My Mind Words Paper [Search results for diaspora literature] 

Dates: 22 - 23 March 2012

The Department of English at Texas Southern University will host the Fourteenth Annual Interdisciplinary McCleary Symposium, March 22-23, 2012, Houston, Texas.

The general topic for the presentations is “Asian & African Diaspora Literature, History, and Arts.”

Scholarly research and presentations are invited that cover a wide area of interest, including but not limited to the following:

• National and Global Influences
• Exodus Literature: Roads Away, Roads Back
• Lost Generations
• Translations
• Women in Art and Literature
• Following History’s Ariadne’s Thread through the Past
• New Voices in Adopted Languages
• Social Impact and Change
• Literature in New Form—Blogs and Bloggers
• Cyber Art, Cyber Fiction
• The Internet’s Impact
• You Tube as an Expressive Form
• Modernism and Postmodernism
• Conflict and Protest Art and Literature
• Post WW II Considerations
• The Short Story
• Expatriate Artists
• Literature and War
• Anti-government art and literature
• Poetic and Artistic Influences

For more information or to submit an abstract to the 2012 McCleary Interdisciplinary Symposium, contact the Department Chair Rhonda Saldivar at 713-313-7667 or Saldivar_rx@tsu.edu. We encourage electronic submissions of abstracts.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: Saldivar_rx@tsu.edu

For submissions: Saldivar_rx@tsu.edu

Deadline: 11 January 2012

The Black Diaspora Conference is an annual interdisciplinary forum bringing together scholars and thinkers to reflect on issues and concerns related to people of African descent. The objective of the series is to promote and expand public awareness, scholarship and research in the area of Black Diaspora studies. Themes and discussions at the annual conference will focus on achieving a qualitative and quantitative impact on the various Black Diaspora micro-communities in the Diaspora as well as on the African continent.

The theme for the 8th Black Diaspora Conference is “Intellectuals of the Diaspora.” We invite submissions for papers and panels from scholars, faculty members, graduate and undergraduate students. While papers on any aspect of the theme are welcome, the organizers are particularly interested in papers that explore the experience of Black people as they have and continue to navigate the spatial world within the world of Black and pan-African reality in the following areas: history, culture, literature, religion, politics, social organization, race relations, gender, internet networking, psychology, performing arts, etc. Contributions may be historical, theoretical, empirical, or comparative. Innovative approaches are especially welcome.

Paper contributions should be for a 20-minute presentation. Acceptance of a submission implies a commitment to register for and attend the Conference. (Registration Fee: $100; $15 for students and retired scholars).

Dr. Obiwu Iwuanyanwu
Black Diaspora Conference
Department of Humanities
P.O. Box 1004
Wilberforce, Ohio 45384
Telephone (937) 376-6215; Fax (937) 376-6029
Email: oiwuanyanwu@centralstate.edu

Or

Dr. Anthony Milburn
Black Diaspora Conference
Department of Humanities
P.O. Box 1004
Wilberforce, Ohio 45384
Telephone (937) 376-6459; Fax (937)376-6029
Email: amilburn@centralstate.edu

Contact Information:

For inquiries: oiwuanyanwu@centralstate.edu or amilburn@centralstate.edu

For submissions: oiwuanyanwu@centralstate.edu or amilburn@centralstate.edu

Deadline: 30 September 2011

The aim of this panel is to discuss the contributions of people of African descent to the discourse on speculative literature from the African diaspora by contemporary writers. In Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora editor Sheree R. Thomas states that her purpose for the series “. . . [is] to offer readers an enjoyable entrée to the diverse range of speculative fiction from the African diaspora and to encourage more talented writers and scholars to explore the genre” (xii). Sheree also uses the term “unobserved literary tradition” to acknowledge the unrecognized contributions people of African descent make to speculative fiction.

Works from writers who deconstruct racial stereotypes like Samuel Delany, Steven Barnes, Octavia Butler, Tananarive Due, and Nalo Hopkinson are welcome. Also, paper proposals that show the marginalization of people of African descent from other connected genres such as science fiction and fantasy are possibilities; along with theoretical approaches to enhance our understanding of speculative literature from the African diaspora is also welcome. Submit a 250-500 word proposal by September 30, 2011 for consideration to Dierdre Powell, dmpowell2@aacc.edu

Contact Information:

For inquiries: dmpowell2@aacc.edu

For submissions: dmpowell2@aacc.edu

Website: http://www.nemla.org/convention/2012/

Deadline: 30 September 2011

The unique role of first and second generation African immigrants in the United States is a subject of interest and debate among researchers. Africans may be one of the highest outbound peoples on the globe. Incidentally, neither the impact of migration on Africans in the Diaspora nor its future consequences for the continent have been sufficiently addressed in research. In recent times, however, the subject of migration or migrancy is assuming center stage in academic circles, among researchers, policy makers, world organizations, and the like. Many agree that migration is, indeed, reshaping the national, self and cultural identities of both migrants and their host nations.

