On October 18th, the Center for African Studies, the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, and the Department of African and African American Studies hosted a special screening of Beasts of No Nation, followed by a discussion and reception with author Uzodinma Iweala. Based on the novel of the same name, Beasts of No Nation, written and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, tells the story of a young boy in a West African country who is forced to become a child soldier. Iweala, a graduate of Harvard University and 2011-2012 Radcliffe Fellow, won numerous awards for the novel, including the Los Angeles Times' Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize from Booktrust, and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The screening and discussion was a great success with more than 130 people in attendance. Iweala participated in a fascinating discussion of his book and its transformation from print to film, lead by Professor Caroline Elkins.

Photographs by Leonie Marinovich