African Literature Association 2008

Panel: Sexuality in African Fiction

Chair: Chielozona Eze, Northeastern Illinois University

• Chris Dunton, National University of Lesotho, In and Out of Context: Jude Dibia and the third generation Nigerian novel
• Chielozona Eze, Northeastern Illinois University, Embracing the Tree of Knowledge: Doreen Baingana and Monica Arac de Nyeko on the Challenges of African Identity in the Age of Global Economy
• Evan Mwangi, Northwestern University, Disability and the Lesbian Neurotic in Rebeka Njau’s Ripples in the Pool
• Marta Sofia Lopez, University of Leon, Spain, In Another Place, Not Here: Invisible Lesbians?

Panel: South African Art

Imke Brust, Pennsylvania State University

• Vanita M. Vactor, North Carolina A & T State University, From Charleston, South Carolina to Cape Town, South Africa: Descendents of Enslavement Find Common Ground Through Theatre
• Denise Handlarski, York University, Toronto, Tactics of Resistance: South African Women’s Literature
• Imke Brust, Pennsylvania State University, Uniting Through Mourning in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Panel: Le femme et la subversion de l’écriture dans le roman africain

Chair: Frieda Ekotto, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

• Vincent K. Simedoh, University of Lethbridge, Entre Senghor et Beyala: de l’idéalisation à la subversion
• Frieda Ekotto, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Reprendre cette bibliotèque coloniale: femmes créatrices et la politique esthétique
• Kasereka Kavwahirehi, University of Ottawa, La femme et la subversion des norms établies dans le romans de V. Y. Mudimbe

Panel: Sefi Atta, Jamaica Kincaid, Chimamanda Adichie: What is writing to me?

Chair: Eileen Julien, Indiana University

• Sefi Atta
• Jamaica Kincaid
• Chimamanda Adichie

Panel: Fiction: Language, Representation and Reading Ethics

Chair: Uzoma Esonwanne, University of Toronto

• David Agum, Temple University, Historical Fact and the Representation of Fiction in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun
• Uzoma Esonwanne, University of Toronto, Text and Context: Ngugi’s A Grain of Wheat and the Ethics of Reading
• Peter Wilfred Stine, Gordon College, The Rhetorical Voices of Ama Ata Aidoo’s Short Fiction
• Bronwyn Averett, University of Wisconsin-Madison, A Mirror in Timelessness: Exploring Spatiotemporal Concerns in Ben Okri’s Astonishing the Gods

Panel: Congolese Art, African Creativity

Chair: Kasongo Kapanga, University of Richmond

• John Nimis, New York University, Fally Ipupa’s “Liputa” - A “Reading” in Congolese Popular Music
• Kasongo M. Kapanga, University of Richmond, Paul Lomami Tchibamba’s Ngando, or Claims of Congolity
• Ibiyinka Alao, Springfield, MO, Canons of Art: Contemporary African Art

Panel: Women and War II

Chair: Janice Spleth, West Virginia University

• F. O. Orabueze, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun: A Portraiture of the Genocidal War on Biafra
• Bonn Nwabueze Asegbu, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Semiotic Guerilla Warfare: Ideological Language in Egejuru’s The Seed Yams Have Been Eaten
• Janice Spleth, West Virginia University, The Biafran War and the Evolution of Domestic Space in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun
• Marlene De La Cruz-Guzman, Ohio University, The Narrative of a Twice-Betrayed People: Double Traumatization and the Decline of Nationalism in Yvonne Vera’s novel The Stone Virgins

Panel: African Women in Sembene’s Visual Imaginings

Chair: Joyce Hope Scott, Wheelock College

• Babatunde Ayeleru, University of Ibadan, Towards a Linguistic Study of Ousmane Sembene’s Feminist Expression
• Andre’ Siamundele, Wells College, Faat Kine: Scar and Hope
• Karen U. Lindo, Bowdoin College, Branding the Female Body in Sembene Ousmane’s Faat-Kine (2000)

Panel: Soyinka’s Africa

Chair: Adetayo Alabi, University of Mississippi

• Adetayo Alabi, University of Mississippi, When His Story is Ours: Wole Soyinka, Nationalism, and Autobiography
• Akinola Oriola, Syracuse University, The Allegory of Self and Other in Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel, Kinle Okesipe’s Professor’s Last Death

Panel: African Theatre

Chair: Sandra Richards, Northwestern University

• Mabel I. E. Evwierhoma, University of Abuja, Writing Women: Visions and Options for Righting Through African Drama
• Bose Ayeni-Tsevende, University of Jos, Women Performance in Some Nigerian Universities Theatre Companies (Manners and Attitudes -1975-1980)
• Irene Salami-Agunloye, University of Jos, Critical Trends in Dramas by Nigerian Women