Migration and African Families in the Diaspora is a planned volume conceptualized to provide an update on the status of African families in the Diaspora, with specific focus on the United States. How, for instance, is migration reshaping African family structures and gender dynamics? How does it impact the African’s sense of identity and culture? What gaps exist between first generation and second generation African immigrants in their conception of self, place, home? These are some of the issues that this book is bound to address in order to provide an updated and scholarly assessment on the subject of African migration. The book’s scope will cover African migration to North America in the last forty years.

Interested contributors may send a 200- word abstract for consideration to Dr. Pauline Ada Uwakweh at pauwakwe@ncat.edu, not later than September 30, 2011.

Using any of these five broad categories including Culture, Family, Education, Politics, Health Care and Wellness, contributors may find the following list of themes, though not exhaustive, a useful guide.

• Intergenerational culture conflict
• Bicultural parenting and identity issues
• Role of African cultural associations/cultural communities: national and ethnic identities
• Migrant African parenting in the Diaspora: motherhood, fatherhood, child rearing, single motherhood, single fatherhood
• Migrant African teens and Diaspora peer influence
• Migrant African families and indigenous languages: problems and prospects
• Migrant African families: representations in literature and the media
• Religion, spirituality, and the African family in the Diaspora
• Violence, conflict, mediation and migrant African family experiences
• Negotiating Gender roles: employment, career and culture intersections
• Migrant voices: Narratives of despair, hope and nostalgia
• Migrant African intra marriages vs. ethnic and national identity.
• Migrant African inter marriages and the Diaspora ‘other’
• Migrant families and Healthcare: access, perceptions of mental health, obesity, nutrition, etc.
• Education and migrant African families in the U.S.A.: access, opportunities and challenges
• Education vs. culture: assimilation, acculturation and the American classroom
• Education and career advancement
• Politics and migrant Africans: opportunities and engagement, challenges and barriers.

Chapter Submission Requirements

All submissions are expected to comply with the requirements below.

• Chapters should be original and well-researched. Interdisciplinary explorations are encouraged.
• Submissions should be a maximum of 20 pages ( not including references, abstracts, tables and figures), double-spaced, and in 12 point Times New Roman. More details will be provided.
• Authors should include a 200-word abstract of the chapter, 50–word biography, email, institutional addresses and contact numbers.

Book Timeline

September 30, 2011: Deadline for abstracts

January 3, 2012: Deadline for submitting book chapter drafts

April 15, 2012: Deadline for submitting revised chapters

June 1, 2012: Deadline for submitting manuscript to publisher.

EDITORS

Dr. Pauline Ada Uwakweh
Assistant Professor
Department of English, College of Arts and Sciences
North Carolina A & T State University
pauwakwe@ncat.edu.
Office: (336) 285-2343. Fax: (336) 334-3342

Dr. Jerono Rotich
Associate Professor
Department of Human Performance & Services, School of Education
North Carolina A & T State University
jprotich@ncat.edu
Office: (336) 334- 7712. Fax: 334-7258

Dr. Comfort Okpala
Associate Professor
Department of Human Development and Services, School of Education
North Carolina A & T State University
cookpala@ncat.edu
Office: (336) 285-4365. Fax: 336) 334-7132

Contact Information:

For inquiries: pauwakwe@ncat.edu

For submissions: pauwakwe@ncat.edu

Deadline: 15 July 2012

The work of writers of African heritage, whether they hail from the “old” or the “new” diaspora, has been known for its exceptional vigour and originality, and has unsurprisingly attracted the attention of scholars from all over the world. In recent years, however, criticism focusing on the production of artists from the old diaspora, either African American or Caribbean, has often examined these authors’ displaced identity in the Americas or in Europe at the expense of their African heritage and their perception of it. Even analyses of contemporary literary texts centring on the slave trade have more readily discussed writers’ representation of history than their engagement with Africa per se – the latter topic having seemingly lost the prominence that it once enjoyed in scholarly circles, as writers themselves appear to have less frequently chosen to place the continent of their ancestors at the centre of their fiction and poetry. Yet, in many cases, this African dimension still seems to play a significant role in the overall assessment and understanding of their works, and is therefore worthy of renewed critical attention.

