Rogers Orock | Photo by Adam Atkinson
What I study and why: I’m from West Africa, specifically Cameroon and Nigeria, and I trained as an anthropologist in Cameroon and then in Finland and Denmark. Prior to joining Lafayette College, I have lived and worked briefly in Belgium and France, as well as more extensively (more than six years) in Johannesburg. I moved to the U.S. with my family in 2022, and I taught for two years at Louisiana State University. I am delighted to be joining the community here at Lafayette. All through this time, from grad school to now, I’ve been studying elites in West Africa and questions around power, morality, leadership, and corruption. I started out by studying elites and governance, and the aspirations West Africans have and their expectations that their elites would bring about economic development and the improvement of lives. At some point, these anxieties in African settings like Cameroon or Gabon have taken on darker, more conspiratorial imaginations about elites and power.
In collaboration with Peter Geschiere, a friend and colleague in Amsterdam, we also studied these developments in connection with popular rumors and conspiracy theories about elite associations with Freemasonry, homosexuality, and illicit enrichment. This is the subject of a forthcoming book. It struck me when I got to the U.S. that there are interesting parallels between the fears and anxieties about elites and corruption in Africa and the kinds of conspiracy imaginations people have about elites in the U.S. that are even bordering on the paranoid. I hope to build a platform for African-centered conversations at Lafayette College, collaborating with colleagues across departments.
This fall, I am teaching: I’ll be teaching two courses. The first, AFS 102: Introduction to Africana Studies, where, I hope, my distinct approach will help bring about an understanding of the common experiences of the people of Africa and teaching it through ideas and questions related to blackness and the history of slavery, and possibly trying to think about new kinds of iterations of very old struggles and old questions and debates about what it means to be human and Black. I’ll also be teaching AFS 101: Ideas of Africa, which serves as a general introduction to major themes in contemporary African studies.
What students can expect from me: In both of my classes, I hope to present to students points of view from a variety of disciplines, drawing from anthropology, economics, political science, cultural studies, and, notably, African literature.
I value the small class sizes at Lafayette, finding them more accessible because they allow for more meaningful student engagement. We’ll have an engaging set of conversations throughout the course of the semester. My hope is to try to bring more attention toward this phenomenon of the rise of conspiracy narratives in a greater conversation about the question of Blackness. I hope that they will have an exciting time.
Getting to know me: As a father to three young children, now I’m spending more time with my kids, two daughters and a little boy. I am looking to be more involved in their hobbies, including looking at dance schools for my daughters. I’m eager to explore all of the clubs that are here at Lafayette and hope to be part of them. I also enjoy films and documentaries.
Continue reading to meet more of Lafayette’s newest faculty members.