E3W Literature | University of Texas

Edited by Naminata Diabate

This special section revisits some of the foundational texts, authors, and scholars that positioned African literatures as a respectable academic discipline and field of inquiry. In addition to the seminal texts, we explore the ongoing debates and issues practitioners of African literatures grapple with. Starting the section is Rebecca Hewitt’s review of Bernth Lindfors’s 2007 edited volume, Ira Aldridge: The African Roscius. Following that is Naminata Diabate’s interview with Lindfors, in which the founding editor of the authoritative journal, Research in African Literatures, reflects back on his contribution to the creations of the journal and that of the African Literature Association. Diabate’s archival review of The Bernth Lindfors Papers further demonstrates Lindfors’s indefatigable contribution to constructing a highly regarded archive of Anglophone African literatures. Amena Moinfar’s review of Martin Hoyles’s Ira Aldridge: Celebrated 19th Century Actor adds a different dimension to Ira Aldridge’s history. In keeping with seminal texts and authors is Trevor Hoag’s review of Frantz Fanon’s 1963 visionary text The Wretched of the Earth in the light of new theoretical and international politics developments, which positions Fanon as one of the “voices in the darkness” that 21st century academics and politicians need listen to. Echoing Hoag’s enterprise is Lauren Gantz’s review of Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard. Demonstrating the essential contribution of archives to the study of African literatures are Ousseynou Sy’s and Gabriela Redwine’s respective archival reviews of The Graham Greene and The Amos Tutuola and Robert Wren papers. Through Rebecca Rossiter’s review of Blue Clay People: Seasons on Africa’s Fragile Edge by William Powers, Neville Hoad’s review of Toyin Falola and Matthew Heaton’s edited volume, HIV/AIDS, Illness, and African Well-Being, and Lanie Millar’s review of Imaginary Geographies in Portuguese and Lusophone-African Literatures: Narratives of Discovery and Empire by Luis Madureira, one gets a glimpse of the current debates on wars and their aftermaths, HIV/ AIDS, colonialism and postcolonialism in the field of African literary studies. This section does not claim to be exhaustive as the glaring absence of African women writers shows. It is my contention that despite African women writers’ critical and artistic achievements, they continue to be silenced in some circles.