Within African literary discussions, migration and return migration stand out as critical themes that interrogate traditional views of home, identity, and a sense of belonging. This panel seeks to critically explore how African authors—through autobiographical, historical, and fictional lenses—depict home. Is it portrayed as a place of stability, a fluid construct shaped by cultural interactions, or a constantly evolving idea influenced by mobility across global and local contexts? How do African migrants navigate the complexities of identity, blackness, movement, displacement, globe-trotting and return? In what ways does the literary portrayal of movement contribute to alternative notions of belonging?
Building on insights from Édouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation and Paul Tiyambe Zeleza’s thoughts on the dynamic nature of African diasporas, this panel seeks to expand our understanding. Glissant’s idea of errantry, which challenges the notion of a singular, rooted identity, offers a valuable framework for analyzing how African narratives depict home as a space of transformation rather than mere return. Zeleza’s exploration of African transnational migrations broadens traditional diaspora narratives, showcasing various waves of African mobility that extend beyond the transatlantic context, connecting historical migrations from pre-colonial times to today. His work emphasizes the dual nature of African migration as both an experiential reality and an intellectual endeavor that shapes cultural expression over time.
We welcome interdisciplinary contributions from fields such as history, anthropology, media studies, and digital humanities to illustrate the diverse ways in which migration, mobility, and displacement are represented, theorized, and imagined. Our objective is to reconceptualize migration—not simply as a linear path from home to exile and back—but as an ongoing relational process that transforms both individual and collective identities.
We invite papers addressing, but not limited to, the following areas:
-Gender and Migration Literature
-Errantry and relational belonging
– Diaspora and translocality
– Migration and epistemology
– Intra-African migration and displacement
– Lusophone, Francophone, and Anglophone migration narratives
– Postcolonial migration and neoliberal precarity
– Digital diasporas and virtual return
– Pre-migration ethnic identity versus post-migration racial identity
– Diverse Black identities and the intricacies of African diasporas
– Migration, memory, and trauma
– Conflict, forced migration, human trafficking, and statelessness
– Autobiography, memoir, self-writing and migration
– Fictional migrations and speculative displacement
– Representation and narrativity
-Afropolitanism and Migration
Submission Details:
We encourage scholars, writers, and researchers engaged in themes of African migration narratives, transnational identities, and diasporic experiences from various disciplines to partake in this vibrant exchange of ideas. Contributions from literature, history, anthropology, sociology, media studies, and digital humanities are particularly welcome.
If you wish to participate in this panel, please submit a 250 word abstract and a brief biography to [abisola.akinsiku@ku.edu] by March 1st, 2025.
Exploring Migration, Return, and Changing Concepts of Home in African Studies
