Decolonizing Knowledge to Re-envision Africa and the African Diasporas

International Conference: Decolonizing Knowledge to Re-Envision Africa and the African Diasporas

CALL FOR PAPERS/FIRST CIRCULAR

• 1st Muntú International Conference: “Decolonizing Knowledge to Re-Envision Africa and the African Diasporas”
• Novembre 1 – 3, 2023
• Host Institution: Université Dakar-Bourguiba
• Dakar, Senegal
• Organizers/Sponsors: Howard University/Department of World Languages and Cultures, MUNTÚ, International and Interdisciplinary Research Group on African and African Diaspora Studies, and Université Dakar-Bourguiba

Send proposals to: muntuconference@gmail.com
Deadline: July 15, 2023

Contact: Clément A. Akassi, Howard University
International Conference Chair
muntuconference@gmail.com

This year international conference in Dakar, “Decolonizing Knowledge to Re-Envision Africa and the African Diasporas,” continues on the footsteps of the previous conferences held at Howard University in 2011, 2015 and 2019. All these inter/multidisciplinary conferences, carried by academic and non academic communities, have a double objective. For one hand, there is the aim to decolonize the academic institutions and get them close to the non academic communities for/with which research is ultimately made by the academic institutions. For other hand, these conferences attempt to decolonize the imaginaries and epistemologies on the representations about/of Africa and the African diasporas. This first conference of Muntú, International and Interdisciplinary Research Group on African and African Diaspora Studies, will be a space of productive dialogue between scholars, students, teachers of secondary and higher educations, writers, film directors, artists, archivists, librarians, guardian of oral traditions and african/diasporic languages, museum curators, activists, non-governmental organizations, etc. All the participants will have to question the knowledge imposed as universal values by the Western or, at least, by all those (hegemonic) cultures that are not African or African diaspora ones. By doing so, the participants will be committed to decolonize all types of discourses and practices that cannibalize the knowledge, history, languages, orality, heroism, religions, movements, thoughts, imaginaries, epistemologies, representations of selves and of the world, etc., carried by the cultural African subject, including the ones from Africa and the African diasporas.

Main Areas of Discussion (Non-exhaustive)

• Decolonizing academic disciplines and eurocentric knowledge
• Decolonizing the imaginaries and the epistemologies in the representation of self and the world
• African/Diasporic epistemologies or Afro-epistemologies
• Muntú/Ubuntu/Quilombismo: another way to think human (being), history, politics, Pan Africanism, races, ethnicities, nations, etc.
• Dialogue between Africa and African Diasporas; Dialogues between Global South
• Pan-Africanism, digital era and social media
• Pan-Africanism and Translations
• Activisms, social media, good governance and anti-racism
• Black Live Matters: Négritude, Harlem Renaissance, Negrismo 2.0
• African/Diasporic languages, self-determination and development
• African/Diasporic religions as theologies of liberation
• African/Diasporic Arts, films, literatures, music: from the order of fiction and entertainment or from the order of liberation?
• Africa, African Diasporas and the question of gender, sexuality, intersectionality, afro-feminisms and Queer movement
• Re-name African nations, African Diasporas, America (USA), Latin America?
• Orality, digital era and re-invention of the archives on Africa and the African Diasporas
• African/Diasporic medical alternatives
• Identities and theories of the Great Replacement in (North) Africa, Americas/Latin America and Europe
• UNESCO’s World Natural and Cultural Heritage: hierarchy of memories?

Languages of the International Conference

English, French, Portuguese, Spanish or African languages. All proposals are made in one language only

Paper Proposals

All proposals shall be sent before or on July 15, 2023 to this email address: muntuconference@gmail.com

Individual proposals shall include the following information:

• First and last names, affiliation, and email address
• Title
• Abstract (150 words, maximum)
• Five keywords

Proposals of sessions, roundtables or workshops

• Regular sessions shall include a minimum of three presenters and a maximum of four. These sessions shall be submitted by an organizer or chair
• Roundtables shall include a minimum of three presenters and a maximum of five. These roundtables shall be submitted by an organizer or chair
• Workshops shall include a minimum of one guest speaker and a maximum of five. Workshops shall be submitted by the organizer or the guest speaker

Conference Proceedings

Conference proceedings will be published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing

2024 and 2025 Conferences

• 2024: Universidad de Costa Rica, San José (Costa Rica)
• 2025: Howard University (USA)

Partners of the International Conference

• College of Arts and Sciences, Howard University
• Department of World Languages and Cultures, Howard University
• Howard University’s Interdisciplinary Research Group on African and African Diaspora Studies
• Changó, Afro-Latine and Spanish-Speaking Cultural Society (Howard University’s Students Organization)
• Howard University’s Center for African Studies
• Howard University’s Center for Women, Gender and Global Leadership
• Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (Senegal)
• Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis (Senegal)

