The African Association for Rhetoric
in collaboration with the
United States International University-Africa, Nairobi, Kenya,
Announces its 9th biennial Conference, themed:
‘RHETORICAL (RE)INVENTION OF AFRICA IN THE 21ST CENTURY’
July 22-24, 2020

In the milieu that saw most African nations receive their independence from colonial powers, Africa’s freedom fighters fashioned out certain visions and character of leadership for Africa. Successive generations of African leaderships, both at individual state levels and the agglomeration of heads of states and governments under the aegis of the African Union have neither strictly aligned themselves to this vision nor embraced the quality of leadership that was envisioned in Africa’s transition to independence. Therefore, the post colony has been riddled with what Achille Mbembe has characterized as the grotesque and the obscene.

Africa in the 21st Century still faces numerous challenges. Some of these are connected to how individual countries confront demands of neo-colonisation, impacts of economic fluctuation in the north, violent political upheavals, digitization and post truth media challenges, globalization and global warming, corruption and unrealized Millennium Development Goals, Africa Relations with the West, and the perennial question of African citizenship. Issues persist in Africa’s public domain due to the disjunction between rhetorical utterances of the leaders and the actual implementation.

USIU-Africa, Image courtesy of USIU-Africa FB page

This interdisciplinary conference seeks the participation of interested professionals and scholars in African Studies and graduate students whose project intersect with Africa as a subject.

Sub themes:
The organisers invite papers and research articles in any of the following or related topics:

• Beyond Colonialism: Towards (Re)constructing a new Africa
• Contemporary Media Rhetoric in Africa
• Rhetoric and the Decolonization of educational curricula in Africa
• Decolonizing Africa’s Political Rhetoric
• Imaging Africa: Reframing and Resisting Global Media’s Representation of Africa
• Africa’s Public Policy: From Speech to Action
• Rhetoric of African Agency: Citizenship and Ethics of participation
• Rhetorical Leadership and transformation in Africa
• Reinventing Africa through creative and Performing Arts
• Rhetorical Transformation of Africa’s Electoral process
• Africa in the Cinemas
• Costs and Benefits: Africa as a site of prosperity
• Language, Representation and the (Re)invention of Africa

Abstract Submission Deadline: 31st March 2020

Conference Date: July 22-24 2020
Find other important dates and information, such as conference fee​s, here

Venue:
United States International University – Africa
Nairobi, Kenya

Contact emails:
Director of Conference: Dr Rachel Diang’a
United States International University-Africa, Nairobi Kenya,
Email: rdianga@usiu.ac.ke

​Dr Segun Ige
Chair, AAR Steering Committee
Email: aar.southafrica@gmail.com

Dr Omedi Ochieng
Denison University
Email: ochiengo@denison.edu

~Read more about The African Association for Rhetoric on their blog, here

~Follow United States International University-Africa on Twitter @USIUAfrica

Categories: Calls for & opportunities, Research, Studies, Teaching

Tags: Academic conference, Africa, African Media, Call for papers, cinema, colonialism, Conference, Creative Africa, decolonisation, Kenya, language, literature, Nairobi, Performance, Politics, Research, Studies, Teaching