African cultures and settings cannot be said to suffer comparable neglect in recent discussions of works by writers of the new diaspora, a category that broadly encompasses those who were born on the continent but left it either as children or as young adults. However, perhaps because these diasporic artists provide the bulk of the canon of contemporary African literatures, their perception of the continent of their birth has rarely been assessed through the lens of their geographical position, many critics preferring instead to emphasize globalizing trends or, conversely, to position diasporic artists, such as third-generation Nigerian writers, as the unproblematic heirs to the strategies of historical and cultural retrieval implemented by older Africa-based authors. Even though recent efforts have been made to circumscribe the specificity of the new diaspora’s artistic perceptions of Africa, the question still remains under-explored.

Taking our cue from Countee Cullen’s famous line – included in his 1925 poem “Heritage” – we would like to invite participants in this conference to address the diverse critical blind spots surrounding the representation of, and engagement with, Africa in the works of contemporary writers and artists from the old and the new diasporas. The questions and topics that could be addressed (either through close readings or theoretical contributions) include, but are not limited to:

- How is Africa represented in the diasporic imagination? Is it usually metaphorized or romanticized? Or, on the contrary, does it tend to be depicted in a realistic mode? Is the continent viewed as being trapped in a past marked by slavery and exploitation, or as being marred by a present of poverty and corruption? Do some diasporic artists unwillingly contribute to the perpetuation of stereotypes about Africa as a monolithic whole?

- Is Africa still relevant to the artists of the old diaspora? Does it still shape their creative minds? Is “African diaspora” a pertinent discursive category when discussing Caribbean or African American artists?

- Conversely, is the concept of “African diaspora” established enough to provide a valid critical framework in the case of the new diaspora? Do diasporic artists from North, South, East and West Africa have a common external vantage point from which to appraise the country or continent of their birth? Or, on the contrary, does their geographical location seal their common estrangement from Africa?

- What are the differences or parallels in the representations of Africa found in the works of artists of the old and new diasporas on the one hand, and those who are based in Africa on the other?

- What is the role played by gender, class, generation and/or race in the way diasporic writers perceive the culture and the land of their ancestors?

- Are categories that include references to the African continent rather empowering or limiting? How so?

- What is the role played by academics, journalists, facilitators and publishers in the dissemination of the artistic production of the old and new diasporas? To what extent do these actors encourage strategies of (self-)exoticization? Do they favour selective canonization?

- How do new technologies, particularly the internet, shape the dialogue between artists of the old and new diasporas, and those residing in Africa? Are distinctions between writers based on the continent and overseas still relevant in the twenty-first century?

- What, if anything, does Africa expect from its diasporic writers? Are these artists entitled to criticize the continent they originate from, or are they expected to treat it with special consideration? In other words, do diasporic artists have any particular ethical duty?

We welcome proposals within the field of literature, but also film, music and visual arts. Abstracts for 20-minute papers should be about 200 words, and panel descriptions for 90-minute sessions about 700 words (overall description of the panel in about 100 words, plus three individual abstracts of about 200 words). Non-Anglophone and comparative approaches are most welcome, but all papers will be delivered in English.

Proposals should be sent by 15 July 2012 to africatomenow@gmail.com. A response will reach you by 15 August 2012.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: africatomenow@gmail.com

Website: http://www.l3.ulg.ac.be/africatomenow/

Dates: see schedule below

The Research institute of Swahili Studies of Eastern Africa (RISSEA) was borne out a felt need and desire to coordinate Swahili scholarship. Currently there is no Institution in Kenya and the Region that has assumed such a mandate even though great strides have been made by public universities and other institutions in the development of Kiswahili.

With the spread and development of Kiswahili as the lingua franca of the region, the institute will be the reference point for governments, schools and institutions of higher learning. In kenya for example there are moves to entrench Kiswahili to be the second official language in addition to English in the new constitutional dispensation (bilingualism).

INTENSIVE SWAHILI STUDIES

An intensive 2-10 week Swahili studies school for international and regional students. Short courses on related themes including regular workshops on Swahili studies and language. In- house training workshops tailored to the needs of individual organizations and individuals interested in Swahili studies.

MODULE OFFERED

1. Swahili Literature and Performance

Contemporary Swahili novel and play: In-depth analysis of the two genre of Literature that is play and novel in terms of-The plot, characters, themes and language used.

• Short story in Kiswahili literature.
• Swahili poetry.
• Classical Swahili poetry and contemporary Swahili poetry.
• Types of Swahili poetry.
• How to write Swahili poetry
• Language use in Swahili poetry.
• Swahili epic
• Oral Literature
• Swahili songs, dances and music

• The study of the origins and history of the Swahili
• Swahili economy and international relations
• Spread and development of Kiswahili in East Africa and the Diaspora.
• Dialects of Kiswahili.
• Swahili and her neighbors

• Economic activities of the Swahili eg. Fishing, farming, weaving, dhow making, stone house building, wood carving etc.
• The Swahili way of life, (birth, marriage and death )
• Art, dressing, adornments, and other forms of creativity and personal beauty.
• Religion Beliefs and forms of worship.
• Swahili songs and dances.

