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UW-Madison department marks anniversary with conference

April 2, 2004 By Barbara Wolff

A special conference will celebrate two anniversaries at UW–Madison.

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Department of African Languages and Literature, the only such department in the country, the university will host the African Language Association’s annual conference — which is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Proceedings will take place at UW–Madison on Wednesday-Sunday, April 14-18.

Aliko Songolo, director of the UW–Madison African Studies Program and professor of African languages and literature and French and Italian, is one of the conference’s conveners. He says that both serious scholars and those with a casual interest will find much to take away from this conference.

“Those interested in engaging in scholarly discussion will be able to attend panels, lectures, roundtables and seminars for five days. There also will be well-known performers from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and North America,” he says.

Among the international playwrights, filmmakers, poets, novelists, performers, scholars and critics invited to take part are:

  • Algerian novelist, playwright and filmmaker Assia Djebar. Her works include “So Vast a Prison” (1999), “A Sister to Schererazade” (1993), “Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade” (1993), “Women of Algiers in Their Apartment” (1992) and others.
  • Veteran New York-based actress Karen McLaughlin, an honorary fellow at the UW–Madison Women’s Studies Research Center, will premiere an adaptation of a chapter in Djebar’s novel “Algerian White.” McLaughlin will present two free performances on Saturday, April 17, at 1 and 6 p.m. in Vilas Hall’s Gilbert Hemsley Theatre.
  • Ricardo Lemvo and his band Makina Loca.
  • Congolese writer Pius Ngandu Nkashama, author of “The Children of Lake Tana.”
  • Odia Ofeimun, one of Nigeria’s foremost poets and political activists, and a member of the radical weekly paper The News, which contributed to the downfall of Nigeria’s last dictatorship.
  • Nigerian playwright, poet and novelist Femi Osofisan.
  • Ivory Coast novelist, poet, illustrator and painter Ve(ronique Tadjo, who now lives in South Africa.

A celebration of the department’s 40th anniversary will open the conference on Wednesday, April 14, at 12:30 p.m. in the Pyle Center. Students in the Department of African Languages and Literature will stage their annual African Culture Night on Friday, April 17, at 6 p.m. in the Red Gym to showcase their skills in African languages. Following it will be poetry readings in African languages by African authors.

In honor of the conference, the Elvehjem Museum of Art will host an exhibition of African art from the Bareiss Family Collection. The exhibition will open on Thursday, April 15, and feature more than 60 masks, sculpture, ceramics, and textiles from 20 sub-Saharan cultural groups from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Tanzania, Mozambique and other. The exhibition will remain on view through Sunday, June 27.

For more information about the exhibition, contact the Elvehjem at (608) 263-2246 or visit http://www.lvm.wisc.edu. For more information about the ALA conference, contact conference coordinator Peter Quella, (608) 262-2493 or visit http://africa.wisc.edu/ala2004.