Deadline for Proposal: August 10, 2001
Africa did not lie dormant in the last decade of the twentieth century.
On the contrary, many events led some to proclaim, perhaps prematurely,
the dawn of an African Renaissance. The resurgence of multiparty elections,
which began in Benin in 1990, continued throughout the decade, albeit with
controversies surrounding elections in several countries (e.g., Cameroon,
Ivory Coast, offshore Tanzania, etc.). Spurred by the Bretton Woods institutions,
economic liberalism was pursued throughout Africa, although here too the
outcome was mixed. Several countries reported economic recovery --- among
them Uganda, Mozambique and Tanzania -- while a greater number languished.
New leaders came to the fore to replace long-time incumbents either by force
or through the ballot box -- e.g., Laurent Kabila in the former Zaire, Meles
Zenawi in Ethiopia, Paul Kagame in Rwanda, Nelson Mandela in South Africa,
Frederick Chiluba in Zambia, Abdoulaye Wade in Senegal. At the same time,
Africa experienced state collapse or near-collapse in Somalia, the former
Zaire, Sierra Leone and continued devastation by the AIDS pandemic. Finally,
the 1990s saw an explosion in African culture, especially music. African
stars such as Youssou N’Dour, Angelique Kidjo and Thomas Mapfumo became
household names among fans of so-called world music. MAAAS, or Mid-America
Alliance for African Studies, invites writers, artists and scholars in the
various disciplines of the social sciences and humanities to submit proposals
on these and other related issues.
