African Literature Association Research Articles

Coming to America: ‘African Princes’ in America 1886 to the Present Day

(2009). Coming to America: ‘African Princes’ in America 1886 to the Present Day. Journal of the African Literature Association: Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 123-143.

From Women Loving Women in Africa to Jean Genet and Race: A Conversation with Frieda Ekotto

(2009). From Women Loving Women in Africa to Jean Genet and Race: A Conversation with Frieda Ekotto. Journal of the African Literature Association: Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 181-203.

The Global Perspectives of her Art: Monmouth College Interviews Writer and Painter Véronique Tadjo

During the 34th Annual Meeting of the African Literature Association held from April 22 to 27, 2008 at Western Illinois University, Professors Heather Brady and James Bukari had the privilege to host the talented artist and writer, Veronique Tadjo, on the campus of nearby Monmouth College. During her campus visit, Tadjo gave a presentation on her paintings entitled, The Power of African Images: From Written to Painted Narratives, and spoke with students about her works of art. Tadjo agreed to an interview with Monmouth College professors and members of the French Club.

(Re) Considering Home, African Literature, and the African Literature Association (ALA)

(Re) Considering Home, African Literature, and the African Literature Association (ALA)

Negotiating the Boundaries of Nation, Language, and Race in Helen Oyeyemi’s The Icarus Girl and Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones

(2008). Negotiating the Boundaries of Nation, Language, and Race in Helen Oyeyemi’s The Icarus Girl and Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones. Journal of the African Literature Association: Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 188-207.

The Literary Weaving of Mghribiyya Consciousness: Laila Lalami’s Retelling of Jenara’s Moroccan Tale in Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits

(2008). The Literary Weaving of Mghribiyya Consciousness: Laila Lalami’s Retelling of Jenara’s Moroccan Tale in Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits. Journal of the African Literature Association: Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 136-153.

The 35th Annual African Literature Association Conference April 15 - 19, 2009

The 35th Annual African Literature Association Conference April 15 - 19, 2009

34th Annual Conference of the African Literature Association (ALA) Western Illinois University April 22 to 27, 2008

"34th Annual Conference of the African Literature Association (ALA) Western Illinois University April 22 to 27, 2008." Journal of the African Literature Association, 2(1), pp. 2–47

The Significance of Bessie Head’s Response to ‘The Call of the Global Green.’

(2007). The Significance of Bessie Head’s Response to ‘The Call of the Global Green.’. Journal of the African Literature Association: Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 97-107.

Ada Azodo Talk “Creative Writing and Literary Activism” with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

"Ada Azodo Talk “Creative Writing and Literary Activism” with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie." Journal of the African Literature Association, 2(1), pp. 146–151

The Bad Old Good Days Come Back: Resonances and Reversals of Heart of Darkness in A Guest of Honour

(2007). The Bad Old Good Days Come Back: Resonances and Reversals of Heart of Darkness in A Guest of Honour. Journal of the African Literature Association: Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 25-54.

Representation of the ‘Two-Headed Doctor’ In African American Fiction: Tricksterism, Duality and Comparative Worldviews in Charles Chesnutt’s The Conjure Woman

(2007). Representation of the ‘Two-Headed Doctor’ In African American Fiction: Tricksterism, Duality and Comparative Worldviews in Charles Chesnutt’s The Conjure Woman. Journal of the African Literature Association: Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 48-59.

Path of Thunder: Meeting Bessie Head

Bernth Lindfors invited me some years ago to give a presentation about my experience with Bessie Head in the International Writing Program in 1977 on a panel he was planning for the annual meeting of the African Literature Association, but I did not reply. When I next met Bernth, I told him that I had not replied because I was conflicted: I did not want to draw attention to her behavior instead of her fiction because I was mindful of the dictum by D. H. Lawrence to never trust the teller, trust the tale. But the new issue of Wasafiri (Winter 2005) contains an essay by James Currey entitled Publishing Bessie Head, subtitled Memories and Reflections in which he lays out the negative things Bessie wrote and said to her publishers and agents?but he does not say anything about the negative things said about me in a biography of Bessie that he published, Thunder Behind Her Ears by Gillian Stead Eilersen (1995), who got her information from Bessie's letters and did not contact me. I feel that Currey has made it necessary for me to explain what happened when Bessie Head came into the International Writ? ing Program in August 1977. Eilersen says about Bessie in Iowa City (in a chapter entitled Ohio, 1977!):

Jazz in Drum: An Ambiguous Discourse: The Short Stories in the 1950s

(2006). Jazz in Drum: An Ambiguous Discourse: The Short Stories in the 1950s. Journal of the African Literature Association: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 214-227.

