Mid-America Alliance for African Studies

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

The Narrative of Africa Rising: Real or Fiction
The Mid-America Alliance for African Studies (MAAAS) and the African and Kansas African Studies Center (KASC) invite 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 been seen by many as fertile grounds for economic opportunity, democratic governance, increased foreign engagement, social change as well as resurgence in music, art, etc. Critics argue that the Africa Rising narrative belies a 21st Century “Scramble for Africa”, in which 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, the spread of democracy to foster improved governance, and the worldwide spread of African cultures and ideas facilitated by globalization and social media. MAAAS 2019 will provide a venue to discuss the implication of the narrative of Africa rising for its people and relation with the world at large. We invite scholars interested in Africana Studies to be part of this conference.