Video Contests, Film Festivals, and Awards

African Popular Culture in the 21st Century
Call for Papers

Saturday 27 October 2012, 09:00 - 17:00
Seminar Room 1 & 2, Chrystal MacMillan Building, George Square,
University of Edinburgh.

 To link with the Africa in Motion 2012 festival theme Modern Africa, the organization is inviting papers from scholars working in the field of African Popular Culture. The festival will focus on films and events that represent Africa as part and parcel of the modern, globalised world – the urban, the new, the provocative, the innovative and experimental. "Modern" is regarded as not as belonging solely to the "West", and through the festival the organization's goal is to emphasise Africa's important role in the modern world. The festival is interested in discovering and exploring through this year's festival how modernity manifests in African cultures, and the symposium focus on African popular culture will further enhance this theme.

Africa in Motion 2012 symposium will run alongside Africa in Motion Film Festival 2012 (25 October - 2 November) in the city of Edinburgh, UK on Saturday 27 October 2012, 09:00 - 17:00. Venue: Seminar Room 1 & 2,Chrystal MacMillan Building, George Square, University of Edinburgh.

Suggested themes for papers include:

1. What is African popular culture?
2. How could Karin Barber's pioneering work in African Cultural Studies be updated for the 21st century?
3. How could African popular culture be regarded as manifestations of contemporary African identities?
4. Questioning the myth of the "tradition-versus-modernity conflict" in African societies
5. Globalisation, hybridisation, intertextuality and interdisciplinarity in the field of African Cultural Studies
6. The digital revolution and the video-film industries in Africa: Ghanaian video-films, Nollywood and its followers (for example Bongowood in Tanzania, Riverwood in Kenya, Ugawood in Uganda)
7. Film spectatorship, audiences and sites of consumption in African popular film
8. Popular music and youth culture in Africa: for example hip-hop, rap, kwaito and the political dimensions of these musical genres
9. New fusions of traditional music and Western influences: for example Youssou N'Dour and Mbalax (Senegal/Gambia)
10. Popular music and activism: for example Fela Kuti and the Afrobeat revolution 
11. Contemporary African dance as a fusion of styles, genres and influences 
12. Popular dance as a tool to interpret and comment on history: for example Angolan kuduro
13. Political cartooning as satire and subversion: critiquing neo-colonialism and subverting colonial representations
14. Comics and graphic novels as a reflection of urban landscapes and identities
15. Street fashion: Alternative clothing styles and youth culture, for example "Geek chic", hip hop, the Congolese Sapeurs 
16. African wax prints: the global economy of production
17. Meaningful fashion: patterns, imagery and slogans on African fabrics, for example Swahili kangas
18. Sport and development in Africa
19. Football, fandom and collective identities in Africa
20. Street art, graffiti and murals as popular expression and resistance
21. Street art for awareness-raising, social change and urban rejuvenation
22. Posters and slogans on public transport as expressions of religious and social identities
23. Yoruba travelling theatre and its influence on contemporary culture
24. Street theatre and theatre for development
25. Orality and performance in Africa: masquerades, rituals, trance and possession, musical performances, comic and satiric sketches, dance theatre
26. Contemporary African art as straddling "high culture" and "pop culture"
27. Recyclia and contemporary sculpture in Africa
28. African photography beyond National Geographic
29. Beyond the tourist curios: Popular painting such as Tinga Tinga (Tanzania) 
30. Suggested elitism in the literary arts in Africa

Abstracts are solicited for individual 20-minute papers on the theme of the symposium. The organization is looking for submissions from scholars at all levels (postgraduate students are most welcome) and invite contributions from as wide a scope of research areas and disciplines as possible. Unfortunately, AiM is unable to sponsor any flights or accommodation for visiting scholars. You are encouraged to obtain sponsorship from your home institution.
 
The organization invites abstracts of 250-300 words as well as brief biographical details (no more than 100 words) to be sent to the symposium organisers at symposium@africa-in-motion.org.uk by Monday 30 July 2012. Include contact details, institutional affiliation, current appointment / stage of study and main research interests.

Resources:

africa-in-motion.org.uk

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