 It's my very great honor and pleasure to chair this panel and I have the most powerful People together, but first of all Here's the professor. Let's acknowledge him again I'm Wangari Wagoro and I'll be chairing this panel. We have to my far right left Dr. Luisa Egbunike who will be talking about Chinua Achebe and the evil Nigerian novel Next to her and next to me. I'm very proud to see my dear friend Sefi Ata who is Dr. Sefi Ata who will be looking She's challenging me, but it's okay But we do recognize that she's an award-winning author and she will be looking at taking stock I have to my right Dr. James Gibbs who will tell us his title soon Next to him is Dr. Believer And we have our discussant Who is Sikon Marzo Bugatti Who will be our discussant for the session? What we're going to do is we're all going to speak very briefly in order and Then we will have a Q&A We'll have our discussant respond and then we'll have a Q&A That's okay, and it's my great pleasure to call upon Well, Sefi is going to the podium. I'll tell you a little bit about I have told you haven't I? Yes. Okay. Go ahead Good morning Just my luck To speak after what they say and then to do the long walk of shame What an honor it is to be here Let me just add I'm not an academic so please don't judge You know earlier this year when Dr. Ajiman Dua invited me to this conference. I was so keen to participate on On the panel and then when I learned who the other members of the panel would be I thought I might be better off in the audience Still I am thrilled to be present at this celebration of the 1962 Macquarie University writers conference It took place two years before I was born and As I have not read actual transcripts of what was discussed by those in attendance. I can only rely on other people's accounts It's astonishing that Showing card JP Clark and others were only in the 20s and 30s at the time of the conference As a writer who is old enough to appreciate its Significance and young enough to be classified with a new generation of African writers It seems to me that my purpose today is to give some insight into what my generation is up to I Mean if we're talking about a legacy We really ought to take stock of how those who have inherited that legacy are keeping it And I don't have good news Now I will speak from the point of view of a novelist and a playwright as I don't know enough about what is happening in the fields of Poetry and nonfiction. I will also speak from a Nigerian perspective because having attended Events with writers from other African countries and heard what they had to say Regarding people who generalize about the continent. I'd better not do that My Nigerian experience is however within the context of the greater African scope Finally, I won't mention names as profited because I don't care to get it to trump like Twitter feuds It is appropriate that the panel discussion today is Is a reflection of the 1962 conference because its legacy to me is in its historical importance All I can do is look back on it with respect and without sentimentality I imagine the circumstances that prompted the previous generation of writers to organize the conference were as problematic as those that writers face today The one trait writers have in common is that we're constantly complaining About our situations no state of affairs past present or future is good enough for us So I'm sure the 1962 conference focused on social and political conflicts of the day such as a struggle for independence The tussle between capitalism on the one hand on the other and on the other Marxism and socialism and the issue of how Western cultures interfered and impeached and pinched sorry on African cultures including our languages and Negitude Today on African literature panels after an initial period when we talked about the damage done by dictatorship and The supposed merits of democracy. We are now more likely to discuss Transnationalism and all manner of identity politics that concern our audiences more than they concern us. I Always seem to be on panels where afro-politonism as it has recently been redefined Feminism and other such topics are on the table. I once found myself with a group of Nigerian writers who are explaining to an audience in France Why they were citizens of the world? I thought it was patronizing to be put in that position and said it wasn't my duty to demonstrate my global credentials But a fellow Nigerian writer promptly took the mic for me and declared that he saw absolutely nothing wrong with having the discussion Later he told me I was taking it too seriously I should just have said something to please the crowd on the subject of feminism. I Have sometimes had the same real off reluctance to justify myself Whenever I'm expected to respond to or make sweeping statements about African women One development. I am grateful for is that African literature no longer has a man's face Though I will affirm any day that the men who attended the Macquarie conference are the best writers of their generation Yes, the predominance of men at the conference 15 men for women accounted Had something to do with the way education for girls and women were regarded back then If you are a girl whose parents valued education you attended primary and secondary school if your parents could afford Further training for you you went into nursing or education If you came from a family that saw no limit to your potential you became a lawyer doctor or accountant So from the educational sector, we had writers like Flora Wapa, Mabel Shagun and Zulu Shofola But they were not present at the conference Which must have required of its participants an exceptional level of scholarship And it wasn't that women couldn't qualify or keep up with the discussions There were just not many of them in the League of the Men who attended the conference for the reasons I have given mind you there were not many men in that league either These days the face of African literature is more likely to be a woman's which may be a welcome development But not necessarily a fair one. I Personally find it strange to be praised for writing while being female and African Those of us who write have at least had the privilege of higher education Yes, we might get more questions about writing from a female perspective But men are sometimes criticized for writing from a male point of view Getting back to the legacy of the Macquarie conference if I may generalize about that generation of African writers and mine I would say the former swam against the tide of colonialism While the latter is riding the wave of globalization There are obvious reasons for this The first generation's reach was restricted to classrooms and lecture rooms They didn't have the internet When Amazon.com came into being in 1994 I just moved to America and initially their books were not available to order now a Writer in Nigeria can in an instant reach a literary agent in London and all New York And it doesn't matter whether the agents have any knowledge about Africa's literature or its history Agents are looking for works. They can sell to mainstream readers and for writers who don't mind being commodified and branded So we have been Columbus They have discovered us. I didn't invent that term by the way It's it's it's out there on the