TRACALA Roundtable: The State of Indigenous Languages in Africa

Chair: Pamela Smith, University of Nebraska, Omaha

• Vusi Mchunu
• Mbulelo Mzamane
• Kassahun Checole

Panel: African Cosmopolitanisms

Chair: Heather Brady, Monmouth College

• Peter Cole and Heather Brady, Western Illinois University and Monmouth College, Tanzania within a Cosmopolitan Point of View: Colonial and Postcolonial History in M.G. Vassanji’s Book of Secrets
• Kevin Hickey, Albany College of Pharmacy, Diverting “les flots souterrains” to Cultivate the Cosmopolitan in Veronique Tadjo’s L’Ombre d’Imana (The Shadow of Imana)
• Carmela Garritano, University of St. Thomas, Cosmopolitan Spectacle and Narratives of National Belonging in three Transnational West African Videos: Mama Mia (Ghana 1995), Amsterdam Diary (Ghana 2005), and Osuofia in London (Nigeria 2003)

Panel: Goddesses and Monsters: African and Sub-Continental Women in the Arts

Chair: Huma Ibrahim, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates

• Huma Ibrahim, Zayed University, The Thin Line Between Goddesses and Monsters. Bengal Nights and Beyond
• China Clark, Developing new paradigms for the critical analysis: A move from Euro-American Racial Essentialism Discourses
• Lisa Bradley, Extreme Makeovers: I Don’t’ Need Your Exotification, I Can do it Myself
• Nezar Andary, Radwa Ashurs Granada Trilogy: Imagined Andalusian Women and Arab Historical Novel
• Aliya Matta, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Re-envisioning “Black”: The Shifting Images of Black Women in African/African Diasporic Art & Literary Texts

Roundtable: Film, Culture and Politics in Nigeria

Chair: Manthia Diawara, New York University

• Awam Amkpa
• Manthia Diawara
• Jude G. Akudinobi
• Onokome Okome
• Tunde Kelani
• Newton Aduaka

Francophone Caucus Luncheon

Keynote: Alek Toumi

Roundtable: African Oral Literature in Contemporary Society

Chair: Isidore Okpewho, Binghamton University, NY

• Abiola Irele, Harvard University
• Peter Seitel, Smithsonian Institute
• Marame Gueyal, East Carolina University
• Isidore Okpewho, Binghamton University

Panel: Film and Technology

Chair: Jerry White, University of Alberta

• Iheanacho George Chidiebere, National Open University of Nigeria, African Literature, the Technologies and the Challenges
• Jerry White, University of Alberta, Flora M’mbugu-Schelling’s These Hands and the Balance Between Abstraction and Politics
• Marilyn Jimenez, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Echoes of Africa: Voudun, Obeah, and the “African” Presence in Race Films of the 30’s

Undergraduate ALA Papers I

Chair: Ivan H Jimenez-Williams, Western Illinois University

• Landers Dukes, Western Illinois University, Colonization through the African American Eye
• Stephanie F. Gordon, Western Illinois University, Aime' Ce'saire and the Colonization of Africa
• Sarah Groeneveld, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, The Reconstitution of Humanity and Nationhood in the Post-Apartheid Poetry of Ingrid de Kok and Jeremy Cronin
• Chinasoukwu Christiana Oji, Children’s Literature in African Tradition: A Study of Kuforiji’s Best Nigerian Folktales

Panel: Gender and Context I

Chair: Augustine Okereke, Medgar Evers College

• Sarah Anyang Agbor, University of Yaounde’ 1 Cameroon, Sociocultural Analysis of Alobwede’ Epie’s The Lady with a Beard and John Nkemgong Nkengasong’s The Widow’s Might
• Augustine Okereke and Tracy Grenville, Medgar Evers College/CUNY, Redefining Gender from African Women Writers Perspective: Buchi Emecheta’s Joys of Motherhood, Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions, Flora Nwapa’s Efuru and Wives at War
• Nyenke Chioma, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Gender and African Literature: Ikwerre Women in Elechi Amadi’s Concubine
• Olusola Omosade Omokore, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, Female Sexuality in Buchi Emecheta’s Joys of Motherhood and Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun
• Roopali Sircar, Delhi University, New Delhi, India, Gender perspectives in African Literature

Panel: Ecritures de la diaspora: sources, resources, et formes esthétiques nouvelles

Chair: Alain Fresco, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Christophe Konkobo, Tennessee State University, Theatrum Mundi: Le Métatheâtre au choeur du théâtre subsaharien contemporain francophone

Amadou Ouédragogo, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, La survivance du mythe des origins: spécificités d’une écriture dans Ti Jean l’horizon de Simon Schwarz-Bart

