CFP: "African Intellectuals and Decolonization," Perspectives on African Decolonization, Department of History, Ohio University, October 2, 2008.

Update:

Speakers include:

• Oyeronke Oyewumi (Department of Sociology, SUNY, Stony Brook): "Decolonizing the Intellectual and the Quotidaian: African Intellectuals in the PostColonial Moment"
• Elizabeth Schmidt (Department of History, Loyola College in Baltimore): "Pan-Africanism, People's Power, and Decolonization in Ghana and Guinea: the Uneven Legacy of Kwame Nkrumah and Sékou Touré"
• Tsenay Serequeberhan (Department of Philosophy, Morgan State University): "Decolonization and the Practice of Philosophy"

Visit the conference homepage here: http://www.african.ohio.edu/Conferences/index.html.

Original Post (April 23, 2008): In 1958, Guinea, under Ahmed Sekou Toure, chose political independence over continued association with France. The All-African Peoples Convention hosted by Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana in the same year highlighted the links between and among Africans and peoples of African descent in the Diaspora. 2008 is also the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the seminal journal Presence Africaine by Alioune Diop. Focusing on African intellectuals and decolonization will allow for an interrogation of all three concepts as well as an opportunity to examine the roles intellectuals have played and continue to play in contemporary African efforts at liberation from economic neo-colonialism. Additionally, this conference will provide an opportunity to highlight the cutting edge work of contemporary African philosophers, the inheritors of the intellectual traditions established by the generations who fought for the liberation of Africa. The works of these scholars who are developing systems of thought rooted in African vernacular concepts will have significant implications for the Arts and Humanities and interpretations thereof as well as the (Westernized) Academy more broadly. Featured speakers include: Oyeronke Oyewumi, Department of Sociology, State University of New York at Stony Brook; Elizabeth Schmidt Department of History, Loyola College in Baltimore; Tsenay Serequeberhan, Department of Philosophy, Morgan State University. Conference planners invite the submission of abstracts for papers and panels from scholars and graduate students in any academic discipline. Presentations that are interdisciplinary and/or transnational in scope will be particularly welcome. Abstracts for individual papers should be 250-300 words and accompanied by a brief CV (no more than two pages). Panel proposals should include abstracts and CVs for each presenter as well as a 250-500 word overview of the panel. Topics for discussion include but by no means are limited to:

• Who is African?
• Who is an intellectual?
• What do we mean by decolonization?
• Colonialism and decolonization in Africa
• Neocolonialism and (neo)decolonization in Africa
• Women and decolonization in Africa
• Decolonizing the (Westernized) Academy
• African philosophies and decolonization
• African indigenous knowledge systems and decolonization
• The Arts and African decolonization
• African literatures and decolonization
• The Sciences and decolonization in Africa
• Conservation of natural resources in Africa and decolonization.

As the conference will be held in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Guinea?s independence on October 2, 2008, we will particularly welcome panels and papers concerning Ahmed Sekou Toure, Guinea, and decolonization. Selected papers will be published in an edited collection of essays to commemorate these significant moments in African history and to reflect upon the legacies of fifty years of 'independence' in Africa.

Please submit paper and panel proposals to: Acacia Nikoi, nikoi@ohio.edu. The deadline for submission of proposals is May 30, 2008. Limited travel funding is available for graduate students. Please apply for a travel stipend on the conference registration page by May 30.