street and we are winning international prizes The foreign prices that once confined us to our continent have come under criticism in Reaction, we have established our own local awards It would seem like a buoyant time for African literature. It certainly has all the makings of a renaissance But I sense a general dissatisfaction with a space that African literature occupies within the world of literature I've heard charges of tokenism and even racism in literary capital such as London and New York as Well as accusations against writers who are judged to sell out and panda comparisons are made between writers who are based in Africa and Writers who live elsewhere. There's a palpable lack of unity We are less likely to embrace pan-Africanism as the previous generation did and more likely to engage in tribalism So even though we might seem like a unified body of writers we are in essence Bulk an ice by the way tribalism afflicts Other artistic fields in Nigeria fine arts the music industry and nollywood at first It was baffling to me that creative people could be at once broad-minded and parochial Then I decided to be independent instead of trying to fit into a fractured community It wasn't always like this In 2005 when my first novel everything good will come was published There was a sense of possibility for writers of my generation I remember I once remarked in an interview that it wasn't the first time African resources had been up for grabs and we ought to be wary of systematic attempts to divide us I didn't know how prophetic my words would be In 2005 new Nigerian writers had the stage We caught the attention of readers and literature was relevant again Books were being sold new publishing houses were established and they operated in different ways from those that had been around Since colonial times they were sending writers on publicity to us Literary editors were reviewing our work. The arts pages were the one place in Nigerian newspapers Where you didn't have to pay for promotion But soon these same new publishers were reduced to soliciting funds from banks Literary editors became bloggers or cultural consultants or perspective right authors Some of them in their bids to get ahead Ingratiated themselves with writers who they thought might help them and denigrated those they didn't competitor One or two who are unsuccessful as authors were later recruited by the government as PR officers or as I would call them propagandists When my last novel a bit of difference was published in England in 2014 It was reviewed in the main UK newspapers the year before it had come out in Nigeria when editor made a passing remark about it referring to it as Sephia Taz my best friends are corrupt novel That was it for reviews Because I've been off the lecture circuit for a while I have not been privy to what has transpired in academic circles within and outside the continent But I am aware of a slow and steady dedication to African literature I guess because academic reviews require in-depth research They cannot be churned out as quickly as media reviews in the UK Guardian on Times for instance However, I recently read an article about the return of the Guardian literary series in Nigeria Which pointed at that in fact, it's not worthwhile for academics there to review a novel in a newspaper They are better of publishing their reviews in journals in countries as far-flung as Afghanistan in order to make progress in their careers. I also recall talking to a Nigerian academic in America who sort of confessed She was speaking in the second person That she was reluctant to review books by new generation writers because in her words Once we both decide on the African writers. They like they ignore everyone else. I Had no forgets idea what she meant The result of this is that my generation of Nigerian writers has on the whole lost some of the momentum we had in 2005 Unless you have made your mark overseas unless you have tenacity and remain productive you are off stage now The rest of us have cameo appearances when we ought to function as a Greek chorus The political and commercial elite have taken center stage and they happen to be the only one supporting literature Politicians and writers have always made strange bedfellows. That is nothing new It is the same precarious relationship that artists have with wealthy people I know the previous generation of writers also had their share of disagreements and recriminations, but I'm fairly sure They would have bulked at the idea of a political satire Funded and endorsed and promoted by the government the success of which is attributed To being non-confrontational I am certain they would have opposed the idea of an African literature Literary price solely for novels written or sorry written in or translated into English Funded by a local corporation that offers the winner a chance to be mentored by a British writer Who penned what I would call a modern Tarzan in the jungle novel This is where we are now and I bring up these examples not because I take issue with the individuals involved Actually at my the gumption But I also worry about the impact on African literature So to borrow from Hillary Clinton what happened What happened to my generation of writers that is Enterprise happened Enterprise is compatible with the business world and political sphere. It is at home on the internet and Familiar with shortcuts there. It is ready to maximize results. I Looked up the origin of the word enterprise out of curiosity and came across the synonym endeavor, which I also researched and Never comes from an old French phrase to be put in duty. It's about earnest and conscientious activity rather than the end result So accidentally I found a suitable description of the legacy of the Macquarie conference the endeavor of the previous generation They confronted circumstances that they refused to tolerate these days for the most part we play the hand we are dealt We do what we have to do to get ahead at all costs and Sometimes at the cost of African literature My contribution to the anthology the gods who send us gifts, which will be later launch later today Is an excerpt from my as yet unpublished novel made in Nigeria It is titled the conference and it is set in the United States at an African Literature Association conference The novel is partly dedicated to the previous generation of writers. I Named up everyone from Shoeika to Aikwe Amma and From Nadine Gordema to Bessie Head. I Recreate classes. I taught an Amaya Tadus sister killjoy and on butchie machetas the joys of motherhood I have quotes by Ben Okre and JP Clark. I Was unwittingly playing paying tribute to their endeavors So it is indeed a gift that I am on this panel today If you feel duty bound to do your best for African literature The new order of enterprise can isolate you Here I have company and I am in good company. Thank you. It's my great pleasure to call upon Professor Pali Vemsissia to talk about the Kampala conference the genesis of Well, thank you very much for inviting me to this historic moment Kampala My carry I think as you all know was the genesis of What we call African Critical practice and my argument is that in fact It did profession can mentioned antinomies that did also Engender some of the antinomies that have been persistent