Teaching will be conducted on Swahili grammar and phonetics depending on one’s level of proficiency in Swahili. An entry examination will be conducted to determine the student’s level of proficiency in Swahili.

APART FROM THE FOUR MODULES, THE INSTITUTE WILL ALSO OFFER WHERE APPROPRIATE:

• Trips/ excursions will be arranged: while in Lamu a visit to Matondoni village and Takwa ruins, while in Mombasa will visit Fort Jesus Museums, Mnarani, Jumba and Gede ruins.
• Resource persons: will be invited to talk to students/ researchers on different Swahili cultural topics.
• Panel discussions male and female panel discussion will be organized where students /researchers will get the opportunity to ask questions /inquire on any issue that they would like to know or clarified about the Swahili. Hence there will be interactions between the students/ researchers and selected members of the Swahili community that constitutes the panel.

• 28 May to Friday 15 June, 4 weeks - $350 (language module), $1,000 (4 modules)
• 18 June to Friday July, 4 weeks - $350 (language module), $1,000 (4 modules)
• 9 July to Friday 3 August, 4 weeks - $350 (language module), $1,000 (4 modules)
• 6 August to Friday 31 August, 4 weeks - $350 (language module), $1,000 (4 modules)
• 3 Sept to Friday 28 Sept, 4 weeks - $350 (language module), $1,000 (4 modules)
• 1 October to Friday 26 October, 4 weeks - $350 (language module), $1,000 (4 modules)
• 29 October to Friday 23 Nov, 4 weeks - $350 (language module), $1,000 (4 modules)
• 26th Nov to Friday 14 Dec, 3 weeks - $265 (language module), $750 (4 modules)

Via: nairobinow

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For inquiries: contact Munira Mohammed at 0722611533 or munira@museums.or.ke

Website: http://rissea.org

Deadline: 15 March 2012

Female madness is well represented within European and Anglo-American literature, letters, and scholarly endeavors. From Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s inaugural The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) to Elaine Showalter’s The Female Malady (1987) and more recent forays into madness as a trope of female (dis)empowerment, mental illness has been largely feminized and reified into a space of literary whiteness. Nevertheless, this is paradoxical, considering the multiplicity of female writers of the black diaspora who incorporate mental illness into their work.

This panel will focus on twentieth and twenty-first century novels by black women authors writing from Africa, the Americas, and Europe, who incorporate madness as a site of political, cultural, and artistic resistance, particularly as embodied in the use of experimental writing practices. This panel thus creates a conversation at the crossroads where aesthetic praxis morphs into political engagement. Interdisciplinary scholarship is welcomed. There is the potential for an edited volume.

Submit a 300 word abstract to Caroline Brown (at caroline.brown@umontreal.ca) by March 15, 2012. Please note, special sessions must be approved by the MLA.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For inquiries: caroline.brown@umontreal.ca

For submissions: caroline.brown@umontreal.ca

Website: http://www.mla.org/convention

Date: 5 - 9 May 2012 (Gaza), 11 May 2012 (Cairo)

The Festival will take place in Gaza from May 5th to May 9th, with an event in Ramallah on May 5th and a reprise event in Cairo on May 11th.

It has been a longstanding aim of the festival to travel to Gaza. Since it started in 2008 PalFest has taken the form of a travelling festival – moving to audiences constrained and divided by Israel’s military occupation, establishing creative links between Palestine and the rest of the world and pitting the power of culture against the culture of power.

PalFest has tried several times in the past to reach Gaza from the Occupied Palestinian Territories but has never been able to because of the restrictions put in place by the Israeli Occupation. Gaza has been under siege and isolated from the rest of the world since 2007.
This May, PalFest 2012 will bring a group of writers, educators and artists through the Rafah crossing from Egypt to perform free public events, run workshops with students of varying ages and meet civil society leaders in Gaza.

PalFest has endorsed the 2004 Palestinian call for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. PalFest 2012 stands against the siege of Gaza; it is committed to re-invigorating cultural ties between Arab countries, ties that have been eroded for too long. The Festival will be bringing writers and artists from across the Arab world and beyond.