Planning Committee

Co-Presidents:
Clément Animan Akassi, Howard University (USA)
Maguèye Kassé, Université Dakar-Bourguiba (Senegal)

Members:

• Seydi Ababacar Dieng, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar et Université Dakar-Bourguiba (Senegal)
• Mbaye Diène, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar et Université Dakar-Bourguiba (Senegal)
• Bamba Ndiaye, Université Dakar-Bourguiba (Senegal)
• Amar Sèye, Université Dakar Bourguiba (Senegal)
• Moussa Guèye, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar et Université Dakar-Bourguiba (Senegal)
• Khady Diène, Howard University (USA)
• Paulo Dutra, University of New Mexico (USA)
• Carolina Báez, Uniminuto (Colombie)
• Vartinel Daho, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny de Cocody (Côte d’Ivoire)
• Pascal Koua Kadio, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny de Cocody (Côte d’Ivoire)

Scientific Committee

President:
Clément Animan Akassi, Howard University(USA)

Members:

• Monique L. Akassi, Howard University (USA)
• Chantal Alléla-Kwévi, Université Omar Bongo (Gabon)
• Ana Araujo, Howard University (USA)
• Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University (USA)
• Mamadou Badiane, University of Missouri-Columbia (USA)
• Joanna Boampong, University of Ghana (Ghana)
• Noël Boundzanga, Université Omar Bongo (Gabon)
• Cristina Cabral, North Carolina Central University (USA)
• Mbye Cham, Howard University (USA)
• James J. Davis, Howard University (USA)
• Josephine Dawuni, Howard University (USA)
• Seydi Ababacar Dieng, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar et Université Dakar-Bourguiba (Senegal)
• M’baye Diouf, Université McGill, Québec (Canada)
• Denise do Nascimento, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (Brazil)
• Cécile Dolisane Ebosse, Université de Yaoundé I (Cameroon)
• Gladys Francis, Howard University (USA)
• Selom Gbanou, University of Calgary (Canada)
• Ana Beatriz Gonçalves, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (Brazil)
• Moussa Guèye, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar et Université Dakar-Bourguiba (Senegal)
• Krista Johnson, Howard University (USA)
• Maguèye Kassé, Université Dakar-Bourguiba (Senegal)
• Molefi Kete Asante, Temple University (USA)
• Pascal Koua Kadio, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny (Côte d’Ivoire)
• Théophile Koui, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny (Côte d’Ivoire)
• Gnaka Lagoké, Lincoln University (USA)
• Victorien Lavou Zoungbo, Université de Perpignan (France)
• Alain Lawo-Sukam, University of Texas A&M (USA)
• Sébastien Lefèvre, Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis (Senegal)
• Amphas Mampoua-Mbow, American University in London (UK)
• Wilfrid Miampika, Universidad de Alcalá (Spain)
• William Mina Aragón, Universidad del Cauca (Colombia)
• Errol Montes Pizzaro, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Cayey (Puerto Rico)
• Assia Mohssine, Université de Clermont-Ferrand (France)
• Leonard Muaka, Howard University (USA)
• Daiana Nascimento dos Santos, Universidad de Playa Ancha (Chile)
• Bamba N’diaye, Université Dakar-Bourguiba (Senegal)
• M’baré N’gom, Morgan State University (USA)
• Gilbert Ndi Shang, University of Bayreuth (Allemagne)
• Yao N’guetta, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny (Côte d’Ivoire)
• Dorothy Odartey-Welington
• Yesenia Olaya, Harvard University (USA)
• Véronique Solange Okome, École Normale Supérieure de Libreville (Gabon)
• Joseph-Désiré Otabela, University of Missouri-Columbia (USA)
• Elisa Rizo, Iowa State University (USA)
• Mayra Santos Febres, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras (Puerto Rico)
• Diana Senior Angulo, Universidad de Costa Rica (Costa Rica)
• Maryline Sephocle, Howard University (USA)
• Barbara Simōes, University of Toronto (Canada) et Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (Brazil)
• N’dioro Sow, Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis (Senegal)
• Jean-Jacques Taty, Howard University (USA)
• Hervé Tchumkam, Southern Methodist University (USA)
• Sakhir Thiam, Université Dakar-Bourguiba (Sénégal)
• Fernanda Thomaz, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (Brésil)
• Aurora Vergara, Universidad ICESI (Colombia)
• Jean-Arsène Yao, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny (Côte d’Ivoire)