The African Literature Assocation conference in Accra is co-sponsored by Africa House and several other NYU departments.

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SUMMARY

African Literature Association Meets in Accra

NYU Africa House and NYU in Ghana Co-Sponsor Annual Meeting

Six hundred scholars from Europe, Africa and North America gathered in Accra from May 17 to 21st for the 32nd annual meeting of The African Literature Association, an independent professional society of scholars, teachers and writers with research interests in African literature and art.

The 2006 conference entitled, Pan-Africanism in the 21st Century: Generations in Creative Dialogue, was co-sponsored by NYU Africa House and NYU in Ghana and had a significant NYU faculty and graduate student presence. This year’s gathering built upon an earlier 1994 association meeting on the theme Beyond Survival: African Literature and the Search for New Life.

According to 2006 conference organizer Kofi Anyidoho, there are obvious connections between 1994 and today. The search for a new life has become even greater in the past decade. “Given the turbulence and in some cases, the near-total dislocation into which several African states and communities have been thrown in the past decade or so, there is probably more than enough reason to give up hope on the immediate future. Even the most casual head count reveals that African writers and other artists have not been spared the dislocation and displacement that their countries and communities have had to endure,” Anyidoho stated. Occasionally by choice, but mostly against their wish, the majority of African writers and artists now find themselves in new and growing Diasporas. Even for those remaining behind, home has shifted ground in ways that render every step a balancing act.

If we only we dare to look a bit beyond the chaos, we should notice a slow but growing convergence of indicators of hope, however tentative, Anyidoho argues. The age of classic and brutal dictatorships is gradually fading into memories of a bad dream. Indeed, a few of the retired and obsolete dictators have returned as born-again apostles of democracy and good governance. But perhaps even more pertinent, the realization seems to have emerged that the abandoned agenda for an Africa united in purpose and action may be the only viable final option, after all. Hence, the rethinking that has led to the birth of the Africa Union and other regional integration bodies, especially those focused on conflict resolution and peace initiatives.

The May conference featured more than 100 panels, screenings and seminars and was designed to investigate, analyze and assess the impact of both these challenges and new hopes on the growing corpus of African literature and arts in general.

This year’s planning committee included NYU faculty members Manthia Diawara and Awam Amkpa as well as Dr. Akosua Anyidoho, Director of NYU in Ghana. Judith Miller, Chair of the Department of French and Mark Sanders of Creative Writing led individual panel discussions with several NYU graduate students taking part. Vice Provost Yaw Nyarko offered opening remarks.

The plenary session included dialogues with the distinguished writers Kofi Awoonor, Kamau Brathwaite, Mohammed Ibn Chambas and Veronique Tadjo. Guided by moderator Niyi Osundare, the discussion concentrated on Pan-Africanism in the 21st Century: The Long View of History. Notable panel discussions included,Pan-Africanism: The Legacy of W.E.B. DuBois; Rwanda: Genocide, Memory and Literature; Women Writing Africa: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges;  Explorations in African Feminism; New African Cinemas and the Death of Nationalism;  and New Geographies and the Production of Francophone African Literature, among others.

NYU in Ghana provided logistical support and hosted a welcoming reception at the DuBois-Padmore-Nkrumah Center for Pan-African Culture in downtown Accra for the participants on May 17.  The 2007 conference is scheduled to take place in Morgantown West Virginia on the subject of: African Literature and the Cultural Dynamics of Globalization