8ième Conférence de la Société Internationale pour les Littératures Orales d'Afrique (ISOLA)
Mombasa, Kenya, 15-20 Juillet 2010
ANNONCES PRE-CONFERENCE
2ième Appel à communication sur le thème
Pour de plus amples renseignements voir : www.africaisola.org
I Dates importantes :
· 30 novembre 2009 : Date limite de soumission des propositions (2ième Appel à communication).
· 31 Janvier 2010 : Lettres d'acceptation des propositions (2ième Appel à communication).
· Janvier à mai 2010 : Logistique voyage et logement
II Droit d'adhésion à ISOLA
(a) La participation à la 8ième conférence d'ISOLA – celle de tous présentateurs de communication et autres participants– est réservé aux membres s'étant acquittés de leur droits d'adhésion.
(b) Les droits d'adhésion sont comme suit :
· Enseignants en Afrique et aux Caraïbes: US$10.
· Autres enseignants : US$30.
· Étudiants chercheurs en Afrique et aux Caraïbes: US$5.
· Autres étudiants chercheurs : US$10.
(c) Le droit d'adhésion pour tous est due à partir de 2008, date de la dernière conférence.
II Inscription à la conférence
(a) Droit d'inscription :
· Tout participant = $150
· Étudiants inscrits, sur présentation de leur carte d'étudiant = $70
(b) Frais facultatifs :
· Excursion d'un jour au Parc National de Simba Hills = US $ 50
· Le dîner d'ISOLA = les US $ 20
III Autres renseignements
(a) Le droit d'inscription et les fris facultatifs peuvent être payés lors de l'inscription à la conférence en juillet 2010.
(b) Tout participant dont la proposition a été acceptée et programmée sur le programme officiel sera passible des droits d'adhésion et d'inscription à la conférence.
(c) Au cas d'absence le participant est tenu de s'acquitter de ces frais sauf l'annulation auprès des organisateurs avant le 1er juin 2010.
(d) Contact des organisateurs locaux de la conférence :
Dr. Peter Wasamba
Département de Littérature
Université de Nairobi
Téléphone : +254202245311
Téléphone : +254722734121
Fax : +2540202245566
E-mail : pwasamba@uonbi.ac.ke ou kenyaorature@yahoo.co.uk
Le Comité de organisation d'ISOLA :
Antoinette Tidjani Alou, Présidente du Comité de Conférence d'ISOLA
Hein Willemse, Président d'ISOLA
Peter Wasamba, Président du Comité Local de la Conférence
Mumia G. Osaaji, Membre du Comité local de conférence
Stephen Belcher, Secrétaire d'ISOLA
Octobre 2009
8th Conference of the International Society for the Oral Literature of Africa (ISOLA)
Mombasa, Kenya, 15-20 July 2010
2ND Call for Papers on the Topic:
Indigenous Knowledges and Intellectual Property Rights in the Age of Globalization
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In this era of globalization, issues on the importance of utilizing and safeguarding indigenous knowledges elicit great concern. ISOLA identifies with the initiative of UNESCO towards the preservation of the world's intangible heritage. For UNESCO (Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2003), the intangible cultural heritage is manifested in: oral traditions and expressions; the performing arts; social practices, rituals and festivals; knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe; and traditional craftsmanship.
Studies reveal that while many world citizens are conscious of having stakes in the safeguarding of national and universal forms of the intangible heritage, accumulated and polished by the knowledge, work, creativity and experience of countless generations, indigenous knowledges are increasingly pressured into extinction by certain forces of modernization.
Yet indigenous knowledges have sustained communities across the globe from time immemorial. They are embedded in and practised through art, agriculture, architecture, cattle rearing, environmental science, history, hunting, law, medicine, politics, religion, writing, as well numerous other cultural and social arts and practices.
Oral literature has the vast advantage of transmitting many of these knowledges and practices in a literary form, alongside other productions of a predominantly but rarely exclusively aesthetic character, since such a worldview is contrary to the holistic nature of African culture. The 8th ISOLA International Conference hopes to open a broad platform of discussion, bringing together scholars working in the fields of the arts, literature and the social sciences. It will provide a forum for scholars to share knowledge focusing on various aspects and forms of indigenous knowledge, including their study, practice, relevance, promotion and protection in the age of globalization.
Participants are invited to explore how the liberalization of knowledge and technological innovations have impacted on the intangible heritage. Attention will be paid to oral literature and to popular culture, which constitute important aspects of the living reservoir of the intangible heritage. Presentations will focus in particular on the ways in which oral literature, alongside its aesthetic, moral and philosophical preoccupations, serves as an effective vehicle for transmitting, reinventing and diffusing diverse aspects of the intangible heritage in the age of globalization. Participants are also invited to present papers on the ways in which oral literature, popular cultural and various forms of the intangible heritage are expressed and reinvented through the media and the visual arts.