in the criticism of African literature And those antinomies were crystallized in Obi-Wali's essay the dead end of African literature And I just want to rehearse some of those antinomies that are generated in that Essay and also responses to that essay fundamentally, it's about the position between authentic and inauthentic African literature authentic and authentic African criticism It's also about African languages as a sign of authenticity European languages and long African literatures in European languages as Necessarily and inherently inauthentic But also the idea of Authentic African subjectivity versus inauthentic African subjectivity Writers who write in European languages accused of being inauthentic Africans and Wally talks about how They could net they couldn't actually have felt African if they were able to if they're rotting English languages for instance or French languages because an African writer who feels African and thinks African will Necessarily translate the African Ness or African identity into an African language the moment They write in an African in an English language for instance or European language Then that they cannot have had that moment of authenticity within their own Self-consciousness and this Proceeds to ideas about negritude versus the rest of the African writers and Wally sees himself as a Continuing with the tradition of negritude and also to to walla Whom he sees as part and parcel of the negritudinist Authentic discourse And there was a lot of anger to that yes including expressed by Professor Schoenker here and I think some of that anger was because Wally in essence was constructing what our course perficial Enforce opposition. I Cannot believe that the gathering of writers there Parallel Achebe and so forth all those writers We actually colonized in their consciousness and some of that anger think was about a Miss recognition of The fundamental question facing African literature that moment and and I think that's what Generated some of that anger, but perhaps the suspicion of hypocrisy because Wally for instance attacked the critics and writers Schoenker Okibo achebe and others For being a bad and using a bad and English when in fact Wally himself had graduated from a bad and And in fact Wally himself wrote his trenchant criticism of the other writers in English and in what presumably the bad and English So how could Wally allow himself the possibility of being an African and Expressing his African Critique of other Africans in English and not allow the same possibility Or privilege to the other writers So I think there was that fundamental contradiction Which amounts to the fact that Wally essentially had located himself outside? his historical Moment and also the history of his cultural and intellectual socialization Which was no different from the history of cultural socialization subject formation of everybody else gathered at Kampala now That Dichotomy which fundamentally can be reduced to an either all logic You're either African or not African If you're African you write in an African language If You're not an African you write in European language, or if you write in a European language You cannot be an African so it's a sort of either or logic And I was glad professor Schoenker concluded this talk by talking about a Harmonization rather than polarity moving from polarity to harmonization I think that essay intensified polarity and that Polarity was what Freud I think describes as a narcissism of small differences And it was a displacement in my view of what for no describes as the colonial manicheanism I a that opposition between the native and the colonizer into the opposition between the patriotic cultural nationalist in Africa and the compradone African Writer and this is very interesting. I I think that while you is in fact Transfiring an opposition which is evident in the public sphere of formal Declanization politics whereby usually It happened most of the continent you have a competition for public space in terms of ideologies And there is the invention of the compradone for instance in Ghana You have on Krumah who returns in the late 40s from Britain to Ghana And there's Dankwa Dankwa who is a gradualist Krumah wants to speed things up and Dankwa gets cast as compradone And in the end we know what happened to him. He died in prison Equally you have insomnia Kenneth Kounder younger than and kumbola Haran kumbola Haran kumbola the leader Then is seen as rather gradualist in terms of his ideology In terms of decolonization. So the speed the debate is about this over the speed of decolonization and Kumbola is cast as a compradone and and Actually very few people have ever heard of kumbola Haran kumbola. And of course the other examples is Zimbabwe Malawi for instance Manoachira who is the leader is castigated as compradone Kanyama Shibumi and Chippenberry as the Radco's and in the Radco's nest they invite Dr. Hastings Banda who in the name of Africa Chases them out into exile in Tanzania and and so I Believe that this is what is being shifted into the domain of African literary production and criticism So while he was constructing compradone Versus a nationalist genuine nationalist sort of opposition and against an either all Debate and which hasn't done us very well In terms of what has happened since then And I'm and it is also reproduced subsequently in the various debates About the nature of African literature memorably between a cheb and googie and question of African language and which a cheb is Recast by googie as slightly of dubious nationalist credentials But we all know Those of us who have read the cheb that in fact Things fall apart is an enduring critique of colonialism and it cannot simply be presented as a A compromise text and a cheb himself, I think It's also reproduced in terms of Chinues and company in relation particular to Schoenker Where Schoenker is condemned as a Euro modernist and is part of a Investor bleeds conspiracy to re-colonize Africa And and therefore inauthentic So you have Chinues Who is pushing for a kind of orality based a kind of literature and criticism as the representation of a genuine nationalist African identity and of course it's very interesting that in this context a chebe who in the context of Googie's discussion is seen as as A doge nationalist here in the Chinues moment. He's the quintessential nationalist in opposition to what is Schoenker And also the argumentary the opposition resurfaces In an important essay by Brilliant and exciting writer. Hello Nabila the African Renaissance Habila is making a distinction between his generation and the order generation And argues that there is a renaissance and that renaissance has to do with this group the new writers greater connection to Africa and The order writers essentially are represented as elitist in the same idiom as in Wally's 1963 essay elitist and alienated From the people as it went so the new writers because the more polite and writers that said he was talking about As seen as more authentic than the old writers or the order writers so and Most recently and most disturbingly chop called jillies cause a lot of controversy By actually arguing third-world quarterly a few months ago that in fact nationalist criticism of Colonialism has failed and that a chair be