*Celebrating Buchi Emecheta: A special issue of Pambazuka News*



Buchi Emecheta is revered as one of the most important African female
writers of the twentieth century. Writing at a time when African literature
was dominated by men, Emeheta wrote more than 16 books, including *Second-Class
Citizen* (1974), *The Bride Price* (1976), *The Slave Girl* (1977), *The
Joys of Motherhood* (1979), *Head Above Water* (1986), *Gwendolen* (1989)
and *The New Tribe* (2000).



Her themes are wide-ranging, including personal hardship, marriage and
family, motherhood, education, death, migration, racism, the changing roles
of women in Nigerian society, the Nigerian civil war and colonialism.



In January 2018, on the first anniversary of the passing of Buchi Emecheta*,
Pambazuka News* will publish a special collection of articles on the legacy
of this eminent Nigerian-born writer, considering her reflections on and
representations of both the personal and political elements which shaped
the experiences of Africa and its diaspora.



The objectives of the proposed Special Issue are:

(i)             to celebrate Buchi Emecheta’s life and work

(ii)           to critically appreciate her messages to Africa and the
world and

(iii)           to reflect upon the challenge that her example offers for
our times.



*Sub-themes*



*Pambazuka News* welcomes a broad array of articles on Buchi Emecheta,
including poems, scholarly, creative and creative non-fiction submissions.



Sub-themes to consider (but not limited to) are:

   - The African world through Emecheta’s eyes: Pasts, presents, futures
   - Emecheta and ‘motherhood’: Race, gender and class
   - Emecheta and Black thought: Continuity and change in a globalizing
   world
   - Emecheta: intellectuals and political struggles in post-independence
   Nigeria
   - Writing and reading: Emecheta in the Cyber Age
   - Form, style and aesthetics in Emecheta’s writing
   - Perspectives on identity and sexuality
   - Womanist literature, patriarchy and transformation of the African world
   - A Black woman in the African diaspora
   - Personal encounters and tributes











*Submission Guidelines*



Word limit*:* Articles should not be more than 3,000 words long, although
we will accept longer articles if subject treatment requires it.



Authors should list references including endnotes fully at the end of their
articles. Kindly use the Harvard referencing style.



Each article should end with a 150-word biography of the author including
their email address.



Articles should be submitted as a Word document attachment.



Relevant images to illustrate an article may be sent as jpeg attachments.
Any other graphics may be placed within the relevant sections of the
article with captions (and credits/permissions).





*Deadline and publication date*



The deadline for submission of articles is 1 October 2017.

Publication date is 25 January 2018.



Enquiries in the first instance should be to the guest editors (see their
emails below).



For further enquiries about this special issue contact the *Pambazuka News*
Editors: [log in to unmask]



*Guest editors*



The guest editors for this special publication of *Pambazuka News* on Buchi
Emecheta are:



Louisa Uchum Egbunike: < [log in to unmask]>

Kadija (George) Sesay: <[log in to unmask]>



https://www.pambazuka.org/announcements/celebrating-buchi-emecheta-special-issue-pambazuka-news



-- 

*Arts can save children, no matter what's going on in their homes. Afeni
Shakur*