What is Africanity?

Reviewed by: North Africa: Literary Crossroads Aïda A. Bamia (bio) North Africa: Literary CrossroadsSpec. issue of The Literary Review41. 2(1998): 1–312. The enterprising efforts of The Literary Review’s guest editors, Eric Sellin and Hédi Abdel-Jaouad assisted by Rabah Seffal for the Tamazight section, are highly commendable. This special issue dedicated to North African literature fills a serious vacuum and a dire need for translated texts for classroom use. The publication of translated Maghribi texts to English is a welcome addition to the growing though still limited corpus of translations of literary works from both the Maghrib and the Mashriq available in the US. In the introduction written by Sellin and Abdel-Jaouad, the two authors define the geographic confines of the area they refer to as North Africa. They trace the multicultural heritage of the Maghrib resulting from a superposition of various foreign invasions that preceded the most recent and last one, the French occupation. The relationship between colonial policy and literature is pointed out in a straightforward manner, much to the benefit of the lay reader. The authors clearly target the general public rather than the specialist in the field of Maghribi literature. They give a brief survey of the literary activities in the area, beginning with the French occupation and indicating the major writers and their most outstanding works. The issue of the use of French language and its survival in the countries of the Maghrib in the post-independence years, in spite of predictions to the contrary, is also raised. While the pioneers continued to write, gradually moving away from national and ethnographic themes, adopting new forms in the process, new writers appeared on the scene. The survey traces the development of the literature written in Arabic, in French, as well as in Amazight, indicating the factors that contributed to the predominance of one language over the other in the various countries. They explain their choice of the name North Africa over the current preference for “the Maghrib,” by their desire to include French writers born in the Maghrib, commonly known as pieds-noirs. The inclusion of writers such as Emmanuel Robes and Jules Roy, however, came at the expense of native Maghribi writers who were eliminated “for want of space” (161). Such a step is not without being controversial. Excluding writers such as Driss Chraïbi, Abdel Wahhab Meddeb, and Rachid Boudjedra, to name only a few, creates an imbalance in a comprehensive study of modern and contemporary Maghribi literature. Other writers, such as Assia Djebar, figure prominently in the anthology by the number of selections from her work.While most texts are translated into English from the original language, some, such as Wattar’s The Gangway to [End Page 214] the Elevatorand Mohammed Choukri’s Speaking of Flies Is Forbidden,were done from a French translation. Moreover, the authors of the anthology failed to indicate the title of the larger collection to which a short story or a poem belonged, a procedure that hinders the efforts of researchers interested in furthering their study of Maghribi literature. The writers surveyed in the introduction provide, however, a fairly clear idea of the evolution of this literature as well as its significant contribution to our understanding of the Maghribi society and culture. Aïda A. Bamia Aïda A. Bamia is a professor in the Department of African and Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Florida (Gainesville). Copyright © 1999 The Indiana University Press

(2012). Harmonic Fractals in the Music of the Lamellaphone. Critical Interventions: Vol. 6, Fractals in Global Africa, Guest Editors: Ron Eglash and Audrey Bennett, pp. 84-105.

(2008). Reflections upon Posters in South Africa, and the Medu Art Ensemble. Critical Interventions: Vol. 2, Visual Publics, Guest Editor: Peter Probst, pp. 158-167.

Held at Lancaster University's Centre for Research (CeDR) in June 2009, this seminar was first of a summer series designed to foster in-depth exploration of topics within Cultural and promote dialogue with other areas of research.1 A Tripartite Approach to Postcolonialism began with a keynote presentation by Dr. Clare Barker (University of Birmingham) and Prof. Stuart Murray (University of Leeds), guest editors of forthcoming special issue of JLCDS on postcolonialism. Their presentation, Literatures and Materiality of offered a survey of relationship between postcolonial scholarship and Studies, while also making a series of critical interventions. In particular, speakers stressed need for a close engagement with local conditions of production of text, arguing that transcultural applicability of key theories and concepts from Cultural cannot be assumed. For example, they suggested that David T. Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder's seminal concept of narrative prosthesis- developed in Narrative Prosthesis: and Dependencies of Discourse (2000)-invites analysis focusing on metaphorical meaning of individual character, neglecting idea of community central to many postcolonial narratives. speakers also argued that issues of care and cure may function very differently in postcolonial texts. Offering brief readings of works from a range of postcolonial contexts (including texts by Salman Rushdie, Ben Okri, Sahar Khalifeh, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Patricia Grace), Literatures and Materiality of Disability made a compelling case for contribution can make to postcolonial scholarship, and vice-versa. As with best work in Cultural Studies, this presentation actively sought to advance our understanding of not one but two fields. Drawing on but not requiring familiarity with previous work by both speakers-particularly notion of autistic presence and argument that a shift in reading strategies is required when engaging with postcolonial texts2-their presentation successfully balanced conceptual sophistication with accessibility for those less familiar with postcolonial studies. Sparking most discussion during post-presentation question session was issue of metaphor. Among points raised were whether there is a difference between metaphor and metaphorization, and need to ask what a character communicates about disability before level of metaphor. In fact, while postcolonial texts may make issue of metaphor a particularly pressing one, metaphor has been keenly discussed at various recent events, suggesting that, in UK Cultural at least, it is a hot topic. This was illustrated in next presentation, Shifting Perspective, Heightening Awareness: Weaving Dialogues Between Postcolonial Theory and Studies by Ana B. Pereira, a postgraduate student at Lancaster University. Her paper drew out parallels between postcolonial theories and Studies, before offering an in-depth reading of a classic text in postcolonial theory, Frantz Fanon's The Fact of Blackness (included in 1952 collection Black Skin, White Masks). Noting extent to which imagery of impaired body is used in Fanon's essay-in terms reminiscent of, though without reference to, Mitchell and Snyder's writing on disability as the master trope of human disqualification (3)- she stressed importance of bearing in mind the existence of interlocking systems of oppression. In same panel, Beatriz Miranda-Galarza of University of Leeds presented a paper examining relationship of disability to postcolonial issues from a Latin American perspective. Drawing upon both fieldwork and personal experience, 'Between a will to write and a body to be written': Disability, history and things that West forgot to say was an invitation to rethink western historical and theoretical account of disability that, she argued, has disabled contribution of those from other milieus. …