It is contestable but not stupid to claim that Literature is always ahead in the politics of recovery of the African selves (a unitary African self would be worse than colonialism) than its others. There is so much demonstration of this claim in the two images invoked in the first paragraph of this ‘Call for Papers’: Sankofa, Adinkra.
Is it possible that, hidden away in the quiet of Taraba State rather than in the disruptive life of Nigeria’s urban heartlands, Prof Ignatius Chukwumah and his English and Literary Studies team at the Federal University, Wukari are really pushing the borders of the creative?
One, the theme which is “Researching African Literature, Language and Culture: Old Forms, New Frames”. It self-explanatory.
Two, item 8 of the sub-themes alone is a big deal because the debate between memory and History appear to have arrived at where it is now the case that it is History which is actually a subsidiary of memory and not the other way round as was believed before. One can only imagine what that does for a civilisation like Africa. Ride on!
Three, the keynote speakers are coming from diverse locations, raising the stakes in value added in cultural, academic and locational terms. Intervention is looking forward to the conference!