in fact supports colonialism and this essay which is a case for re-colonization of Africa essentially Uses this argument of authenticity and inauthenticity as In fact a rationalization that Some of our nationalist writers were in fact supporters of colonialism Now I started off with Wally's essay the dead end of African literature But I think when you get to the point where a chair base being presented as a support of colonialism This is the dead end of that discussion That started at mercury this Simplification but also displacement of fundamental positions onto forced oppositions of an either or logic instead what I propose is that It's very close what professor Schroencker was saying here Is that I think we need to move away from some of these simplistic priorities What happens in 1962 is that I'm using Pia Boudu Pia Boudu not Pia Boudu Alan Boudu Was a fundamental shift in the transcendental Values of African or African literature, but also Africa generally And perhaps the debate shouldn't have been who is a true African writer and who isn't should have been about how the different writers Construct Their postcolonial African identities or conceptualized the African identities at the same time I'm aware of the positive and radical potential of Wally's argument and that has to do with the importance of always remembering The remembering the space of the past the space of colonization and so Wally was right in reminding us of the fact that We don't decolonize simply by being African that we need to be alert To the different ways in which we constitute our subjectivity so my proposal would be for the Focus on a Post-hybrid Conception of an African identity It's warming up as you can hear While James goes to the podium all the biographies are in the program so you can follow them Thank you very much. It is indeed a Privilege to be here and I'm very grateful to those who invited me From something that I've said at the beginning. There may be some who are under the impression that my Knowledge of this Kampala event was some ways first-hand my knowledge is entirely Secondhand I'm a consumer of the reports of the conference And one of the interesting things is that there were very few reports that I've been able to locate There was one by Ezekiel and Falele and another by Lewis and Coasey and a third by Bernard von Lon Incidentally none of those mentioned anything about a tiger or tigretude That is something that has been I've been asked about over the years. Was it said? I'm sure it was but the reporters did not report it And There was by Gerald Moore a very powerful address very trenchant account of francophone literature in which they were Referred to as posturing writers and it is possible and Professor Schoenke will recall whether it was partly in the context of that discussion that he made his remark. I Didn't give my paper a title because of the whole way in which this Conference has been pulled together and the whole way in which I think part of the Importance of the mecherie conference is to make us look at Conferences, how do these things come together? Ten days ago. I was asked to contribute to a panel that looked back at Kampala 62 and I was very happy to do that because I felt I had one or two things to say first of all about This failure to report the tigretude remark But then I also came across some young people young people in a spanking new hub in Bristol University To do with black humanities who didn't know anything about the organization of This 1962 conference if you look at this picture you don't get the picture the real picture at all Who pulled that conference together? Are they in this picture? You look at the picture and you think that's interesting In order to go to that conference if you were a man you probably had to have a tie That was a very strange Kind of qualification but actually who was who was selecting the people to go and I hope that in the course of this discussion People will will give me some more information about this But it looked to me from the literature from the reports that infallely was one of those who was involved Uli Baier and Gerald Moore Were the key people and they brought together Writers of whom they approved and who they thought were going to make an important contribution I note that on the so as Pages and and on Africa in words there is a write-up about this conference Which assumes that we don't know who was at the Kampala conference that is quite Extraordinary to to embark on an academic exercise of this kind without being absolutely sure who was there Fortunately, we do have some clues in the years since the conference. There has been a lot of writing We have a biography of Uli Baier We have a biography of Chidua Achebe and it is as then were Ohato who has the fullest list that I have found of people who attended that conference But the extraordinary thing is that the other white people who were so important in this conference are not in this photograph Pete people like Van Milne who made An epoch marking telephone call To Heinemann in London saying Chidua Chebe has met James and Googie as he was then called and we are going to publish his novel site unseen James Curry who's sitting here has has described this graphically in his Africa rights back So now we have the benefit of that kind of knowledge about the people involved in the conference and about the Extraordinary things that the conference achieved as far as Well the setup of the Heinemann African Writers series and that one direction in which African writing moved the conference It is clear was very concerned to discuss who are the gatekeepers who's making the decision and who's publishing us and My word. I've just had such an experience out there in the foyer that I will share it with you They're selling a book called home going and they're pushing it hard He said please read this book. It's a very good book. Now one of the things about home going is that it seems to me that it's been Marketed very well The author has made a tour of many places. She came to Bristol when she was there. I said, oh, are you going to Ghana? Oh, no no plans to go to Ghana at all and yet this book That was awarded a one million dollar advance and so Hit the headlines for many of us has been Allowed through it seems to me entirely by American New York publishers and their and and their publicity machines they want They wanted a new Chimamanda, I think and that's why she got published when we're talking about Authenticity and when we're talking about who is getting Published I think we ought to look at that process and and we ought to hope that Ghanaian critics will respond to it I Attended an event perhaps some of you dad. I'd be interested to know who who who went to Port Cullis house in August 2016 when Professor Schoencker spoke and this book was launched one two And an extraordinary occasion. Thank you very much an extraordinary occasion as this is an extraordinary occasion on that occasion We had the full theater of the Santihini and his drummers and his umbrella carriers And we had not only Professor Schoencker, but Lord Boateng and Gus Casely Hayford These are not people who are usually standard bearers or spear carriers in in somebody else's main drama But on that occasion they had relatively minor role and on that