It has been argued that the forces of globalization endanger the survival of oral literature, of popular culture and of many other deeply significant forms of knowledges and practices inscribed in the intangible heritage. It has also been put forward, to the contrary, that the forces of modernization and globalization foster, or are capable of enhancing, the development, preservation and diffusion of oral literature and popular culture. Participants are invited to make presentations on how African Oral Literature, with all that it entails, has evolved and adapted to the realities of globalization. How, in what ways and under what conditions has orature “gone global”? How does it engage with the changes induced by the internationalizations – religious, political and economic – of yesterday and of today?
This second question invites scholars to recall that globalization existed long before the coining of the term in the 1990s and that the Islamization of Africa, the Transatlantic Slave Trade, colonial rule, outmigration to the former colonial metropolises and current continuation of migration to countries of the north are some of the past and contemporary global trends that have impacted on African Oral literature on the continent and in its Diasporas, within and beyond the Americas.
Presentations may also focus on oral literature in the cyberspace including intellectual property rights pertaining to such productions. Presentations on the ways in which developments in Information Communication Technology have affected oral literature research and scholarship are also invited.
Discussions might focus on how the digitized performance may be protected and legally exploited to the benefit of the oral artist or performing community. How do indigenous communities protect and preserve their intangible cultural heritage, and in particular their orature? How might modern legal frameworks enhance the preservation and protection of the intangible cultural heritage?
Another important question concerns the ways in which scholars approach research, publication and teaching in the field of orature in the global age. How and why do we use or fail to use the tools of hypermedia at the disposal of some, though not yet of all? What are some of the methodological issues raised by research on indigenous knowledges, the nature and value of the intangible heritage? How can research be integrated into contemporary development initiatives? What about community participation in research on indigenous knowledges, and ethical issues concerning the of ownership of indigenous knowledges? How can local communities be empowered in order to establish legal rights to their intangible heritage whilst contributing to its safeguard?
Thematic areas:
Indigenous Knowledges and Orality
· Orality and Performance/ reclaiming indigenous knowledges through oral tradition: African historical narratives; narratives of Diaspora and migration; narrating the self; narrations of the local, narrations the global
· Preserving, reinventing and diffusing indigenous knowledges through contemporary art forms: literature, visual and performing arts, cyber art…
· Critiquing local and international societies/politics through storytelling, poetry and song
· Holistic aesthetics and multidisciplinarily: theories and practices in oral literature
Oral Literature and the Social Sciences
· Empirical Field Work and Analysis on Development
· Indigenous Knowledges and the Intangible Heritage Through Oral Tradition: Practice and Problems
· Issues of Environment, Questions of Identity;
· Local Traditions and Rituals of Justice in the Global Age
· Global discourses and global trends in local societies
· OUA/UA/UNESCO and other initiatives promoting Oral Tradition and the Intangible Heritage: Assessment and Perspectives
Indigenous Knowledges/The Intangible Heritage in the Age of Globalization and Technology
· Oral Literature in cyberspace
· Digitizing Performance
· Hypermedia in research and in the classroom
· Orality, the media and the visual arts
· Orality, commodification and Intellectual Property Rights
8th Conference of the International Society for the Oral Literature of Africa (ISOLA)
Mombasa, Kenya, 15-20 July 2010
PRE-CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENTS
(2nd Call for Papers)
NB: FOR FURTHER UPDATES see www.africaisola.org
I Important dates:
· 30 November 2009: Deadline for submission of proposals (2nd call for papers).
· 30 January 2010: Letters of acceptance of proposals (2nd call for papers).
· January to May 2010: Travel and lodging arrangements
II ISOLA membership dues
(a) Participants to the 8th ISOLA conference – all individual contributors and participants – must be members in good standing of the organization.
(b) Membership dues are as follows:
· Teachers in Africa, and the Caribbean: US$10.
· Teachers elsewhere: US$30.
· Graduate students in Africa and the Caribbean: US$5.
· Graduate students elsewhere: US$10.
(c) All membership fees for existing members will be backdated to 2008, the date of the last conference.
II Conference registration
(a) Conference fee:
· All participants = $150
· Registered students on presentation of student registration cards = $70
(b) Optional costs:
· Day trip to Simba Hills National Park = US $ 50
· The ISOLA dinner = US $ 20
III Additional information
(e) The conference fee and optional costs may be paid upon registration at the conference in July 2010.
(f) A participant whose proposal has been accepted and scheduled on the official program will be liable for the appropriate membership dues and conference registration fees.
(g) In the case of a no-show the participant remains liable for the above fees unless the conference organizers were informed of the cancellation by 1st June 2010.
(h) Contact information of the local conference organizers:
Dr. Peter Wasamba
Department of Literature
University of Nairobi
Tel: +254202245311
Tel: +254722734121
Fax: +2540202245566
E-mail: pwasamba@uonbi.ac.ke or kenyaorature@yahoo.co.uk
ISOLA Organising Committee:
Antoinette Tidjani Alou, Chair, ISOLA Conference Committee
Hein Willemse, ISOLA President
Peter Wasamba, Chair, Local Conference Committee
Mumia G. Osaaji, Member, Local Conference Committee
Stephen Belcher, ISOLA Secretary
October 2009