, focused specifically on why, after nearly four centuries of colonization, it has yet to gain independence from France. He has interned and/or served as a contributing writer at TransAfrica Forum, The Institute of Caribbean Studies and FranceWatcher.com and speaks with varying degrees of success: French, Spanish, Portuguese and Yoruba.
At Yale, Jason is broadly interested in African and Caribbean nations’ roles in the international political economy and their pursuit to achieve social justice by breaking free from exploitative relationships with the so-called “West.” Specifically, he is interested in French foreign policy towards its former and present colonies in Africa and the Caribbean, particularly in regards to questions of decolonization, neo-colonialism and the ideology of Françafrique.
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Class of 2009| Students | Alumni
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