African Literature Association 2008

Panel: Nigerian Women’s Writing

Chair: Akachi Ezeigbo, University of Lagos

• Akachi Ezeigbo, University of Lagos, Gender Issues and the Post-colonial State in Nigerian Women’s Writing
• Maureen Amaka Azuike, University of Jos, Nigeria, Women’s Struggles and Independence in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun
• Olutoyin Bimpe Jegede, University of Ibadan, Representations of (Step)Mothering and Identity Formation of Children in Plural Marriage Settings in Two Nigerian Children’s Narratives
• Obuorah Constance Obiageli, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Representations of Women in African Literature

Panel: Nigerian Poets and Dramatists: What Challenges Has Nollywood Presented?

Chair: Olu Obafemi, University of Ilorin

• Niyi Osundare
• Tanure Ojaide
• Olu Obafemi
• Remi Raji-Oyelade

Panel: Yvonne Vera and Sindiwe Magona: African Women Write

Chair: Carrie Walker, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• John Lemly, Mount Holyoke College, The 1856-57 Xhosa Cattle-Killing in Magona, Mda, and the collective imaginary
• Carrie Walker, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Maternal Relations and Agency in African Womanist Writing

Panel: J. M. Coetzee’s South Africa

Chair: Sarah Pett, Rhodes University

• Jaspal K. Singh, Northern Michigan University, Trauma and Memory in South African Writers: Alterity and Identification in J. M. Coetzee’s and Zake’s Mda’s Texts
• Sarah Pett, Rhodes University (South Africa), The crocodile’s mouth: Myth and Epic in post-apartheid South African torture narratives

Panel: African Diaspora Drama

Chair: Pat Young, Western Illinois University

• Tamera Izlar, Howard University, Setting the Stage: African Diaspora Women Playwrights Mirror Society
• Pat Young, Western Illinois University, Acts of Terrorism, or, Violence on A Sunday Morning in the South

Panel: Undergraduate ALA papers II, Board Room

Chair: Igolima Amachree, Western Illinois University

• Jessica Julius, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Multiplicity of Skin Color and Its Relation to Gender
• Nneka Edwards, Medgar Evers College, CUNY, The Biafran Woman: Deconstructed traditional roles of African woman in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of A Yellow Sun
• Nicole Karr, Western Illinois University, African/Black Women Writers: Telling stories about African conditions and circumstances

Panel: African Drama

Chair: Praise Zenega, University of Arizona

• Dina Adhiambo Ligaga, University of the Witwatersrand, Listening for the Gaps: KBC and the Representation of the Moral Radio Play in Kenya
• Praise Zenega, University of Arizona, Bridges and Barriers to Social Change and Development: Gender, Language and Social Registers in Zimbabwean Theatre
• Dixie L. Beadle, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Metanarrative Functions of History in Tawfiw al-Hakim’s Sultan’s Dilemma
• ---, The Ambivalence of Leadership and the Gender Problem in Tess Onwueme’s The Reign of Wazobia

Panel: Nigerian Literature

Chair: Catherine Moore, Western Illinois University

• Phebe Veronica Jatau, University of Minnesota, Nigerian Postcolonial Discourse in Narrative
• Idom T. Inyabri, University of Calabar, Nigeria, Gendered History and Memory in Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo’s The Last of the Strong Ones, House of Symbols and Children of the Eagle
• Sule E. Egya, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria, The Female Figure in Recent Nigerian Poetry: Toyin Adewale, Paulina Mabayoje and Angela Miri
• Toyin Adewale, Paulina Mabayoje and Angela Miri

Panel: African Children’s Literature

Chair: Bede Ssensalo, California State University

• Jennifer Ohanyere, University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Children’s Literature in African Tradition
• Bede Ssensalo, California State University, Long Beach, The Evolution of Ghana’s Children’s Literature: The Case of Ananse

Panel: Multiculturalism and African Literature

Chair: Safoi Babana-Hampton, Michigan State University

• Safoi Babana-Hampton, Michigan State University, Narratives of Frontier Crossing: Images of Maghrebi and Franco-Maghrebi Women as Multicultural Citizens or Citizens in the World
• Scott Lyngaas, Beloit College, Language, Silence, and Meaning in Le livre d’Emma by Marie-Célie Agnant