While the Festival’s primary activities will be taking place in Gaza, PalFest works to retain its active presence in the West Bank. British authors Rachel Holmes and Bee Rowlatt will lead extended creative writing workshops in Birzeit with the Palestine Writing Workshop. They will also be joining Maya Abu el-Hayat, Abd al-Rahim al-Sheikh and Imad Sayrafi on stage at the Sakakini Centre on May 5th. A one-day children’s literature festival will be held during the Festival, with plans for a larger children’s event in the summer.

Beyond the Festival dates PalFest continues its educational programme through its sister organization the Palestine Writing Workshop, whose activities include regular book clubs, creative writing classes and the creation and maintenance of a library.

PalFest will be launching a new, bi-lingual website this week. Developed with the support of the UK Arts Council, the site will be profiling new literary talent from across Palestine and the diaspora as well as developing an online space for critical feedback between young writers and more established authors.

The full list of artists attending PalFest 2012 is:

• GAZA
• Ghada Abd el-Al
• Alaa Abd el-Fattah
• Suad Amiry
• Selma Dabbagh
• Najwan Darwish
• Amr Ezzat
• Amin Haddad
• Tariq Hamdan
• Nathalie Handal
• Manal Hassan
• Khaled Khamissi
• Jamal Mahjoub
• Sahar el-Mogy
• Khaled Najar
• Youssef Rakha
• Ahdaf Soueif
• Hyam Yared
• Nariman Youssef
• & the bands Eskenderella, Jafra and al Salam.
• Birzeit & Ramallah
• Maya Abu el-Hayat
• Rachel Holmes
• Abd al-Rahim al-Sheikh
• Bee Rowlatt
• Imad Sayrafi

PalFest is supported by the Arts Council UK, the Abdalla Foundation, the British Council, the Open Society, the Qattan Foundation, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, Reach out to Asia and individual donors, Rana Sadik, Samer Younis, Fadi Ghandour, Riad Kamal, Zina Jardaneh, Mostafa Beidas, Suhail Sikhtian and Janwa Dajani.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For inquiries: contact@palfest.org

Website: http://palfest.org

Deadline: 30 September 2012

Special issue: THE PLACE OF TRANSLATION

Guest editors: Teresa Caneda Cabrera and Rui Carvalho Homem

‘A language is a place’ Elias Canetti once noted, thus intimating that languages are anchored in a bounded space, determined by the place(s) they inhabit. If language is place, one may suggest that place is also language. This apparently natural equation is necessarily complicated and questioned through translation. Crossing the territories of languages is inherent to the task of the translator as experiences must be communicated in other languages, transplanted and ultimately ‘displaced’.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Drawing on the notion that translation is a practice carrying both ethical and aesthetic imperatives, this special thematic issue invites contributions which explore the role of translation and the function of translators particularly in relation to the notion of ‘place’. How are the singularities attached to “place” (i.e. supposedly ‘essential’ and idiosyncratic notions linked to the identification of one’s territory, space, city, origins, roots, identity) imported, adopted, adapted, appropriated and reconfigured as they cross boundaries and trespass cultural and linguistic borders? Is translation somewhat limited to superficial and media-fuelled representation of place(s) copied uncritically? Does translation remove (‘displace’) the particularities of place in order to conform to the homogeneous discourse of a uniform global world or, on the contrary, do certain translation practices insist on remarking the existence of ‘difference’ through place? Does translation simply neutralize and ‘re-place’, or does it negotiate alternatives? Do utopian, hybrid, nostalgized, idealized, nonexistent (‘placeless’) places (ultimately, what kind of places?) emerge through translation?

Prompting critics to engage with the trans-disciplinary paradigm which underlies the field of translation studies, the issue seeks contributions that will broaden our understanding of the relation between translation and place through a variety of critical and cultural frameworks, also applied to language, discourse and literature, that have shaped our contemporary academic agendas (translation theories, post-modernism, post-colonialism, feminism, diaspora, globalization studies, place studies etc.).

TOPICS MAY INCLUDE (BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO):

- The translation of nations, regions and territories
- Translation and spatial practices: memorialization, architecture, rituals and performances
- Translation and cartography: remapping and renaming
- Translation and the narratives of location
- Translation and the exotic
- Translation and the autochthonous: translating dialects, representing native landscapes
- Translation and citizenship
- Translation, borders, contact zones and space(s) in between
- Translation, diaspora, migration and displacement
- Translation and the discourse of ethnicity and origins

We welcome interdisciplinary approaches, ranging across critical theory, literary and cultural studies, linguistics as well as other disciplines in the humanities. Contributors are advised to follow the journal's submission guidelines and stylesheet. The deadline for article submissions is 30 September 2012.

