The Other Side of Africa Rising: Cultural Counter-Narratives
Posted: 9 May 2013 Last revised: 17 Dec 2014
Date Written: May 9, 2013
Abstract
This panel gathers papers that examine the ways in which contemporary African literature, art, film, music, and (social) media challenge and complicate the narrative of "Africa rising" that has become so popular in mainstream media. We are interested in works that explore the ways that this / rosy narrative depends on the erasure of forms of social, political, and environmental violence. But, at the same time, we want to ask what it means to still insist on the "unflattering" images of Africa at a time when many African countries are trying to re-brand. How do authors, artists, and other cultural producers refuse to comply with and celebrate the coercions of neo-liberalism in Africa? Papers might therefore also wish to examine / the following questions: What is the role of the African artist in the 21st century? How do forms of technology change what is being said by and about Africans? How are development narratives being re-imagined today? The papers address a cross-section of African regions from Nigeria to Kenya to South Africa and methodologies from literary, cultural and ethnographic studies. Individual paper titles include: "Nollywood films and the 'happy ending'"; "Abuja Rising?"; "The literary underbelly of Kenyan crime fiction" ; "Neo-colonizing the Global South: Elite Indians in Africa" and "Africa Rising, Africa Driving, and the Violence of Automobility".
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