Africa and the Diversity Turn

A recent survey on the teaching of African literature, for example, indicated the overrepresentation of a few African countries and select authors in the syllabi submitted for the study (https://africasacountry.com/2020/08/african-literature-is-a-country). Part of the work of educators here is to help students unlearn their misconceptions and to foster the critical attitude to appreciate the various epistemological payoffs and socio-political valences that Africa yields. In a lecture that he delivered to the Yale community in March 2021, for instance, Ngugi affirmed the value of the 1968 experiment for current decolonization efforts, while insisting that the languages and cultures of Native American peoples, owners of the land on which the New Haven campus is located, must become integral to the curriculum and other university practices for true decolonization to occur. In “Decolonizing Diplomacy: Senghor, Kennedy, and the Practice of Ideological Resistance” [https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2020.91], Yohann Ripert reads recently declassified correspondence between the U.S. and Senegalese presidents to reveal how Senghor’s first state visit to the U.S. and Kennedy’s support for the First World Festival of Negro Arts contributed to policymaking transformation in the context of decolonization.