Ricardo René Larémont, a professor of political science and sociology, discussed the potential threat posed by groups called Boko Haram, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Al Shabab.

“What I told the committee is that military options are not necessarily the most important,” Larémont said. “When you look at northern Nigeria, where Boko Haram is trying to grow, you have a society in which about 20-25 percent of the women are educated. You have high levels of fertility among women. And when you combine high fertility with low literacy, you have a recipe for social, economic and political disaster. Also, you do not have a U.S. diplomatic or developmental presence on the ground whatsoever, so you do not have any idea about what is going on.”

When Larémont was invited to testify, he was on his way to a conference in Malta organized by the European Union. He had about a week to prepare his Nov. 30 remarks for the House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. The subcommittee works to ascertain present and future trends that may affect the security of the United States.

“Frankly, I was like a child in a candy store,” said Larémont, who had never testified before Congress. “I was simply amazed by the grandeur of the place. … It’s just physically impressive.”

Larémont, a Carnegie Corporation Scholar on Islam who travels the world for his research, said he found the members of the subcommittee quite knowledgeable. “They were prepared,” he said. “The chair of the committee is a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Congressman Patrick Meehan. The ranking Democratic member is Congresswoman Jackie Speier from California. They were both very well informed.”

He was given just five minutes to read his remarks before members of the subcommittee posed questions.

Essentially, he said, the U.S. concern is that Islamist extremists are gathering strength in the Sahel, a region between the Sahara and tropical Africa. The committee wanted to understand the degree to which these groups are “aspirational” vs. “operational” in nature.

Larémont, who has written extensively about Islam, conflict resolution and democratization in Africa, offered a brief history of three jihadist groups and his views on their possible plans in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings. He expects that Boko Haram, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Al Shabab will attempt to expand their operations now that Muammar Qaddafi’s regime no longer exists. Larémont said that even though Qaddafi was unpredictable in many ways, he played an important role in stabilizing the countries of the Sahel. The security vacuum created by Qaddafi’s ouster may offer an opportunity for jihadist groups to work together to destabilize several states in West Africa, Larémont told the subcommittee.

“The U.S. budget is essentially broken, so we obviously have to take care of this home front,” he said afterward. “But even while we focus on this home front, we have to realize that there are things happening overseas that may affect our security. The urgent task is to remain focused on threats developing overseas while at the same time finding a way to jump start this economy. Until that’s done, we won’t get security here or security overseas.”

“One day a member gave me this book about a drummer who got interested in world drumming through meeting other people and studying their drumming culture,” Burns says. “That’s when I first saw the name ethnomusicology, and all the interests I had just clicked into one word that meant world culture, travel and music.”

Now a professor of ethnomusicology at Binghamton, Burns produces and distributes CDs of music from African countries such as Ghana, Togo, and Benin. His field work creates a positive image of Africa through music.

“What I want to do is bring traditional music out in a way that people can appreciate,” he says. “A lot of people have negative associations with Africa that they pick up from the media, whereas music portrays the best side of every culture.”

Since 2000, Burns has completed 15 CD projects.  One of the discs, from a dance-drumming group in Ghana titled “The soup which is sweet draws the chairs in closer,” is available on Amazon.

Burns also records music videos.  He says his most remarkable experience occurred while filming a religious ceremony. “The dancers wanted to perform a miracle by saying a prayer, while someone stuck their hands into a pot of boiling palm oil,” he says. “They asked me if I wanted to participate. On the video you see me afraid to do it, and then the priest grabs my hands and puts them into the oil. It felt like I stuck my hands in a bath of ice!”

“It is mind-boggling with the level of communication we have today that this type of caricature of Africa exists,” she says.

Africaresource.com, an educational website, features content that raises awareness of conversations taking place in African communities on topics ranging from feminism to economic development.

“My goal is for this type of information — and access to this information — to become available for everyone,” she says. “If you don’t understand the generosity of the spirit that Africans have to offer, then you don’t understand the society.”

Nzegwu, former chair of the Africana Studies Department, joined Binghamton’s faculty in 1990. A native of Nigeria, Nzegwu received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Ife before earning a doctorate from the University of Ottawa in Canada.

Africaresource.com has served more than 10 million visitors from more than 90 countries since its first posts in 1999. Today, more than 110,000 people visit it every week. The site received a “Best of the Web” citation from PBS, and has been cited by other media for its expertise. Five online scholarly journals and a building in Endicott, N.Y., called the Africa House, support the effort.

“It began to grow in ways we never envisioned,” Nzegwu says.

Nzegwu’s latest project focuses on U.N. Dispute Tribunal Judge Nkemdilim Amelia Izuako, whose rulings against those in power have led to attempts on her life. Nzegwu has traveled to Kenya to study Izuako’s moral framework, in order to understand why she is willing to risk her life to uphold the law.

“This African woman has done tremendous things but no one knows about her,” says Nzegwu, who plans to include Izuako’s story in a book on African women achievers.