Urban Connections in African Popular Imaginaries

The study of popular culture in Africa illustrates that ordinary African residents in urban settings use their local specificities to create popular forms of African cultural production that respond in innovative ways to global cultural imports. This programme of research defines popular cultural production as that which communicates an African perspective to a wide audience in a way that is easily understandable; and which is accessible in terms of its distribution, cost and thematic concerns. Popular urban culture may be locally produced but it also illustrates how ordinary people understand themselves as part of a continental and global community. The research is concerned with popular modes of representation and interpretation, and specifically with the ways in which local specificities and global imaginaries are articulated through popular genres. It seeks to engage critically with various knowledge productions that are embedded in local cultural forms.These popular imaginaries include, but are not limited to genre fiction such as Crime thrillers, Science fiction, Speculative fiction, Fantasy fiction, