Small Magazines, Literary Networks and Self-Fashioning in Africa and its Diasporas

This project focuses on the contemporary legacies of black internationalism (c.f. Hayes Edwards) in the construction of African and diasporic solidarity through the study of small magazines, both print and digital. Through their role as sites of intimacy and collaboration, these works give rise to the creation of networks of affiliation and corridors of storytelling which span localities, regions and transnational and diasporic contexts, functioning as active participants in the creation of black and African ideologies in the global imaginary.

Small magazines and literary networks play a crucial role in everyday social and political life in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). From the late days of empire to the present day, cultural forms of expression have served as central media through which notions of national, ethnic and civic belonging have developed, while also offering an outlet for the fostering of large-scale forms of activism and for the transmission of new orthodoxies for subjectivity. This interdisciplinary network examines the circulation and production of small magazines in SSA in order to explore the ways in which these publications enable lateral forms of self-fashioning in the early twenty-first century, covering areas including citizenship, sexuality and ethnicity in order to produce an examination of affiliation, identity and civic participation in SSA today. Ranging from formal publications in receipt of state and NGO sponsorship to informal 'zines' circulated through counter-cultural networks and taking forms spanning print and digital media, these new publications are not widely known nor accessible outside of their specific localities; yet, through their vernacular and often-overlapping trajectories of distribution, these publications hold a far more central role in the fostering of everyday practices than their better-known 'high' literary counterparts. Beginning with better-distributed publications including Kwani? (Kenya), Saraba (Nigeria) and Chimurenga (South Africa) and expanding into lesser-known publications, the network will engage with a broad range of forms of social creation through informal networks of literary writing, bringing together scholars with expertise in ethnographic methods, historical study and literary criticism, along with writers, publishers and literary entrepreneurs working in Africa and its diasporas.

The network addresses questions including: what forms of identification are produced, contested and authenticated in the small magazines which proliferate across SSA? How do the informal networks produced by publishers, writers and readers function with respect to formalised political and civic networks? What modes of self-fashioning emerge through the entanglements of actors and publics operating in sub-Saharan Africa? These questions will be explored during two research weeks in Cape Town and Kampala; the network's findings will be presented at an international conference to be held in Bristol which will form the basis for a special journal issue showcasing network findings. Additional activities will include public engagement events at the 2018 Africa Writes festival (London); the creation and maintenance of a project website hosting a blog, teaching resources and a working paper for NGOs and cultural organizations working on literary citizenship in SSA; and a range of non-academic articles to be published with Africa in Words.

Rather than view its material as passive, the network will emphasise the coproduction of knowledge, developing bespoke research methods and leveraging vernacular forms of literary criticism which span the gap between material and aesthetic approaches. Where study of SSA has been hampered by a reliance on methods which mirror the top-down approach to socio-political intervention in SSA by global powers, this network will undertake a multifocal approach which places its emphasis on the everyday as the ground from which to develop theoretical insight.

At the heart of this network is the aim to re-conceptualise self-fashioning by African and African descent peoples through the example of cultural magazines and the networks which arise from them. Its impetus comes from a desire to forge modes of inquiry into the socio-political and civic import of cultural engagement by African and African descent peoples which re-centres these populations as subjects with agency in their self-creation on individual and collective levels. Because of this, impact beyond the academy is a central tenant of this network.

The network will produce impact at three levels: through engagement with writers, publishers and literary entrepreneurs who self-define as Africa or African descent; through engagement with educators and NGOs working in the cultural sector; and through engagement with the general public.

Writers, publishers and literary entrepreneurs will benefit through co-production with network participants during the research weeks in Cape Town and Kampala. They will take a central role in driving intellectual agendas around African writing and its cultural import. They will benefit from the insights garnered by the network during these weeks, which has the potential to effect their engagement with audiences and content, as well as the exposure which participation in network activities, in person, via the website and through articles on Africa in Words, generates.

We will broaden the project's impact by hosting a panel at the 2018 Africa Writes, the Royal African Society's annual festival of African literature. This will allow the network to reach the general public and non-academic actors engaged with African cultural production, leading to the potential to influence the ways in which these parties engage with and enable the production and distribution of African literary writing through popular forms.

The Bristol conference will end with a public reading featuring several of the writers and publishers with whom the network collaborates. These readings will be captured as podcasts for the network website. Given the often localised and ephemeral nature of cultural magazines and their contents, this has the potential to impact their reach and market.

These experiences will be chronicled on a public website. This will be of interest to the general public, broadening understandings of African and African diaspora literature, culture and society. Intervening into the a priori 'image of Africa' which circulates in the global imaginary, the network will develop methods for understanding the complexity of African cultural production within the simultaneous and discrepant networks of affiliation which these publications produce. It thus has the potential to shift public opinion on Africa and its diasporas by enabling a more nuanced engagement with its heterogeneity.

The website will contain a teaching tool kit and sample teaching plans for educators working in secondary, further and higher education who wish to engage with popular forms from Africa and its diasporas. These materials will be available freely, and we will track their use through IP statistics, enabling us to target relevant constituencies via email and publicity.

Network activities will inform a short working paper, to be distributed to key stakeholders and archived on the website, targeted at cultural NGOs who work on the African continent and its diasporas. This paper will contain recommendations for how literary practice might be used to inform civic engagement and participation in social life, drawing on insights garnered during the two research weeks. The project administrative assistant will collate a list of key contacts who will be sent a copy via email.

Along with the website, participants will also publish articles on Africa in Words, a blog focused on African cultural production with a readership of 6,500. These articles will be written for general audiences and maximise the network's public impact.