Moi University hosts literary and cultural studies meeting

 The Covid-19 pandemic has seriously impacted academic research and conferences. It is no longer easy to cross borders. Governments are uneasy to allow foreigners into their countries mainly because they are unsure if travellers are safe to host.

Many individual academics are unwilling to travel as well because conferences, by their very nature, are potential major spreaders of Covid-19. There is also the lethargy that Covid-19 has induced – one just finds oneself unable to go beyond the familiar environs.

However, technology has made interaction quite easy. Researchers and scholars can and are doing immense research across the globe, and sharing their experiences virtually. Whether it is through Google Meet, Windows Team, Zoom or any other format, individual academics have been able to meet from across time zones, regions, and disciplines. In some cases, academic conferences and research meetings have combined both virtual and physical meetings.

It is technology that partly enabled Moi University to host the 5th edition of the East African Literary and Cultural Studies Conference (EALCSC) from September 6 to 8, 2021. This particular conference was a collaboration between Moi University, the journal, Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies, and ‘Africa Multiple: Reconfiguring African Studies Cluster of Excellency’, a program of University of Bayreuth, Germany. The attendees came from as far as America and Europe, in person and virtually.

Covid-19 pandemic

The East African Literary and Cultural Studies Conference (EALCSC) was inaugurated at the University of Nairobi in 2013. The conference was initiated to be a partner and source of academic papers for the journal, Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies, founded by Tom Odhiambo and Godwin Siundu of University of Nairobi.

The idea of the conference came from a conversation between Parselelo Kantai, a Kenyan journalist; Grace Musila, who was then teaching literature at Stellenbosch University; and Tom Odhiambo, who teaches literature at the University of Nairobi. The conference sought to bring together scholars, non-academics, students, writers, publishers, artists and any other individual or institution that was interested in East African literature, art and culture. Since 2013, it has been held at Makerere University in 2015; University of Dar es Salaam in 2017; and Woldia University in 2019.

The 5th EALCSC happened at a time when Covid-19 pandemic has hit Africa harder than many other parts of the world. African academics have little or no resources to connect to their students, who are themselves unable to afford the cost of connecting to online/virtual teaching and learning platforms.

One of the long term consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, will definitely be a serious decline in research and production of knowledge from Africa. Considering that many African researchers depend on collaborations from other parts of the world to fund and support their work, one worries about the damage the pandemic will do to local research.

Therefore, the 5th EALCSC was a welcome undertaking by the organisers. It not only underscores the resilience of local scholars, but it also underlines the faith that international collaborators in the Kenyan academy. This conference brought together several scholars from Kenya, Eastern Africa, Africa and the rest of the world to deliberate on recent creative trends in literature, film, theater, music, and other forms of creativity, but from Eastern Africa.

The theme of the 5th EALCSC, ‘On Radical Joy’, sought to provoke debates on how East Africans make sense of their everyday lives in such difficult times. How do people survive the economic difficulties, political oppression, cultural prejudice, social disintegration, in a time of a global pandemic? What stories, jokes, songs, dances, mchongoano, rumours, mshene etc, have individuals and communities created to help them understand their realities but also live through another difficult day?

Prof James Ogude gave the opening keynote address in which he spoke about African literature offering its readers an archive of stories that grapple with ecology. What can we learn from literature about the environment and today’s tragedy of environmental damage? Could literature offer humanity a redemptive opportunity? By listening to the stories of how our ancestors exploited but also maintained the environment, could humanity today save itself from the impending catastrophe?

But how can people really think of joy in such dystopic times as ours? How does a parent who has lost her job, has school fees and rent to pay, food to buy and support other dependents even have one moment of joy? What happiness, however passing, can a person who has been confined in their home due to Covid-19 for more than a year and a half now, imagine or experience?

Street comedians

Radical joy may sound particularly academic but it is really what the FM radio comedians, the meme creators, the street comedians, musicians, bloggers, short story writers, popular novelists, online diarists etc are creating every day, for themselves and for those who listen to the jokes, ‘enjoy’ the humour of the memes, follow bloggers/writers/meme creators etc. 

It is the little moments of happiness that one creates for oneself – radical joy is the refusal to be overwhelmed by the political chicanery, economic hardship, social disintegration, spiritual uncertainty etc. It is when one finds time, however tiring one’s life is, to share a cup of tea or coffee, to remember an old joke with a colleague or to even sit and ponder what the world would have been without Covid-19. But this is not to suggest that one seeks to escape from their debilitating reality.

Apart from the presentations of academic papers, the conference also provided opportunities for young scholars to be mentored by established scholars. In this session, MA and PhD students and recent graduates who are just beginning their academic careers are advised on research, publishing and networking. They are encouraged to collaborate with established scholars in their disciplines in order to establish their own academic roots. Also, the conference offers space for launching and discussing recently published books.

Such a conference reminds us of the value of literature, art and culture to keep humans humane when science and technology can’t provide an immediate answer to a medical as well as a social disease, such as these times of Covid-19.

Today, reading a storybook, singing, reciting or reading a poem, watching a comedy, making a joke or engaging in a family storytelling session, attending a reading club meeting, or watching a play etc, these activities keep many individuals sane, in a manner of speaking, because they create and recreate the brief moments of joy.

The writer teaches literature and performing arts at the University of Nairobi. [email protected]