Schahrazede Longou, University of Iowa, Quête de soi et de l’Ailleurs: N’Zid de Malika Mokeddem ou l’interminable traversée

Moussa Balla Fall, University of Iowa, La question de la langue française dans l’oeuvre de Sembène: La noire de… et Camp de Thiaroye

Panel: Creative Writing, Personal Experiences and Global Century

Chair: Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, University of Illinois - Chicago

• Véronique Tadjo
• Helon Habila
• Chukwumeka Ike
• Kofi Anyidoho
• Djanet Sears
• Jamaica Kincaid
• George Elliott Clarke
• Paul Tiyambe Zeleza

Panel: Francophone Caucus Panel: Readings of Excerpts of Alek Toumi's Plays

Chair: Anne Carlson

Participants: TBD

Panel: Sex in New Guises: Sexuality as an Instrument of Cultural Negotiation

Chair: Kadija George, University of Birmingham, UK

• Kadija George, University of Birmingham, An Expression of Freedom: sexual politics in the works of Joanna Traynor and Leone Ross
• Koye Oyedeji, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK, Sexuality Transmitted Culture: the cultural politics behind sexual encounters in Black British Literature
• Yvonne Weekes, Barbados Community College, Theatre for Community, Conflict and Dialogue: The HIV/AIDS dilemma
• Mahriana Rofheart, Rutgers University, Sleeping With Europe: Racial Identity and Sexuality in Le baobab fou and African Gigolo
• Dorothea Smartt, Poet, Reading from Connecting Medium and other works
• Frehiwot Derbew, Hawassa University, Ethiopia, HIV/AIDS Crisis in Africa

ALA Issues Committee Roundtable: What Is To Be Done? The Literature, Film, and Activism of Crisis and Our Perceptions of Africa"

Chair: Mark L. Lilleleht

• Otymeyin Agbajoh
• Fahamisha Brown
• Maureen Eke
• Kenneth Harrow
• Mark L Lilleleht

Panel: Issues in African Cinema

Chair: Jude G. Akudinobi, University of California, Santa Barbara

• Dayna Oscherwitz, Southern Methodist University, A Fistful of Dollars: Economics, Ideology, and African Cinema’s Engagement with the Cowboy Western
• Jude G. Akudinobi, University of California, Santa Barbara, All Over the Map: Nollywood, African Cinema and Transformations
• Samuel Ayedime Kafewo, Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria, Through Laughter and Tears: Narrating the Nigerian Condition via the Home Video Drama

Questions and Answers with Chukwumeka Ike, 2008 Forlon-Nichols Award Recipient

Chair: Obiora Udechukwu, St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York

• Chukwumeka Ike, Nigeria

Panel: The Image of African Women

Chair: P. B. Mireku-Gyimah, University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana

• A. D. Kakraba, University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana, The Image of African Women in Ayi Kwei Armah’s Works: A Journey Through his Novels
• P. B. Mireku-Gyimah, University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana, Celebrating Africa Through the Image of Women in African Poetry
• Remi Raji-Oyelade, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, African Women’s Poetry in the Present: Marginality and the Myth of a Matriarchal Canon, or The Present Future of African Women’s Poetry

Round Table: Challenges of Being Heard: Experiences of Publishing Women’s Writing in Africa

Chair: Helen N. Mugambi, California State University, Fullerton

• Elizabeth IKhaxas, Editor and Director of Women’s Leadership Centre, Windhoek, Namibia
• Regina Amollo, Novelist, medical worker, member of FEMRITE, and of the Uganda Women Writers’ Association
• Austin L. Bukenya, Novelist, dramatist and short story writer; Senior Lecturer, Department of Literature, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

Panel: French Language 3

Chair: Kasongo M. Kapanga, University of Richmond

• Ikanga Ngozi Tehomba, University of Lousiana, Lafayette, Lieu et valeur sociale en Afrique noire dans L’enfant noir de Camara Laye et Soundiata ou l’épopée Mandingue de Djibril Tamsir Niane
• Irene Ivantcheva, University of Cincinnati, Visage de l’autre dans le génocide rwandais à travers des texts du programme littéraire Devoir de la mémoire
• Sani Adamou, The University of Texas at Austin, Sembene Ousmane, entre fiction et réalité historique : la place de l’humour, le regard de l’auteur
• Riziki Tchomba Kabala, Acte ou écriture, arme de libération de la femme africaine

Roundtable: Globalization & Environmental Sustainability

Chair: Safoura Boukari, Western Illinois University

• Raymond Greene
• Oswald Warner
• Audrey Watkins
• Timothy Collins
• David Casagrande