occasion Not only was this book launched the made their shadows never shrink, but also a book of short stories And again, I want to look at what was really happening in that book of short stories I ebius book of short stories. I was delighted to find in it a novella By Peggy Appier. I think Peggy Appier is a neglected writer I think particularly in the year years in which we're looking at Saretsi Karma's marriage We should give her some attention. She she was a very serious writer Not just a children's writer and she persevered with all kinds of publishing strategies fortunately, I Either had the manuscript and was able to put it into the into the novel And and so I used my review of that book to draw attention to how serious and important that was I I did criticize Iver because he included three of his own stories and that was more than anybody else and I'm a out-of-a-do only had one now Just what role an editor has I I take the liberty of of speaking as as Well an older person perhaps in this context to say well, I wouldn't have done that We've got to look again and again at what is happening. I think that book was partly published and I can be corrected on this So that there might be a chance of winning the Cain Prize We are acutely aware of who is setting agendas, but I think this is this is Another aspect that we ought to look at and when we read in Africa in words that the highlight of this occasion is not the paper that we've been able to listen to from Professor Schoenke, but the book launched this afternoon Then I must disagree entirely That book is is is useful Many books should flourish a thousand flowers million flowers should bloom But we we should also be aware that publishers have strategies and that IE be I had a wonderful success with a short story in Amitahidu's collection of Stories from Africa and and obviously there is a temptation and a need Perhaps a commercial need to continue with that I'm moving quite a long way from From the notes that I had made but I was struck by the way in which they pushed Homegoing at me when in fact, I don't think it ties in with the authenticity of African literature, but as I say, I think that's a debate for for Ghanaians in particular. I couldn't help bringing along a few wonderful books because Although everybody's looking at their laptops and their mobile phones in looking at the McHenry conference We are looking at publishing and we're looking at publishing in hard copy things like black orpheus How important it was and what a wonderful physical item it is I also brought along a copy of Encounter to remind us of how the whole story of the CIA backing of this conference Exploded I also brought along something that just to show what Mbari was doing in terms of of other publishing and finally I brought along something that's just arrived a journal from from Ghana that has an account not of the CIA's funding of this conference, which I think was relatively harmless. I Think the people took the money and ran. I think they had an interesting time and benefited from it But what was much more sinister and that people don't talk about nearly enough is The CIA backing for moral rearmament Which really had an impact in West Africa Central Africa and in Kenya a zikiway was completely taken in by moral rearmament and they had money and they had the ability to take Productions around. I think I'm going to wind up on on on this theater moment because I Used up my my ten minutes But please if you really want to waste an hour and a half look at a film called freedom on line there it was made by MRA, but fronted entirely by African So you don't see any European names on the credits at all. It was put together and The story is told in the in this journal. That's why I mentioned it one of professor Schoencker's age mates if O'Giley Amata was was very much involved with it and He himself Wrote a very perceptive article about the way in which film Notably the crowning experience Men of Brazil was being used to put forward a very bland but fundamentally anti-communist message there they were saving Africa from Communism I'm going to close with another comment on the theater because Many things came out of the conference. Ezekiel Fellele wrote his article in which he said how wonderful The national theater in Kampala was this started a debate a discussion Towards a true theater was professor Schoencker's response that was published in a couple of places and Started a really lively discussion about what African theater buildings should be like now one of my fellow panelists over there and I have built a theater together a very modest theater during youth weeks at the University of Malawi and the kind of theater that Was being built in Kampala was the last word in imitation without substance to quote keynote speaker the trouble is the same thing is happening today and I was very glad to find in the welcome pack that among the James Curry Publications we have African theater number 15 Because this is partly about the way in which China is Building theaters in Africa as part of their campaign to win the hearts and minds. So that's why Excuse me. My my address is really called from the CIA to the CIR via MRA because the Chinese And Those who followed the Ghanaian newspapers and discussions will be Intrigued to notice that that the air conditioning system is in the theater is so absolutely Hopeless that people are describing the theater as an oven It wasn't built for Purposes that the theater people F was Sutherland her work was mentioned at McHenry, but she was not invited or She was invited she couldn't go we must look at who was invited who went who was able to go and And what they brought it was a fascinating example of how a conference is put together And I hope that you're all thinking how is this conference put together? Thank you very much Thank you so much James It's my great pleasure to welcome dr. Louisa Eponica is going to tell us the title of her paper. Thank you. Good morning everybody Thank you So just to echo the sentiment of my fellow panelists It's a real honor and privilege to be here to be at the commemorative conference My head of department did comment yesterday that so you're gonna be speaking at a conference on a conference And I said yes, I am and I explained the importance of this conference on a conference And I have changed the title of my presentation. So do forgive me I do work on what I call the Ibonedria novel and I was thinking about Legacies of this conference and thinking about the sort of literary tradition that Teenager be helped to shape But I felt that I'd end up in a conversation around language translation The language of African literature and I know that we're going to have those conversations in full later on today So I thought I'd take a slightly different approach. So my paper is entitled Revisiting the Macquarie conference writing Africa and its diaspora and What I am interested in or what I will be speaking a bit about is thinking about the kind of deasporic dimensions of The conference thinking about sort of this Pan-African undercurrent That was that sort of very much shaped the conference and I Explore that through looking at the presence of writers like Langston Hughes now I don't have very long to speak and I know we're all running a little bit