KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Dr. Azfar Hussain
Summer Distinguished Professor, Dept. of English and Humanities, ULAB
Associate Professor, Grand Valley State University, Michigan, USA
To commemorate the life and legacy of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (1938–2025), the Department of English and Humanities at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), cordially invites you to a national symposium. We welcome submissions from scholars and students engaged with Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's thoughts, contributions, and continuing relevance in English studies, African studies, postcolonial theory and literature, colonial pedagogy, and cultural politics. Papers on related topics are also encouraged.
“La Luta Continua” (the struggle continues) is a phrase used by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o in Petals of Blood that encapsulates the vision of the literary giant who recently passed away. Ngũgĩ pursued the idea of an African identity with a specific focus on Kenyan experience. By provokingly asking, “If there is a need for a ‘study of the historic continuity of a single culture’, why can’t this be African?” he challenges the embedded authority of Western monolingual dominance of the so-called “aristocratic” languages (i.e., English, French, German, Russian, Italian, and Spanish) imposed through colonialism and its canon formation.
Although a strong advocate for World Literature, Ngũgĩ is critical of what he calls “aesthetic feudalism,” whereby European languages and values are privileged over the cultural resources of the colonized people. His work expresses profound disillusionment in post-independence Kenya, where political power cannot be separated from colonial legacies. From his first novel Weep Not, Child (1964) to The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gikuyu to Mumbi (2020), Ngũgĩ’s large body of work includes fiction, plays, essays, memoirs, children’s literature, and political polemics. His espousal of the native Gikuyu language inspired many writers to reclaim their African identity and served as the inspirational basis for critical inquiry into decolonial aesthetics and resistance literature across the world.
His radical outlook led to imprisonment and eventually to self-exile, but he continues to remain a respected intellectual and conscientious voice of our time. For Ngũgĩ, education, literature, religion, politics, and culture together continue to constitute a colonial apparatus that must be deconstructed and decolonized. His oeuvre demands a critical evaluation of institutions and identity formation.
Perspectives to address include, but are not limited to:
● Indigenous struggle for cultural identity
● Neocolonialism
● Postcolonial discourse
● Postcolonial response to English Studies
● Global wars and imperialism
● Decolonising the mind and space
● “Globalectics”
● Eco-criticism/s and Ngũgĩ
● Gender and Ngũgĩ
● Marxism and Ngũgĩ
● Politics of publishing in native languages
● The cultural politics of English as a medium of instruction
● Social justice through writing
● Postcolonial pedagogy
● Native languages in classroom
● African Canon
IMPORTANT DATES
Abstract Submission: July 12, 2025
Acceptance Notification: July 15, 2025
Registration Deadline: July 20, 2025
SUBMISSION TYPES
● Academic Paper Presentation: 15 min presentation
● Poster Presentation
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
● Abstract: 250 words
● Short bio of the presenter(s): 50 words each
● Abstracts will be double-peer-reviewed, and conference registrations will be invited depending on the outcome.
REGISTRATION FEES
Presenters: BDT 1500
Student presenters: BDT 1000
Participants: BDT 500
Send abstracts and inquiries to:
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