Literature across Boundaries

Despite the fact that the boundaries of the Apartheid state were constructed in a way that did not encourage literary and cultural transactions between that carceral space and the rest of the world, Francophone African literatures still managed to establish a marginal presence in South Africa, mainly within the context of the negritude debate. Today, a good number of South African Universities have incorporated writing from Francophone Africa into their literary curricula. South Africa is now in a post-Apartheid era rooted in a deontology of exploration and change which, from all indications, will reinforce the renewed interest in Francophone African literatures in that country.Bien que les frontières de l’apartheid aient été édifiées de telle sorte qu’elles n’encouragèrent pas les échanges littéraires et culturels entre cet espace carcéral et le reste du monde, les littératures africaines francophones ont réussi à conserver une présence marginale en Afrique du Sud, surtout dans le cadre du débat sur la négritude. De nos jours, un grand nombre d’universités sud-africaines ont inclu les œuvres littéraires d’Afrique francophone dans leurs programmes. L’Afrique du Sud est maintenant entrée dans une époque post-apartheid, laquelle est enracinée dans une déontologie de l’exploration et du changement. De l’avis général, ce climat d’ouverture devrait y renouveler l’intérêt envers les littératures africaines francophones

Canada-Africa Relations in Changing Core-Periphery Dynamics: A Chance to "Come Back" Differently

The Department of Foreign Affairs Canada sees the dynamism at play across the African continent as calling out for Canadian engagement. Africa in the twenty-first century is no longer the continent emerging from colonial rule; it seeks new forms of relationships with international partners. The African Development Bank, for instance, has identified five priorities for inclusive growth on the continent. The challenges are huge, as is the potential for transformative change. But the conditions for international collaboration in achieving these goals have changed; African leaders are seeking new forms of associations and teamwork. Canada has an opportunity to "come back" differently if it can look beyond its narrow mining interests and become an active partner working with public authorities in need of new and bold international partnerships. Unfortunately, Trudeau's "Canada is back" campaign does not look set to change the status quo. And, in a world where the political economic power is moving east, African countries do not have much reason to listen to Canada

Constructions of subalternity in African women’s writing in French

The central assumption of this study is that the awareness of a historically constructed, culturally sanctioned condition of subalternity is at the heart of the fictional production of Francophone African women writers. Subalternity here is viewed as a narrative and spatial continuum inside which African women have to negotiate issues relating to subjecthood and identity, both marked by gender and colonialism. Various definitions of 'the subaltern' are relevant, ranging from Antonio Gramsci's to those of the South Asian Subaltern Studies group, and to John Beverley's and Fredric Jameson's discussions. Jameson's emphasis on subalternity as "the feelings of mental inferiority nad habits of subservience and obedience which... develop in situations of domination - most dramatically in the experience of colonized peoples" (Jameson, 1981) is crucial, because it demonstrates the constructedness of that ontological condition. The approach adopted here aims to include gender as a category in a discourse that often excludes it, and to bring social science-oriented concepts into dialogue with literary theory and criticism. Combined with a discussion of Africa-influenced versions of feminist theory (stiwanism, negofeminism, motherism), Subaltern studies provides a space for the emergence of a south-south postcolonial debate that can throw new light on writing by African women. Fictional works by Therese Kuoh-Moukoury, Mariama Ba, Aminata Maiga Ka, Angele Rawiri, Philomene Bassek, Evelyne Mpoudi-Ngolle, Regina Yaou, Fatou Keita, and Abibatou Traore are read as conveying the various stages of consciousness on the part of the subaltern. Kuoh-Moukoury's Rencontres essentielles (1969), Maiga Ka's La voie du salut (1985), and Bassek's La tache de sang (1990) exemplify a first stage of consciousness in which the subaltern woman submits passively to oppressive patriarchal, cultural and religious prescriptions. Ba's Une si longue lettre (1979), Mpoudi Ngolle's Sous La cendre le feu (1990) and Rawiri's Fureurs et cris de femmes (1989) present a more assertive, rebellious heroine whose efforts are undermined by a resilient social context. Finally, Traore's Sidagamie (1998), Kei'ta's Rebelle (1998) and Yaou's Le prix de la revoke (1997) address the possibility of a sustained African women's struggle resulting not only in transient personal and isolated victories but also in an enduring social transformation governed by the ethos of gender equality.Arts, Faculty ofFrench, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department ofGraduat

From post-global to post-truth: African literature beyond commonsense

This article discusses Tejumola Olaniyan's submissions in his essay “African Literature in the Post-Global Age: Provocations on Field Commonsense” by problematizing some of his submissions on the temporalities, especially the global and the post-global, that have inflected the field of African literary discourse since the second half of the twentieth century. In doing this, the essay queries the idea that the category of the nation-state has been exhausted or overwhelmed by the global and the post-global. The essay suggests instead that the nation-state has been retooled and rearmed by a nascent temporality, the post-truth, in ways that have significant consequences for African literatures