All submitted articles will be blind-refereed except when invited. Accepted articles will be returned for post-review revisions by 28 October 2012 and are expected back in their final version by 5 November 2012.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For inquiries: wordandtext2011@gmail.com

For submissions: articles should be sent as attachments to wordandtext2011@gmail.com

Website: http://jlsl.upg-ploiesti.ro

Deadline: 2 April 2012

A special academic meeting presenting a flag-ship cultural practice and celebration for University scholars, researchers and lovers of culture interested in studying and experiencing unique rural/small urban communal festivals as a part of the global conversation on cultural renaissance

Organised by the League of Ogori Professors (LOP) as a Prelude to the 2012 Annual Ovia-Osese Festival

Facilitated by the Association of African Universities (AAU) and The Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan Ogori, Kogi State of Nigeria . Friday, 20 April, 2012.

Venue: National Open University of Nigeria Community Study Centre, Ogori

TARGET PARTICIPANTS

• Scholars and researchers in African Studies, history, language and linguistics, anthropology, cultural studies, women studies, African-American studies, and sociology of rural and communal studies.
• Institutes/Centres/Faculties of African/Cultural/African-American/Afro-Caribbean history Studies.
• Federal and State Government Ministries/Departments of Tourism and Culture especially senior officials involved in internationalisation of cultural activities of rural and small urban communities.
• All those interested in cultural music, dance and folklores, socialization of women and puberty development and celebrations.
• Cultural tourists.

The registration fee of USD$50 for participants from outside of Africa or Naira5,000 from within Africa includes

• Attendance at the Symposium
• Symposium bag
• Copy of the Symposium programme and book of abstracts
• Lunch and morning/afternoon coffee breaks

Language/linguistics; cultural, African, Women Studies and other invited expert speakers from the USA, UK, Africa and the Caribbean.

SYNOPSIS

Nestled snugly at the foot of three magnificent hills which rise steeply into the sky, crested sometimes by the cool and refreshing morning mist, the sleepy town of Ogori has a long and distinguished history. It lies roughly at the intersection of longitude 6° 7” E and latitude 7° 30”N. It is located at the extreme south-west region of Kogi State and shares a border with Edo State. Its uniqueness has tripartite intersections: its culture; its language, called Oko which Ogori and Magongo are the only communities on this planet who speak and understand it and; the importance of education. The Ogori people’s precocious affinity for education has produced, in relation to its size and population, the largest number of professors by square kilometre in Nigeria. (Askari, 1969; Apata, 1986; Adegbija, 1994; Atoyebi, 2010).

One of the cultural icons of Ogori is the Ovia-Osese festival, an annual celebration of the attainment of womanhood by girls whose parents, peers, friends, clans, community and well wishers celebrate this significant cultural and moral attainment. It was a taboo for a girl to get pregnant, let alone marry before her Ovia-Osese. In the olden days, if this occurred the family is ostracized and the girl loses her respect and integrity in the community (Sofola, 1986; Adegoke, 2001). The celebration is accompanied by a week-long activities which include lessons in homemaking, motherhood, music, drumming, dancing, feasting and thanksgiving services at the various mosques and churches in Ogoriland.

Over the years, the Ovia-Osese has become the flagship of the Ogori people and a major mark of the identity of Ogoriland in the global scene. The ceremony and festival have become an international event having attracted tourists from the Unites States of America, the United Kingdom, Germany and South America. Many Nigerians have made it a tourist Mecca and the MTN has supported and participated in the Ovia-Osese festival for several years now.

As their own contributions to the Ovia-Osese festival, the League of Ogori Professors (LOP) made a pronouncement at the 2011 festival that they would add and integrate an academic dimension through an international Symposium to further expose Ogori culture to the world. The first International Symposium on Ogori Culture and People marks a part of the 2012 Ovia-Osese Festival with a view to making it an annual event for scholars, researchers and lovers of culture to form a seamless blend with the community celebrations of an identity of a people whose culture has become a household of knowledge generation, teaching and learning in many parts of the world.

SYMPOSIUM PROGRAMME

International expert speakers and researchers will address the uniqueness of culture as an identity of peoples all over the world. Researchers and teachers of Ogori culture and language will present vital information about the special nature of the Ogori community and people, in relation to the visibility of the culture and language in a global context. Emerging needs and issues of honorary citizenships for Africans in diapora and Afro American and Afro-Caribbean relatives and, their impact on cultural studies worldwide will be of interest to the Symposium.

