SINCE the rise of written symposia and critical debates on African writings, scholars, literary researchers and users of the international network have expressed regrets about the non availability of published materials from the emerging bulk of African authors and publishers. This is in sharp contrast to the contributions of Europe- and America-based organizations in the electronic distribution of publications. It is perceived in many African quarters that the electronic medium of book and information dissemination is a powerful tool for the global awareness and propagation of ideas and opinions of western nations. Even currently, works by African writers living in the �Diasporas� of Europe and America tend to be easily available while it remains nigh impossible to assess the bulk coming from locally published authors in the continent. This is in spite of ebullient titles from indigenous publishing organizations supposedly in print and circulation. Writing on the phenomenon where Diaspora thought is on the ascendancy over its authentic homeland counterpart, a writer adumbrates its implications for African literature thus:

�the distortion of the African image from the early twentieth century enters the new millennium in a dimension that involves the jostle for theoretical bearings from the West. It is a sad thing for Africa that her younger indigenous extractions are the carriers of this trend goaded on by a presumptuous British and American dominated information production and promotion machinery. Unfortunately the local intelligentsia do not seem to integrate a qualitative and home rooted scholarship that understands its own indigenous base from which it should interact with the outside world. Thus, either way, these hollow men and women who continue to write or critique their cultures in Western precepts will fare Africa no better for in pandering to foreign expectations as the guarantee for some international respite they only threaten to bring a whole circle of African writing to its cul-de-sac in alien or poorer mutant traditions.

In the bid to give voice to African authors, IRCALC Editors invite critics and scholars to participate in its current program on African literary awareness and criticism. Under this program, founded upon the mission to further the imaginative approach to Africa's leadership and development concerns through providing an online network for independent discourse on Africa's literatures and cultures including other writings of Black Diaspora that lend meaning to this vision, special authors may be required to provide or assist in the provision of PDF copies of some of their most consistent fiction and poetry publications. Where PDFs are not readily available, there are online organizations that could collaborate on converting Word Perfect files of the relevant works into PDF distribution copies for evaluation and review purposes. 

Specialists in African fictional works are in fact welcome to join this IRCALC initiative on Africa that has given impetus for the re-emergence of publications on African cultural expressions. Your work may be forwarded by email attachments to the [email protected] Please provide a short biodata of author or company profile /corporate vision and return to our website for information and update on the critical appreciation of modern African literatures as published in the Journals of African Literature [JAL] and New Poetry [NP] Expressions.

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