late So I'll try and and was through it. So my apologies if it isn't as coherent as it could be But I will I will do my best to sort of present my thoughts as they have come to me on the page In a letter to Ezekiel infallee dated May 18th 1962 African-American writer Langston Hughes introduced the topic of what was then to be the upcoming conference at Macquarie Remarking nobody has ever told me what I'm expected to do at the conference except be there Whilst in a sub in subsequent correspondence infallee clarifies that Hughes had been asked to give a 45-minute statement on the American Negro literary scene Hughes inquiring statement is in essence showcases the dynamics of the space in which he was entering in which Conversations on Africa and African literature were Pan-African in their vision Articulating the importance of engaging with and reflecting upon the interconnectivity of Africa and its diaspora Of Hughes presence at Macquarie in Google in Google at the younger comments Langston Hughes gave the gathering breadth of geography and depth of history He was one of the key figures in the Harlem Renaissance, which had influenced the founders of negritude He had been to the Black Writers Congress in Paris in 1956 and Rome in 1959 both attended by the great names of the Black World among them Franz Fanon, Emy Cézaire, Suda Senghor and Richard Wright Thus Hughes's presence in Campala gave the Macquarie conference symbolic connections to the Rome and Paris Congress Both organized by the great literary magazine Poisson's African Hughes is also reflected upon his renewed connection with Africa and its writers in an interview with a Soviet writer He discusses the rise of new African nations stating that it inspires me poetically as it is inspiring other Afro-American poets who see in their ancestral homeland a sunrise tomorrow Poetry has a new subject to explore a new theme to celebrate and Langston Hughes actually went on to be the guest of honor I've read at this conference and At this conference and sort of signaling part of this ongoing relationship between Africa and African literature and And and America and African-American writers And this was this was this predates this relationship that Hughes has to African literature predates the conference having published The anthology an African Treasury in 1960 and then the year after the conference He would publish poems from black Africa or he would edit publish you would edit poems from black Africa So in the post war arena of civil rights in America and the anti-colonial movements across Africa The Macquarie conference provided an important space through which to envision the direction of African literature Set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing global political arena The conference held in June 1962 was on the cusp of Uganda's own independence Which would be secured on the 9th of October that year The inclusion of Hughes as well as other writers from Africans diaspora Signaled the importance of a conversation that had already begun and would continue into the present day and there has been a conversation around sort of the Gender divide for the sort of the disproportionate a number of men in relation to women in terms of the conference And we've also had a conversation about how an African women writers actually are a very vocal and actually leading leading the field of African literature today But I also wanted to speak a little bit about Ahmad I do's works in relation to this idea of diaspora and this idea of connectivity that I've drawn from from Hughes's presence And I'm at I do has spoken about growing up in Ghana in the 1950s and 60s and this space is being a space that has It's very international feel with the return of people of African descent from the Americas And the presence of African diaspora communities in Ghana She says compelled the locals to begin to deal albeit uncertainly with the With that sorry part of recent histories of Africans and people of African descent and she continues I come from a people from whom for some reason the connection with African Americans or the Caribbean was a living thing Something of which we were always aware And in krumas Ghana one may African Americans and people from the Caribbean In my father's house. We were always getting visitors from all over I think the whole question of how it was so many of our people could be enslaved and sold is very important I've always thought that it is an area that must be probed It probably holds one of the keys to our future I'm so speaking into the silences of history I do zone work for grounds the experiential links between Africa and its diaspora Drawing on a trajectory between the different epochs of Atlantic crossings I do writings for example dilemma of a ghost and our sister killjoy Present the temporal traffic between past present and futures The Atlantic crossings between Africa Europe and the Americas and the confrontation and recalibration of history while centering black women's narratives in Bridging temporal physical and cultural spaces I'd is probing narrative speaks into the silences of history and in doing so unveil the possibilities For the collective future of Africa in its diaspora And so at a time when African people on both sides of the Atlantic were active in struggles to bring about their liberation The convergences on African soil sought to strengthen and inform both struggles Rearticulating the Pan-African sentiment of the link destinies of Africa's children. I'm just glancing at the clock and The connection with Africa and the possibility of return loomed in the works of African-American writers such as County Column and Lorraine Hansbury, but also African writers in the 1960s and 70s including Amma to Ida as I mentioned also Aiquama My Angela and Malcolm X were among a group of African-American activists to spend time in Ghana during the 1960s and In a speech delivered at the University of Ghana in May 1964 Malcolm X would state. I don't feel that I'm a visitor in Ghana or in any part of Africa I feel that I am at home. I have been away for 400 years But not of my own volition not of my own well His words were later echoed by James Baldwin on meeting Chinua Chibi now an American soil at the African Literature Association Conference in Gainesville, Florida in April 1980 He me described as my brother whom I met yesterday Who I have not seen in 400 years It was never intended that we should meet and for me It's interesting that this conversation around connection around heritage around legacy Is playing out through writers and the rest is again the sort of traffic across the Atlantic as writers are reconnecting They will have engaged with each other's works already. They would have engaged with each other's ideas already in texts and Having these important spaces and we spoke about what conferences are having these important spaces where people can come together Connect and exchange ideas. I think is is key to the Macquarie conference into the subsequent meetings that I'm speaking to So the sense of connectivity Exchange and the intertwined experiences has been sustained in writing on both sides of the Atlantic as the changing global politics presents a new set of challenges for people for African people around the world and And I think