DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
AKWA IBOM STATE UNIVERSITY
CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT
1st International Conference on African Literature and the English Language
The Conference: The Department of English, Akwa Ibom State University, announces the Ibom International Conference on African Literature and the English Language (Ibom Conference), 2023.
Them: African Literature, the English Language and Contemporary Socio-political Issues.
Arrival: Monday, April 17, 2023.
Dates: Proceedings: Tuesday, April 18, 2023 – Thursday April 20, 2023.
Departure: Friday, April 21,2023
Venue: Pinnacle Theatre, Akwa Ibom State University, Obio Akpa Campus
Backdrop: Society and literature are coterminous; so, in many ways, especially in Africa, a reading of African literature is also an interpretation of the people’s cultural imagination. This presupposes that African literature can hardly be disentangled from the people’s socio-political realities. In its emblematic posture, then, African literature does not only seem to bear witness to Africa’s socio-political narratives, but also archives Africa’s realities in many nuanced ways. On-going issues such as kidnapping, banditry, political and economic corruption, economic sabotage, insecurity, failure of governance, labour strife, failing economy, climate change, herders-famers’ crises, gender violence, among many other dislocations, which have questioned many African countries’ socio-political capacity and sovereignty, function as fertile grounds upon which African writers cultivate ideas in narrativising the ambivalence of living in, and of being African, in an especially fast mutating world. These socio-political uncertainties have pushed a large proportion of Africa’s productive population to migrate to Euro-America and have equally brought about the internal displacement of indigents. Since society is the pond from which writers fish for ideas, it does seem that African writers have aptly textualised these contradictions and (dis) continuities in their artistic works.
As a corollary, the English Language has not only narrativised Africa’s socio-political dislocations, but has also intellectualised them. The English Language has pragmatically expanded its horizon, making it possible for writers of African literature to succinctly document the peculiarities complexities and dynamism of Africa’s socio-political uncertainties in finely distinct ways; to give voice to the marginalised, and detail the disconcerting views that have preoccupied the African continent in contemporary times. If literature can hardly be disentangled from the socio-political realities of its time, language, too, is inseparable from the realities it reflects and documents.
We imagine that as we interrogate African literature from the socio-political flank, we should ask questions such as: how does African literature speak to both writers and readers about the socio-political disruptions in the continent? What is the role of the English Language in reflecting these realities? How well do these realities shape, and are shaped, by the English Language? What are the pressures and possibilities, local and global that have influenced contemporary African literary imagination?
Our objective, therefore, is a conference that will provide an intellectual rendezvous for discussions, contestations and exchange of ideas on how literary production and the English Language in the continent have (been) informed (by) the pressures of the times; how they have responded to these pressures and how they have been defined or transformed by these pressures.
It is against this backdrop that we call for papers and presentations that respond to and interrogate these issues.
Sub-themes
Sub-themes to interrogate include, but are not limited to: African literature/the
English Language and:
- the trajectories of African experiences
- war and trauma in Nigeria
- failed states and leadership crisis in Africa
- continuity and change in gender relations in Africa
- gender violence in Africa
- terrorism and violence in Africa
- political corruption in Africa
- conflict resolution in Africa
- labour relations in Africa
- climate change and environmental degradation
- poverty and/or poverty alleviation in Africa
- child soldier narratives
- identity and polities in Africa
- sexual identities and sexualities in Africa
- failed states and insecurity in Africa
- global pandemic and cultural space
- ecocritical narratives and discourses
- post coloniality
- the new media
- film
- interdisciplinarity
- migration and return migration
- indigenisation of English
- contemporary politics and criticism
- varieties and grammars of Africa Englishes.
Keynote Speaker
Professor James Tar Tsaaior
University of the Free State
Bloemfontein
South Africa.
Lead Presenters
Professor Ini Uko
Department of English
University of Uyo.
Professor Ayo Kehinde
Department of English
University of Ibadan.
Time Lines
Abstract: Electronic/soft copies of abstracts of not more than 300 words should reach the organizers via
ibomconfrence.english@gmail.com not later than January 15, 2023
Full length paper: March 15, 2023
Registration Fee
Scholars : N15,000
Students : N5,000
Foreign Participant : $100
PAYMENTS
All payments for registration, levies and/or donations should be made to:
Bank Name: First Bank of Nigeria PLC
Account Name: Monica Sylvanus Udoette
Account Number: 3097244407
All payment tellers and/or transfer receipts should be forwarded via
WhatsApp to:
08131235669: Uwem Affiah, LOC Chairman
08023573487: Eventus Edem, Head of Department.
CHIEF HOST
Professor Nse U. Essien
Vice Chancellor
Akwa Ibom State University
Nigeria.
HOST:
Assoc Prof. Iniobong Umotong
Dean of Arts.
CO-HOST
Professor Nkanikpo Ibok
Head of Campus
Obio Akpa Campus.
CONVENER
Dr. Eventus Edem
Head, Department of English
Akwa Ibom State University
Nigeria.
CONTACTS:
Uwem Affiah, PhD
Chairman, LOC
+234 8131235669
David Udoinwang, PhD
Secretary, LOC
+2348023723663
The conference will be great.I will be attending.