Symposium Theme: Culture: An Indispensable and Enduring Identity of a People

• Sub-Theme1: History, Sociology and Anthropology
• Sub-Theme2: Language, Literature, Women Studies
• Sub-Theme3: Music, Dance and Folklores

• Strategic development and use of culture an identity
• Achieving cultural renaissance through branding of unique festivals in rural and small urban communities in Africa
• Building partnerships with other researchers and workers in the field of cultural, women and African studies
• Enhancing the role of research and knowledge generation in the perpetuation of cultures whose existence and language are threatened by Western cultures and assimilation.
• Attracting international scholars, researchers, faculty and students.

Very limited, but excellent papers, selected by an international panel of assessors, will be invited for presentation. All those interested should send their papers, to reach the under listed, on or before Monday, 2nd of April, 2012. A turn-around time of no more than 72hrs will apply on the assessment of each paper from date of receipt. The Institute of African Studies of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria will publish a special edition of their international journal, African Notes, based on the papers presented at the Symposium.

It will be a case of first come, first accepted.

INVITATION TO ATTEND AND PRESENT PAPERS

The general public is invited to express interest in attendance and or presenting papers at the One-day Symposium. Please send your expression of interest or full paper to any of the under listed. The full Symposium programme will be sent to confirmed participants by Monday, April 9, 2012.

Participants may wish to consider attending and participating in the Ovia-Osese Festival and Dance of the Maidens on Saturday, April 21, 2012. Information on accommodation will be sent to those who are interested.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For inquiries: secgen@aau.org, tellohio@yahoo.com, alexodaibo@yahoo.com

For submissions: secgen@aau.org, tellohio@yahoo.com, alexodaibo@yahoo.com

Website: http://www.aau.org

Deadline: 15 August 2011

Forthcoming from Willow Books in 2012—Canon & Chorus: Black Poets in Prose is a collection of essays by emerging and established poets, from the African Diaspora, focusing on what poets write, that which gives them the impetus to write and the larger job of being a poet. Essays might consider themes such as the poet’s purpose in the world philosophically; his/her approach to language and how this approach fits into the larger poetic landscape. An essay may explore the spiritual aspects of form, or consider written or unwritten “texts” that provide a metaphor for poets of all walks of life. We are not looking for literary criticism, research papers or dissertations. Limit essays to 5000 words. Work not previously published encouraged. Format essay and bio in Times New Roman, 12 point, as a PDF, and send as an attachment to: Niki Herd at canonandchorus@aol.com

About the Editor:

Niki Herd grew up in Cleveland and earned degrees in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona and Antioch in Los Angeles. Nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize, she is the recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her work has been supported by the Astraea Foundation and the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and has appeared in several journals and anthologies. Her debut collection of poems, The Language of Shedding Skin, received honorable mention for the Benjamin Saltman Award chosen by Nick Flynn. In that same year, it was also a finalist for the Main Street Rag Poetry Award and was published by the press.

About the Press:

Willow Books, the literary imprint of Aquarius Press, specializes in exceptional literature by writers dedicated to the craft. Their mission is to develop, publish and promote writers typically underrepresented in the market. Willow Books has published several nationally-known, award-winning authors. www.willowlit.com

Contact Information:

For inquiries: canonandchorus@aol.com

For submissions: canonandchorus@aol.com

Website: http://www.willowlit.com

Updated:
June 5, 2011

The River Crosses Rivers: A Festival of Short Plays by Women of Color - Call for Submissions -06/06/2011

Word Warrior Creative WORDshop (South Africa) -06/07/2011

Job Opening: Junior Editor for Submerge Publishers (South Africa) -06/09/2011

"Mohammed — The Messenger of Peace" Essay Contest -06/10/2011

Call for Candidates: Bayeux-Calvados Awards for War Correspondents -06/10/2011

Introduction to Screenwriting Workshop (Auteur Film School, South Africa) -06/11/2011

Thinkers and Trouble Makers: Panel Discussion of Queer Women of Color Activists (California) -06/11/2011

Mixed Roots Literary Festival Opens June 11th at the Japanese American National Museum -06/11/2011

Umhlanga Life Short Story Competition (South Africa) -06/13/2011

The Guardian 2011 International Development Journalism Competition on Global Poverty -06/13/2011

Apply for the Intajour International Academy of Journalism Fellowship in Germany -06/15/2011

Call for Entries: Africa in the Picture Film Festival -06/15/2011

Call for Essays/ Creative Pieces - African Women in Motion: Gender and the New African Diaspora in the United States -06/15/2011

Call for Submissions from Poets of Color: "The Moment of Change" Anthology of Feminist Speculative Poetry (Aqueduct press) -06/15/2011

Call for Papers: Children’s Literature and Reading in and of Africa (IBBY Africa conference, Swaziland) -06/15/2011

