Join us as we celebrate the intellectual and creative contributions of Tanzanian publisher Mkuki na Nyota. A distinguished panel of speakers will consider the important work that Mkuki na Nyota has done over the last 40 years while addressing critical debates about how infrastructures of producing and disseminating knowledge shape which voices, forms of knowledge, languages and research topics are published.
The event will reflect on the importance of publishing in Africa to sustaining and developing ecosystems of knowledge production on the continent. Speakers will address the importance of African languages as vehicles of communication and knowledge, speaking to the critical role African publishers play in disseminating knowledge to the widest possible publics on the continent by publishing in African languages. While global publishing is dominated by presses in the Global North this seminar will address the role that African publishers play in setting and supporting intellectual agendas driven by African scholars and research interests.
Speakers:
- Walter Bgoya (Mkuki na Nyota) – Reflecting on 40 years of publishing
- Ngugi wa Thiong’o (University of California) – The importance of publishing in African languages to decolonising the mind and communicating with the African public
- Chambi Chachage (Carleton University) – The role African publishing plays in knowledge production, developing and sustaining intellectual agendas
- Mary Jay (African Books Collective) – The contribution of the digital revolution to African publishing: Mkuki na Nyota and African Books Collective
Chair: Professor Issa G. Shivji (University of Dar es Salaam)
Mkuki Bgoya (Mkuki na Nyota) Looking forward to the next 40 years of Mkuki na Nyota
Date: Thursday, December 2, 2021
Time: 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm EST
Online: Zoom
This event is hosted in partnership with TORCH (University of Oxford), African Studies Centre (University of Oxford), African Books Collective, INASP, Institute of African Studies (Carleton University), and the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria.