http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/309/Africa-Vol2_42075.jpgThree new books, African Literature: An Anthology of Theory and Criticism, edited by Tejumola Olanyiyan and Ato Quayson (Blackwell Publishing 2007); and The Study of Africa. Vols 1 & 2 edited by Paul Tiyambe Zeleza (CODESRIA 2006/7) are being launched on Thursday 21 June at 7.30pm at Barabara's Bookstore, 1218 South Halsted Street (lower floor of Thomas Beckham Hall), University of Illinois at Chicago.

African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory represents 'a gathering of the best critical work on African literature and larger questions of literary history, the sociology of literature, criticism and theory', according to Simon Gikandi, professor of English at Princeton University. It brings together previously published essays from Alain Ricard, Bernth Lindfors, V. Y. Mundimbe, Abiola Irele, Chinua Achebe, Nadine Gordimer, Naguib Mafouz, Ngugi wa Thing'o, Breyten Bretenbach, Nawal El Saadawi and Zoe Wicomb. See for details.

The Study of Africa is a two-volume work which takes stock of the study of Africa in the 21st century: its status, research agenda and approaches, and place. Volume one covers the academic disciplines, African studies and interdisciplinary studies. Volume two addresses globalisation, African studies and regional contexts. According to Bethwell Ogot, Chancellor of Moi University and Professor Emeritus of History, the publication 'provides the most comprehensive and critical analysis of African studies in the world today. Globally the book reveals a fundamental, though depressing, fact that the terms of global intellectual exchange are unequal. There is therefore a need to construct an African "library", a body of knowledge that can fully encompass, engage and examine African phenomena. And it is the responsibility of African scholars, both in the continent and in diaspora, to spearhead this struggle for intellectual decolonization and deconstruction'. For details, see http://www.codesria.org/Links/Publications/new_publications.htm.

The launch is being sponsored by the Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. For further details, please contact the department through www.uic.edu/las/afam/aasthome.html or Paul Zeleza, email [email][email protected].