By AiW Guest Ranka Primorac. In London, a three-day literary festival called Africa Writes took place recently at the British Library (BL). The festival is now in its fourth year, it hosts an ever-widening stream of writers, readers and publishers,… Read More ›
Research, Studies, Teaching
Re-issue of archival volumes of African Literature Today 1-14
Founded in 1968 by Heinemann Publishers, London, African Literature Today is the oldest international journal of African Literature. James Currey have now re-issued archival volumes ALT 1-14 making the complete series available and providing the historical perspective of these early contributions to… Read More ›
The Future of Knowledge Production: Wikithon to Improve the ‘African Literature’ Wikipedia Page
On June 4 at the upcoming African Literature Association (ALA) conference at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, Africa in Words will be hosting a ‘Wikithon’ to improve the ‘African Literature’ Wikipedia page. During a Wikithon (also often called an ‘Edit-a-thon‘), people… Read More ›
African Heritage Challenges: Development and Sustainability
African Heritage Challenges: Development and Sustainability 15 May 2015 – 16 May 2015 CRASSH, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, CB3 9DT – SG1&2 Convenors Britt Baillie (University of Cambridge, Affiliated Lecturer in the Division of Archaeology) Chris Boonzaaier (University… Read More ›
Call for Papers: Researching Nigeria Day
Researching Nigeria Day 18th June 2015 University of Birmingham The Department of African Studies and Anthropology at the University of Birmingham invites participants to present and discuss new research on Nigeria at a daylong workshop on 18th June 2015. The… Read More ›
Call For Papers: The Journal of History and Cultures
The Journalof History and Cultures (JHAC) is inviting postgraduates and early career academics to submit articles or book reviews for its next issue. JHAC is a peer-reviewed online journal dedicated to pioneering new research in history and cultures. Drawing on… Read More ›
Review: Stellenbosch Dirt Colloquium, March 2015
AiW Guest: Eckard Smuts. Now, almost two weeks after the event, as I try to assemble a tidy picture of the sway and flow of our numerous discussions, an image comes back to me: a horn, black, from the mouth… Read More ›
Accessing academic texts on Africa beyond the firewall: New African Histories (Ohio University Press)
Open Access, the campaign to make scholarship free to read for everyone, not just those who have paid to get past the firewalls, continues to gain ground. It’s still difficult to access academic texts for those without access to university libraries. Scribd is… Read More ›
Call For Papers: RAL Special Issue on Ken Saro-Wiwa as Public Intellectual
Guest Editor: Stephanie Newell Since his execution by the Nigerian authorities in 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa has received global recognition as a key figure in the struggle for minority people’s environmental and political rights. This special issue of Research in African… Read More ›
Africa Travels, Africa Writes. Notes on African Intellectual Mobilities.
AiW guests: Janet Remmington and Nicklas Hållén Typically Africa has been framed as a destination, not source, of travellers. Also it has been taken to be the subject, not origin, of texts. Travel and movement of Africans are too often… Read More ›
The Literature Gap in African Legal Academia
AiW Guest Bwesigye bwa Mwesigire Writing for Africa in Words in May 2014, Dustin Zacks presented a case for the inclusion of African Literature in American legal academia. The case for the inclusion of African literature, or any other literature… Read More ›
‘This is literary achievement; where is yours?’ Radio Ghana’s ‘The Singing Net’ 60 years on
Africa in Words Guest Victoria Smith: On 28th January 1955 the Ghanaian song Yaa Nom Montie played for the first time on radio as the theme music of the country’s first literary programme, Singing Net. The song’s composer, J.H. Kwabena… Read More ›
Words on Teaching – “The Great War in Africa”
Africa in Words Guest Anne Samson: Ready packaged resources for those who want to explore the Great War in Africa are scarce. However, that shouldn’t put teachers and other educators off doing so as the amount of useful material on… Read More ›
CFP: Researching Africa Day (deadline 25 Jan 2015)
Researching Africa Day 2015 St Antony’s College, University of Oxford Saturday, 7th March 2015, 09:00 – 17:45 Every year, Researching Africa Day brings together post-graduate and early career researchers from across a range of disciplines. The day offers an opportunity… Read More ›
‘My First Coup’: autobiographies of childhood
My auntie and the headmistress tried as best they could, with smiles and toffee, to shield me from their rising anxiety, but I could feel it bouncing off the quick sideways glances they shot each other and taking flight like… Read More ›
“All the talk in WWI seems to be about France…”*
Why were Africans consigned to the margins, sometimes altogether erased, when the drama of this war was narrated? (Okey Ndibe) Okey Ndibe‘s comment above reflected on the absence of acknowledgement for Africa and Africans in terms of a different global war,… Read More ›
The circulation of politics, art and literature in Nigeria
As part of his tour of the UK to promote his novel, Foreign Gods, Inc., journalist, academic and writer Okey Ndibe paid a visit to the University of Sussex earlier this week. As well as being interviewed by locally-based African literature… Read More ›
“Out in Africa: Same-sex desire in sub saharan literatures and cultures” by Chantal Zabus (Review)
Mama still reminds me every once in a while that there are penalties in Nigeria for that sort of thing. And of course, she’s right. I’ve read of them in the newspapers and have heard of them on the… Read More ›
Review: Mxolisi Nyezwa’s ‘Malikhanye’ – Are there words?
AiW Guest: Tom Penfold. ‘Malikhanye’: Are there words? i cannot understand why man exists and why things happen Mxolisi Nyezwa is a South African poet and Malikhanye (2011),[1] published by Deep South Press, is his third collection of poetry… No…. Read More ›
They Will Eat Me in Calabar: tales from the front lines of Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps
We eventually got to their house, where I was introduced to a middle-aged women. They all spoke in Efik, I did not understand them. So I became more afraid, thinking that they were planning to eat me. The woman asked… Read More ›