I've probably got two more minutes. So in those two minutes, I will now bring us into contemporary African literature Interestingly, I am going to speak about home going and possibly present a more sympathetic view of that text So I'm thinking about so what I have here, which I might have to abandon But what I wanted to point to here a two to contemporary texts a DTA is Americana And yeah, I guess he's home going and just to speak to Americana. I mean, I imagine many of you are familiar with that text There's a narrative of if I'm a little who relocates to America And in the process of her time in the US. She starts writing a blog Which is called? Race teens or various observations about American blacks those formerly known as Negroes by an American black and Part of the novels looks at the process of being racialized as black in America. So in the US if Emily is Ebo she's Nigerian. She is black, but she doesn't read herself as black and being in America She's now racialized and recognized and identified as black And so it's the kind of coming to terms with what it means to be a racialized person But also it puts her very much in communion with a range of experiences of people of African descent And so there is a conversation that's being had in that text around a kind of renewed awareness of a kind of collective destiny and sort of linkages with other other African experiences within the African diaspora and when she returns to Lagos She then writes another blog and again the digital space creates opportunities for exchanges that That can take place across the globe, but in kind of it's kind of an immediacy So now we're in an era where these conversations don't have to necessarily be Physically in the same space or sending letters that might take ages to be delivered but can happen in a kind of more instant Digital arena and and then just to speak to home going very very briefly um Yeah, I see grew up in America and she forms a newer younger African diaspora and Her text home going looks at various generations So it's begin opens in the in the 18th century a shanty village And we have two sisters one who sold into slavery and taken to the US and the other who remains in Ghana and we see generation by generation the parallel lives of the Characters and descendants of each of these women and the final generation I'll spoil it for those of you who haven't read it they They're both now in the US and that also again speaks to the sort of changing economic and political climate and there is a reconnection and the reader is privy to the Experiences of each generation in a way that the characters are not they don't know what their counterpart in America or their counterpart in In in Ghana is going through and the text itself It's sort of almost symbolic of this sort of collective destiny that I spoke about the sort of pan-African sentiment That was in the Macquarie conference The text itself is testament to that because we as the reader see how the experiences are intertwined and how these Characters eventually will reconvene and will return to Ghana And so in contemporary writings that explore the connection with the US There's also this sense of return a return to Africa and I think it's it's very much in the spirit of Gavius collective destiny This sense of interconnectivity that was expressed in Macquarie and also was expressed now We're all meeting in the diaspora From different parts of the continent having these conversations. So I think let that spirit continue. Thank you Thank you so much, Louisa. We're going to have a short short Response from our discussing And I don't know if we'll have a Q&A I may ask for your permission to give us 10 minutes of your lunch But let's see how we go Good morning. I hope it is morning. I haven't changed my my watch I am going to try and be as brief as I possibly can First of all, I'd like to say thanks to a professor Shane for a presentation that I've been Waiting for for quite a while because I was raised on on on the legacy of Of the Macquarie conference most of the literature that I started had its Genesis from from this historical moment and 55 years later. I am able to say a few words About the conference. I must also thank the panelists for really insightful presentations on what this conference meant For them and what it continues to meet to meet today So I'm going to raise just a few points pertaining to what we've heard today and perhaps to tease out some of the some of the questions that that came up and perhaps one of the enduring questions that I that I picked up was that of Antinomies a conference that was built on on Antinomies You know between francophone and anglophone writers between romanticism and and materialism a Conference at that at one time was about bringing African writers together to speak about an African experience Whether at home or abroad but also a conference that asked Important questions about what constituted The term itself Africa and an African And of course it was also a conference about Manifestors negritude being at the the the main manifesto and counter manifestors from those who spoke about What the conference itself may have well some of the questions that the conference itself May not have answered Or even questions that the conference may not have raised We heard today for example about the problems with the way in which Africa and Africans were were constituted in the romantic discourse of Negritude and of course the response the responses say by some Ben O's man About the lack of any Any concern in the in the conference Deliberations about the real material Conditions of the continent and of those of the continent that the conference sought to speak about and and to speak for We also heard about the ways in which Africa itself had become a construct of many of many ideas including religious political And so on ideas that further complicated this object and of course needed to be addressed Quite directly by the conference. We also heard About the virtues of of of this conference the legacy being that the conference provided space for discussion of a certain kind of of African Enlightenment in a way in which Africans themselves were beginning to talk about their own writing about their own presence in in the intellectual In the intellectual moment in which they found themselves so that as professor Schrodinger pointed out that perhaps the enduring significance of Negritude was Well what it posited itself as not rather than What it came to be known as in other words as a romantic movement that had no Relevance to to African conditions in other words in in in saying what it was not Perhaps it left a legacy that perhaps still remains with us a more open Productive legacy that remains with us today and of course the question that I think Formed a thread throughout the presentations Was how does one revamp? How does one revisit? How does one reconstitute that optimism? in in in in Negritude An optimism that I believe has continued to sustain a debate that has continued to sustain Writing the connections for example that Dr. Appunika spoke about the negrity of sorry the the Macquarie conference was about connections across across Continents and it did bring together Voices that otherwise would not have come together. So how does one reconstitute that