Mid-America Alliance for African Studies

24th Annual Meeting
Mid-America Alliance for African Studies
September 13-14, 2019
Malott and Kansas rooms, Kansas Union Building
The University of Kansas, Lawrence. 66045

The Narrative of Africa Rising: Real or Fiction
The Mid-America Alliance for African Studies (MAAAS) hosted by the Kansas African Studies Center (KASC) invites scholars to submit conference papers and full panel proposals for the 2019 conference on the narrative of Africa Rising. The goal of this conference is to provide a forum for debating the increasingly popular media discourse of “Africa Rising” – a reference to the replacement of the deep sense of ‘Afro-pessimism’ that dominated the 1980s–2000s with a more optimistic outlook. For instance, whereas stories of the “coming anarchy” (Kaplan, 1994) or the “hopeless continent” (The Economist, 2000) abounded a little over two decades ago, Africa is increasingly seen by many as fertile grounds for economic opportunity, democratic governance, increased foreign engagement, social change as well as resurgence in music, art, literature, and the sciences among other disciplines. Critics argue that the Africa Rising narrative belies a 21st Century “Scramble for Africa” where foreign powers are again exploiting the continent’s resource wealth and re-cementing the region’s unequal relationships with external capital. Despite the criticisms, the narrative of Africa Rising is driven by a belief in the power of liberal economic policies, entrepreneurship and free trade to encourage economic growth and social infrastructural development. This trend also claims the spread of democracy to foster improved governance, as well as Afrocentric observations that African cultural, philosophical, and religious ideas are enjoying increased influence facilitated by globalization and social media. MAAAS 2019 provides a venue to discuss the implication of the Narrative of Africa Rising for its people throughout the Diaspora and with the world at large. We invite scholars interested in Africana Studies from all disciplines to participant at this conference.

Please submit a 250-word abstract or panel description by August 12, 2019 and register for the MAAAS 2019 Conference at the MAAAS website:
https://www.midamericaallianceforafricanstudies.org/contact-and-conference-information.html

For additional information, please contact:

Darlingtina Atakere, MAAAS President (2019)
Psychology Department, University of Kansas
Email: datakere@ku.edu