Call for Submissions: The Black Barbie Anthology -06/15/2011

Call for Articles to be Included in the Book "Transformation of Islam in 21st Century" (University Press) -06/15/2011

Book Reviews on "Popular Fiction" and "Genre Fiction" for Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture -06/15/2011

Apply for the Cave Canem Fellowship (African American Poetry) at Vermont Studio Center -06/15/2011

Call for Papers: Fourth International Symposium of Printing and Publishing in the Language and Countries of the Middle East -06/15/2011

Reporting Regional Integration: Sponsored Course for SADC Journalists -06/17/2011

Arabic Literary Translation Workshop with Paul Starkey (London Review of Books) -06/19/2011

Amazwi Ethu South African Tales Creative Writing Contest -06/19/2011

Golden Baobab Prize (for African short story for children, top prize: $1000) -06/20/2011

Pulitzer Center Seeks West African Journalists to Report on Water and Sanitation -06/20/2011

For French/ English Writers: The Camac - Fondation Tenot Writers Residency in France -06/20/2011

Job Opening: Online Fashion Editor for 36Boutiques.co.za -06/25/2011

South African Literary Awards (SALA) 2011 -06/30/2011

Deadline: 31 May 2012

2012 will no doubt mark many firsts, and we hope that the AfroSF anthology will be among them. This will be the first African Science Fiction anthology open to submissions from all African writers (only) across the continent and Diaspora.

This particular genre has been somewhat neglected in the burgeoning African literature scene, something we hope that this anthology will help to address and encourage more of. We have a firm belief that the opportunities that SciFi engenders with its broad scope for imagination, invention, metaphor, political and social commentary, will take African writers out of their current comfort zones and into new territories.

Established African writers like Nnedi Okorafor (2011 World Fantasy Award winner), and Lauren Beukes (2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award winner) are already signed up for the anthology.

The anthology will be selected and edited by African Author, Ivor Hartmann and published by StoryTime (Publishing).

AfroSF Short Stories Submission

Size limit: 1500 - 8000 words

Works submitted may be: Science Fiction short stories only.

1) Only African writers are eligible (writers born in Africa, or having domiciled in for over 10 years, and/or holding citizenship in an African country)

2) The submitted work must be an original work, nothing that infringes the copyright of, or is derived from, another author's work of fiction, is overly lewd, hate speech, etc.

3) Must be unpublished (not previously published in print or online).

4) No simultaneous submissions (only submitted to AfroSF and no other publications).

5) No multiple submissions (submit only one work).

6) Submission format: single line spaced, font Times New Roman 12pt, one line space between paragraphs, no indents, and set to UK English.

7) Deadline for submissions is May 31st 2012.

If you're wondering what exactly Science Fiction is have a read of this article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction). Also please note your story does not have to be based in Africa, it's SF after all the only limits are your imagination (within plausible SF scenarios of course, so do your research well before submitting).

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For submissions: click here

Website: http://www.afrofutures.com

Deadline: 31 May 2012

2012 will no doubt mark many firsts, and we hope that the AfroSF anthology will be among them. This will be the first African Science Fiction anthology open to submissions from all African writers (only) across the continent and Diaspora.

This particular genre has been somewhat neglected in the burgeoning African literature scene, something we hope that this anthology will help to address and encourage more of. We have a firm belief that the opportunities that SciFi engenders with its broad scope for imagination, invention, metaphor, political and social commentary, will take African writers out of their current comfort zones and into new territories.

Established African writers like Nnedi Okorafor (2011 World Fantasy Award winner), and Lauren Beukes (2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award winner) are already signed up for the anthology.

The anthology will be selected and edited by African Author, Ivor Hartmann and published by StoryTime (Publishing).

AfroSF Short Stories Submission

Size limit: 1500 - 8000 words

Works submitted may be: Science Fiction short stories only.

1) Only African writers are eligible (writers born in Africa, or having domiciled in for over 10 years, and/or holding citizenship in an African country)

2) The submitted work must be an original work, nothing that infringes the copyright of, or is derived from, another author's work of fiction, is overly lewd, hate speech, etc.

3) Must be unpublished (not previously published in print or online).

4) No simultaneous submissions (only submitted to AfroSF and no other publications).

5) No multiple submissions (submit only one work).

6) Submission format: single line spaced, font Times New Roman 12pt, one line space between paragraphs, no indents, and set to UK English.

7) Deadline for submissions is May 31st 2012.

If you're wondering what exactly Science Fiction is have a read of this article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction). Also please note your story does not have to be based in Africa, it's SF after all the only limits are your imagination (within plausible SF scenarios of course, so do your research well before submitting).

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For submissions: click here

Website: http://www.afrofutures.com