2027 ALA Conference: Archives of the Past, Present, and Future of African Literatures
University of Delaware, June 2-4, 2027
An oft-cited saying attributed to Malian writer and scholar Amadou Hampâté Bâ has it that in Africa, when an elder dies, a library burns. The theme of this conference “Archives of the Past, Present, and Future of African Literatures” asks members to consider all aspects of the retention, preservation, and care of African literary and cultural expression and the accompanying risk of loss – whether in terms of oral transmission, in print, or in digital form.
Physical archives and related institutions dedicated to the stewarding of history and memory are established on the general principle that preserving human culture is an essential factor in maintaining the values of a shared past. In the African case, however, colonial and imperial archives have often skewed and obscured understanding of the African past, even attempting to deny or erase it. One of African literature’s foundational works, Things Fall Apart, was inspired by Chinua Achebe’s desire to provide a kind of counter-archive – to let people know where the rain first began to beat them.
“Archives of the Past, Present, and Future of African Literatures” invites ALA members to explore the ways archives and related cultural heritage institutions have confronted, are confronting, and will have to confront not only the archival legacies of imperialism, dispossession, and exploitation, but also the precariousness of post-independence archival practices, the contentiousness of new national narratives, and the uncertainty of contemporary and future digital records. What role does, or might, African literature play in decolonizing archives, developing liberatory practices, and expanding networks of belonging and representation?
Topics to consider might include the following:
African orature: the griot as archive
African writers and African writing systems
Preserving medieval African archives: the Timbuktu manuscripts
African literature and the colonial archive
African autobiographies as archives of colonialism
Archiving the nation – who preserves what, and for whom?
Can the subaltern archive? Whose stories remain excluded?
Gender/sexuality and the archive
Landscape/the environment as archive
Archiving the everyday/ephemeral
Afro Futurism
The promise of digital expansion
AI and the African archives: solution or deterrent?
The archive and (im)permanence
Time and the archive
Fiction and/of the archive
Film and documentary as archive
Performance as/and archive
Poetry and archives / archival poetics
Digital archives/archiving the digital
The conference will run from Wednesday, June 2nd through Friday June 4th, 2027. Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words for individual paper presentations to the conference portal at https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/83225/submitter on Monday, November 2nd, 2026. Proposals for ready-made panels or roundtable sessions including up to 4 individual papers may be longer (up to 500 words) and must include a brief rationale for the panel as a whole as well as titles and brief descriptions of the individual presentations. Caucus chairs may organize no more than two caucus-sponsored panels. Please bear in mind that no member should present more than two papers at the conference.
In order to maximize chances of securing visas, the conference committee aims to notify all accepted participants by mid-January, 2027, with registration due by February 15th. You must be a paid-up member of the ALA in order to present your work at the conference.
If you have questions please direct them to ALA2027@africanlit.org