that that stage? How does one 55 years later and reconstitute that that context? And so I would speak very briefly to Sophie Arthur's Presentation about taking stock. How do we take stock out? Do you return perhaps with? with the benefit of experience to to the Macquarie moment In other words, how are those who have inherited the Macquarie legacy? Supposed to keep it and then with how have they kept it how are they supposed to keep it is then a script That we could follow perhaps. There is no script Precisely because the legacy itself continues. It hasn't really been lost it continues In terms such as Afropolitans in the same Those terms may not capture perhaps some of the gravities of of the conference itself but I think they gesture towards as something as something a material but also something as something Romantic and I think that from the romanticism and the materialism of the Macquarie conference were important Tensions, I think constituted important tensions that perhaps sustain sustain us in our writing today We have notions of wealth citizenship and I think Louisa spoke to to the diaspora That continues to to to engender a new connections new ideas in fact James Baldwin wrote about that Conference of black literature which took place in Paris and he's nobody knows my name And I think that returning to those texts could give us Insights into some of the ground that we have covered Both as as as intellectuals as creative writers But also as people who at certain moments come together to to speak about about these questions and the question of endeavor that Dr. Sefiata raised The endeavors of the previous generation the endeavors of those who were at the conference Must be must be recognized but also they must be in some ways emulated Well with a critical eye, of course And and that has happened. That is what in fact our entire project is of scholarship is about the writings for example of Of a machete The the tributes that are going to be paid to these writers today a form that I think that background in which we still continue to Well against which we still continue to operate Professor Siska raised the issue again of antinomies The MacCarrie conference as having been an occasion for Antinomies of Antinomies of history and the present antinomies of authenticity and in authenticity Of course the famous Rejointer By professor Shoyinka that the tiger does not declare its tiger treated pounces were some of the questions that I think Divided but also caused I suppose productive friction For those who had attended the conference So the languages that we that we speak today In other words languages That suffuse our literary our literary commitment Languages about authenticity in authenticity have perhaps shifted to some extent to those of To those of harmony to those of Syncretism to those of hybridity, but we must be vigilant in using the new languages That we don't forget about the continue the continuing Antinomies not just within the continent but also across Continents in the diaspora in other words we must continue to be vigilant Through the ways in which Africa continues Africa African writers and Africans in general continue to be held at Some length at some arms length at bay by the places in which they have existed all their lives so we must continue to be vigilant to the way in which Africa continues to be constituted in in Discord that is not of Africa in as as as a continent in meat as a continent outside of Time outside of any form of of progress. So the connections. Thank you. So the connections Remain very much tenuous the connections between Africa and the world between Those in Africa and outside of Africa Continue to continue to be tenuous and then perhaps they need to be challenged in direct and more and more in touring way and Dr. Gibbs spoke To the way in which Conferences are put together and I think that it is an important Question because it it sort of allows us to go back to To this to this moment and to ask questions about the constitution of this conference Who was there and in the background? to the ways in which Those who were there came to be there and I think that we do need a record of some sort or at least some Generation of records About about these moments because they are of historical significance and I think without them We are to some extent part of of a story that is incomplete. Thank you very much I'll be guided by the organizers and also by you whether you have lots of questions And if you're willing to part with five minutes of your time to allow a Q&A Any questions, let's see the number of questions that we have in general if you could let us see Professor Okay, how many hands can we see the number of questions we may have in general? Okay, we may be fine with the time that we have we'll start with James The word I want to say is Umbari The word I want to say is Umbari because I think that's one of the great Afro words this was the Umbari African writers conference and Bari was one of the great achievement the Umbari writers Association of Nigeria artists and as well as writers and I'm sad that this morning we haven't Touched more on Umbari Thank you, I just wish to confirm very quickly What James said this conference was a product of the Cold War There's no question at all about that the CI On one side KGB and the others and this is one of the cultural offenses of the CI It operated in fact through and counter magazine I'm glad you brought a copy of that around and counter magazine was sort of the Distribution center all this was discovered later on by the way. We regretted very much We do know about it earlier because we'd have spent their money a lot more of their money Very definitely very definitely and Encounter the Congress for cultural freedom was also a product of the CI via Farfield Foundation, which we discovered was also a CI front so CI was laundering its money through various cultural channels Bari in Nigeria was a beneficiary of that as well as I said we just regretted Nobody thought fit to tell us in advance So we'd have blown that CI money thoroughly over so many Conferences the quickly second point is I Doubt very much if that picture is I've been telling Was from my career it from at least from that conference. I think there's a Wrong identification of some of the figures there you have to remember that people like me you mean look I have so many Double gangers. I've been mistaken I've been mistaken for Don King To my eternal disgust I've been mistaken for Kofi Annan The French are crazy about this actor oh Muggle Freeman And I get arrested at security They pretend they're looking at my boarding pass in active are they are passing it round saying it's not him It's him So I doubt very much if this is I mean, it looks like my could be Robert Serumaga Could be and somebody else I can't why I'm not very sure about I'm not very sure that's JP Clark. That's definitely Niget Neody at the back. I'm glad you made a comment about ties this was not a Tie suit and tie conference. It certainly wasn't and I think I gave up ties Before this conference by the time I go back tonight. I wasn't wearing ties anymore So there's a mystery about this which should we can maybe can be solved by some of the participants here But you should be very much aware of it. Okay. Thank you