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ACLALS branches: chair reports CACLALS: [ Word file ] - [ PDF file ] EAACLALS: [ Word file ] - [ PDF file ] EACLALS: [ Word file ] - [ PDF file ] IACLALS: [ Word file ] - [ PDF file ] MACLALS: [ Word file ] - [ PDF file ] SAACLALS: [ Word file ] - [ PDF file ] SLACLALS: [ Word file ] - [ PDF file ] SPACLALS: [ Word file ] - [ PDF file ] USACLALS: [ Word file ] - [ PDF file ] WIACLALS: [ Word file ] - [ PDF file ] Call For Submissions – Postcolonial Text – Special Issue: East Africa Christopher Wanjala (ed.) Postcolonial Text is an open access, electronic journal, which is both internationally peer-reviewed and accessible to a global readership. The editors now seek submissions for a specially-themed volume on the topic "Literature and Culture in East Africa." This guest issue on contemporary East African literature will be devoted to the political crises in Africa, and an in-depth analysis of narratives from differently challenged communities and individuals. Of particular concern are texts from the past decade and a half which have been composed at the time multiparty elections were taking place in Kenya and Tanzania, in the early 1990s, and during power-sharing negotiations for Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, and Kenya being held in hotels in East Africa. All these political events have led to an emerging ethos of democratic rule among citizens of Eastern Africa as an African region. Despite the changes that are clearly visible in the social mobility, migrations, access to jobs, training in the I C T, the globalization which favours America and Western countries, yet to be seen are credible institutional reforms to accommodate intra-ethnic coexistence and the nature of the extant identities. This Guest Issue will examine ethnic identities and accruing modes of communication. Despite the fact that African countries seek to define themselves as nations, creative writers do not adequately tackle the vice of ethnic discrimination and social and political inequalities that are engendered by ethnic biases. They have been led by statesmen. They have parliaments, judiciaries, centres of excellence in culture and education. But tensions of ethnic suspicions and rivalries still persist. The post-election violence in Kenya, after the disputed presidential elections of December 2007 shows that there are residual issues in East African political culture which are yet to be addressed. The concern about the stability and the economic future and the democracies of East African countries is real. The challenge is being made in this edition of Postcolonial Text is to delineate the issues of aesthetics and negotiations of the political and social space articulated in the literatures of East Africa over the last fifteen years. Completely oblivious of the implications, the elite in East Africa and their ethnic groups look for alternatives to cohesive nationhood. They celebrate cultural differences along ethnic lines and bring out negative cultural practices that go against inter-ethnic marriage. The call here is for papers which analyse political party affiliations based on regional strengths and ethnic loyalties. I welcome essays not only on identity crisis in East Africa, Ethnic Identity, but also on the growth of the various genres of literature in the region. Essays that will enhance theoretical pathways and debates which political and cultural identity crises have engendered. In addition to articles, I invite book reviews, narratives and gnomic forms of oral literature translated into English from East African languages, poems, short stories, and contemporary skits on negative ethnicity. The issue will highlight the new dynamics in East African culture and art in respect of language and other modes of communication and show how theatre practitioners, film makers, and media workers are experimenting with artistic forms in order to communicate with their audience. Deadline for all submissions is September 30, 2008.
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