Research in African Literatures Volume 42 Number 3, Asian African Literatures, Special Guest Editor, Gaurav Desai
Citing the long history of the presence of peoples from the Indian sub-continent in Africa, the National Museums of Kenya sponsored, in 2000, a special exhibit on the "Asian African Heritage." This special issue of Research in African Literatures follows the lead of this exhibition by bringing together new essays by some of the leading scholars who have written on Asian African literatures in East and South Africa. The articles engage both with writers who are now considered canonical, such as M.G. Vassanji from Tanzania and Ahmed Essop from South Africa, as well as newer voices that have emerged over the past decade. A significant emphasis in the volume is on women writers who have traditionally been marginalized in such discussions. The volume is also interested in extending the discussion of Asians in Africa to include a consideration of Asian slavery in the Dutch Cape Colony which has, of late, received attention in the writings of Rayda Jacobs and Ishtiyaq Shukri. The editor’s introduction includes a genealogy of Asian African literary activity in the first half of the twentieth century as well as a bibliography of literary works by Asian African writers that will be of interest to readers new to the subject. Also included is an e-conversation between the guest editor, Gaurav Desai, and the award winning writer M.G. Vassanji.
Published nearly forty years after the world witnessed the mass expulsion of Asians by Idi Amin from Uganda, and a political context in which the Indian Ocean is increasingly seen to have become a center stage for international maritime policy, this special issue not only critically evaluates the historical and cultural legacies of Asians in East and South Africa, but also asks pertinent questions about citizenship, nationalism and diaspora.
