CALL FOR SUBS: AFRO-FUTURISM

Poetry Column-NND, in partnership with Abuja International Poetry Festival 2024 (AIPFEST2024), is pleased to announce a call for submission of poems to be published in the Poetry Column of Nigerian NewsDirect on the theme: AFRO-FUTURISM.

With globalisation and widespread technological evolution, there has been a certain fear for the place and survival of African culture. This fear is premised on the notion that culture is and must be archaic—a static representation of a people, implying thus, that the evolution of technology will erase it. However, we argue that culture is a continuum, a reflection of a people’s evolution in tandem with their history.

We have seen this argument reflected, in recent times, in our sculptures, paintings, drawings, and writings. Okot P’Bitek, at a time when Africa was scared of losing its literature— predominantly oral — to the Eurocentric standard, predominantly written, imported the indigenous African Oral literature into written text, arriving at Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol. Wole Soyinka did the same in Idanre by importing Yoruba cosmology and folklore into text.

These writers saw the future of African literature and wrote towards that future. It is against this backdrop that we ask the questions; where is the African culture at presently? Where will it be in the future? How is technology (being) used to preserve and propagate African culture? What narratives are being challenged through the propagation of African culture?

Your poems may attempt to answer the above questions or not. You are at liberty to interpret the theme as loosely as you can. We want a poem that chants in the middle of a shopping mall, we want a poem that walks around a marketplace with computers and smart watches. We want inventions that hold African in their teeth. What innovation will break out of Africa tomorrow? Tell us. Show us with your poems.

GUIDELINES
1. Submit two poems in one docx. file on the theme AFRO-FUTURISM to [email protected]
2. The poems should be New Times Roman, 12pt, single-spaced.
3. Subject of the email should read AIPFEST SUBMISSION_YOUR NAME
4. No form of identification should be on the document containing your poem.
5. BIO should be written in the body of the email.
6. Attach to the email a clear portrait size of your photo.
7. Again, the subject of the email should read AIPFEST SUBMISSION_YOUR NAME
8. We pay our contributors N5,000 per poem and all accepted works will be paid likewise.
9. SUBMISSION WINDOW: OCT 20 – NOV 16, 2024

Curator,
Michael Imossan