Deadline: 23 July 2023
For our next issue, we are looking for essays that explore the significance of the African Union within and/or beyond Africa over the last 60 years.
We are currently accepting submissions for our August-October 2023 issue, in which scholars and experts will critically discuss Sixty Years of the African Union. Formerly known as the Organization for African Unity, the African Union (AU) was founded in 1963. Sixty years on, with continued criticism about the lack of clear regional leadership and coordination amid the promise of the African Continental Free Trade Area, to what extent has the AU achieved its promise of uniting Africa towards a shared vision of progress? 2023 equally represents an important commemorative year for several African countries: it marks 60 years since Nigeria became a republic, just as it marks 60 years since countries like Kenya gained independence. It, therefore, marks a critical milestone for Africa’s independence era.
Focusing on the experiences of the AU, Nigeria and other African countries, authors in our next issue will explore pan-Africanism as inherited and projected through the AU, the AU’s impact across Africa and on Africa’s global status; as well as what the future of pan-Africanism and therefore Africa could look like. We welcome submissions that highlight underdiscussed ideas, underrepresented voices, and underreported stories on any of the following topics:
SIXTY YEARS OF THE AFRICAN UNION
- The political foundations, evolution and future of the AU
- 60 years on, how has the AU positioned itself politically? What is the AU succeeding at? What are the red flags? What are the threats to progress and the opportunities?
- Where is the AU in the global and regional climate agenda?
- What are the lessons from the AU’s response to coups, civil wars, conflicts, insecurity and equally the lessons from the AU’s response to regional opportunities in migration (diaspora affairs), trade, technology, entertainment, and other emergent industries?
- The Africa Continental Free Trade Area once held a great deal of promise, what happened?
- How is Africa, through the AU, thinking about the technological breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and/or other emergent technologies?
- What has been the AU’s impact on safeguarding the rights of historically marginalized Africans, including queer Africans, incarcerated Africans and displaced Africans.
- Beyond the AU: how are Africans both on the continent and across the diaspora organizing and (re-)imagining pan-Africanism outside the AU?
FOCUS ON NIGERIA
- 60 years since Nigeria officially became a republic
- 50 years of the National Youth Service Corps
- 30 years since the iconic ‘June 12’ election
- 90+ days of Bola Tinubu’s presidency
BOOKS
We’re looking for book reviews of the following texts and/or extended review essays considering the following milestones:
- New Releases
- Here are 23 books we are interested in reviewing.
Additional texts:
- Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The Politics of Building a Post-Oil Economy by Zainab Usman
- Good Governance in Nigeria: Rethinking Accountability and Transparency in the Twenty-First Century by Portia Roberts
- South-South Migrations and the Law from Below: Case Studies on China and Nigeria by Oreva Olakpe
- Extended Reviews
- The pan-African literary legacy of Ama Ata Aidoo
- 20 years of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (via Purple Hibiscus)
- 40 years of Chinua Achebe’s The Trouble with Nigeria
- 60 years of Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease
- The following texts will be turning 10 this year:
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
- Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi
- Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed
- There Was a Country by Chinua Achebe (pub. 2012)
- Tomorrow I Will Be Twenty Years Old by Alain Mabankou
- We Need New Names by Noviolet Bulawayo
- Reviews of additional texts focused on Nigeria and/or Africa
We are looking for analytical and engaging essays, lectures, speeches, reading lists and book reviews that, without sacrificing analytical rigour, can serve as authoritative/definitive subject-matter guides to readers that may have limited knowledge on the issue.
We expect submissions in the range of 1,500 to 3,500 words and will be accepting first drafts until 23:59 (WAT) Sunday 23 July 2023.
Authors of accepted submissions to this issue will be paid. Read our guidelines on submitting here and our style guide for details on spelling and formatting.
To submit an entry, please upload your submission here (you will need to log in or register to fill the form).