SPECIAL ISSUE ON CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN AFRICAN LITERATURE

2025-02-23

Kente: Cape Coast Journal of Literature and the Arts invites scholars, researchers, and literary critics to contribute to a Special Issue focusing on the representation of climate and environmental issues in African literature. As climate change poses significant challenges worldwide, African communities face unique environmental impacts, including desertification, flooding, and resource conflicts. These experiences are increasingly reflected in African literary works, offering nuanced perspectives on ecological crises, cultural adaptations, and social resilience.

This Special Issue seeks to explore how African writers and/ or creatives engage with or confront environmental issues, using literature as a platform to articulate local and global ecological concerns.

We are particularly interested in papers that examine how African narratives portray the human-nature relationship, environmental justice, and the socio-political implications of climate change. Furthermore, we aim to investigate the role of storytelling in fostering environmental awareness and activism within African societies.

We welcome submissions that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

  • Environmental degradation and sustainability in African novels, poetry, plays, and/ or arts.
  • Postcolonial ecocriticism and its application to African literary contexts.
  • Indigenous knowledge systems and ecological wisdom as depicted in African literature.
  • Climate migration, displacement, and identity in African narratives.
  • Representations of environmental activism and resistance movements.
  • The impact of globalization and neo-colonialism on African ecosystems.
  • Myth, folklore and environmental consciousness, etc

Submissions should be between 5,000 and 10,000 words, following the latest edition of MLA citation guidelines. Please submit an abstract of 250-500 words before the submission deadline, 30th March 2025. Authors will receive an acceptance response on their abstract on 20th June 2025 and full papers are due by 30th June 2025. The publication date is 30th November 2025.

Kindly send your abstract, with the email subject as Kente Special Issue, to: kente-journal@ucc.edu.gh

Here is the link to our journal: https://journal.ucc.edu.gh/index.php/kente 

We look forward to your contributions to this critical dialogue on climate and environmental narratives within African literary traditions.