This volume collects some of the best presentations offered at the African Literature Association’s 25th annual conference held in 1999. The conference venue, Fez, Morocco, was an apt setting for the conference’s theme: “Continental North-South and Diaspora Linkages and Connections,” sitting on the cusp of the continent, reaching out and gathering in from all directions.

Bringing together, for the first time, a large number of scholars, creative writers and artists from Northern Africa and their counterparts from Sub-Saharan Africa, the conference and this collection highlight the inspiring and stimulating dialogue between two literary and cultural areas that have often been artificially compartmentalized.

Opening with four important addresses by Amadou Mahtar M’Bow (on trans-Saharan and diaspora connections), Abdellatif Laâbi (on literature, ethics and home), andBoubacar Boris Diop (on writing), the contributions span the continent and the world. From “Women Warriors” to the spy novels of Asse Guèye, Gisèle Pineau to Assia Djebar, Muammar Qaddafi to Ernest Hemingway, the essays collected draw surprising connections, provide illuminating analyses, and spectacularly illustrate the breadth and dynamism of the African literary traditions.

ABOUT THE EDITORS
EDRIS MAKWARD is currently acting vice-chancellor of the University of The Gambia. He is also an emeritus professor of African and French Literature at University of Wisconsin-Madison and former president of the West African Research Association, the African Studies Association, and the African Literature Association.

MARK L. LILLELEHT is currently completing his dissertation in the Department of African Literature and Languages at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an associate editor of the Journal of Cultural Studies (Nigeria).

AHMED SABER is currently professor of Comparative and African and African-American literatures at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Dhar Almahraz, Fez, Morocco.

CATEGORY
Literary criticism/AFRICA