The Depiction of Masculinity in Classic Nigerian Literature

(2006). The Depiction of Masculinity in Classic Nigerian Literature. Journal of the African Literature Association: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 202-213.

The Role of the Narratee in the Production of Meaning from Textual Discourse: The Example of Mariama Bâ’s So Long a Letter

(2006). The Role of the Narratee in the Production of Meaning from Textual Discourse: The Example of Mariama Bâ’s So Long a Letter. Journal of the African Literature Association: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 76-87.

With Thanks for Your Support and Goodwill, AMP.

"With Thanks for Your Support and Goodwill, AMP.." Journal of the African Literature Association, 1(1), pp. 331–332

Friendship, Friendliness, and Feminist Fieldwork

Dans cet article, l'A se penche sur les conditionnements des reponses d'interviewees dans les entretiens conduits par des chercheuses. L'A fait part de sa propre experience pour tenter de comprendre les raisons de la confidentialite et de confiance qui se tissent entre l'enqueteur et l'enquetee dans les etudes feministes. Il est egalement question des effets parfois pervers que ce genre de relation peut avoir sur les reponses mais aussi sur les participants a la recherche

Editoris Comments

Editor's Comments John Conteh-Morgan Most of the articles in this issue of Research in African Literatures are devoted to selected papers presented at two African Literature Association (ALA) conferences: the 2002 conference in San Diego, California, and the 2004 meeting in Madison, Wisconsin. With the tenth anniversary of the Rwanda genocide barely behind us, Research in African Literatures welcomes the opportunity provided by the 2002 ALA Conference to contribute to the various critical discourses on political violence in Africa, by devoting space to the reflections of literary critics on the ways in which this subject has haunted and shaped the creative imaginary of recent African writers. All but the last article in the cluster on violence, an independent submission, are drawn from some of the papers presented at the panel organized on the topic by Kenneth Harrow and Richard Priebe at the San Diego meeting. The second set of papers—grouped in the Forum section, and exploring from a theoretical point of view the ancient problem (as it applies to African literatures) of mimesis, the complex articulations and interplay between literary text and social reality, and the configurations of the latter in the former—is taken from the panel on literary theory organized by Tejumola Olaniyan at the Wisconsin conference. Research in African Literatures wishes to thank the conveners of these panels for coordinating these contributions to this issue and will be pleased to receive for publication in future "Forum sections" short, considered responses to and comments on some of the issues raised by the material presented here. Copyright © 2005 The Indiana University Press

Introductory Comments: Ato Quaysonis Calibrations: Reading for the Social

The articles in this section were first presented at the panel "Reading for the Social: Socio-Cultural Transactions and Ato Quayson's Calibrations"* at the Thirtieth African Literature Association conference held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in April 2004. The panel itself was part of a new presentation program instituted by the organizers called "Special Seminars." Designed to provide extended time for robustly critical ruminations on a subject, a "seminar" was conceived and executed as a set of three panels over three days on the same theme, and with precirculated papers. The panel "Reading for the Social" was one of the three of the seminar titled "On Theory," which I organized; the other two are "Institutions, Contexts, Politics" I and II. There is already quite substantial food for thought in the critical discussions below of Quayson's book and his response to them. So I remark here not on the book as such but on the significant occasion for very critical, lively, and open exchanges on theoretical matters that it provided. Colleagues and graduate students, apparently more richly stimulated than usual, approached me after the panel (and [End Page 95] the other two also) to express their appreciation and to make a plea that theory matters become a permanent seminar feature at ALA conferences. A few said they had wondered whether it was possible to avidly discourse on theory at the ALA "without guilt." I was not surprised by this reaction. After all, most of us in African literary studies have always had a kind of ambiguous relationship to "theory," whatever way that is conceived. But it is not that we do not do theory—we do that in all of our writings whether we are aware of it or not. What we certainly do not do enough of is self-reflexive critical theoretical engagement of theory. Judging from the responses to the seminar—and for those who were not there, the vibrant energy of the debates below—it is surely time we encourage and direct more effort into the field- enriching task of metatheoretical exertions the like of which Ato Quayson's book for that occasion provided an excellent example.