African
Travel
Writing
Encounters
Department of African Studies and Anthropology,
University of Birmingham
9th March 2016
9.00 – 10.30 am PANEL 1: Africans writing the world
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Janet Remmington - ‘As if the world had no such thing as colour?’ Solomon Plaatje’s ‘Travel Notes’, c19101936
Kwame Osei-Poku – Agwa's London Diary
Stephanie De Goeijen - ‘Ambivalent journeys; or, re-reading the Dutch “multicultural drama” through travels
in Benin
11.00 – 12.00 PANEL 2: North African travellers
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Neema Ghenim - From Guest to Ghost: The Algerian Compulsory Travel During the First World War
Hamza Salih - Moroccan Ambassadorial Travel Writers in the 19th Century and the Question of Otherness: A
Conditioned Admiration and a Dogmatic Rejection
12.30 pm – 1.30 pm PANEL 3: Theorising and experimenting with African travel writing
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Aedin Ní Loingsigh - The ‘Problem’ of Genre’: What We Talk About When We Talk About African Travel
Writing
Ayodeji Alaka, Pelu Awofeso and Rebecca Jones - “Travel stories built by visual improvisation”: designing an
experimental interactive project for children based on African travel writing
1.30 pm – 2.30 pm LUNCH
2.30 pm – 4.00 pm: PANEL 4: Travelling Nigeria, past and present
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Alexsander Gebara - Samuel Crowther's travel writings of two expeditions to the Niger
Matthew Lecznar - Finding Faith: transformative encounters with Shabbiness and Religion in Noo SaroWiwa's Looking for Transwonderland
Abiola Victoria Ayodokun - Narrating Gender in Journalism about Death Caused by Accidents on Nigerian
Roads
4.30 pm – 6.30 pm: PANEL 5: Travel writers discuss their work
The Danford Room, 2nd Floor, Arts Building
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Pelu Awofeso – Journeys through Scenic Nigeria, Past and Present
Humphrey Nkonde – Contemporary travel writing: directions, uses and possibilities
Lola Akinmade Åkerström - Defining your voice as an African travel writer
Practical Information:
The workshop will take place in the room WF19 at the Medical School on the Edgbaston Campus of the University of
Birmingham. B1 on the map linked below.
http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/university/edgbaston-campus-map.pdf
The easiest way to arrive at the workshop is by train, most cross-country services to Birmingham arrive at New Street
Station. Up to six trains an hour depart for the University on the cross-city line (ten minutes to University station,
final destination Longbridge or Redditch). The Medical School is immediately in front of you if you turn right out of
the station.
This workshop is supported by:
Knowing each other: everyday
religious encounters, social
identities and tolerance in
southwest Nigeria
http://www.knowingeachother.com/
Twitter: @KEONigeria
Department of
African Studies
and
Anthropology