Writing Africa: Comparative African and Western "Palavers" and Perspectives

FAIN: FV-50127-06

Central Michigan University (Mount Pleasant, MI 48859-0001)
Maureen N. Eke (Project Director: March 2006 to May 2009)

A three-week seminar for fifteen school teachers to engage in a comparative reading of novels about Africa written by African and European authors.

This three-week summer seminar is for secondary school teachers of humanities and social studies interested in infusing African Literature and African Studies into their courses. The aim of the seminar is to encourage a "palava/palaver," an animated conversation and energetic interpretive engagement between African and Western texts. While exploring the writing of Africa, we will collectively examine the historical contexts from which these works arose. We will also address the representation of Africa, gender, colonialism, post-coloniality, individual/ community tensions, cultural transformations and retrieval, point of view and narrative strategies.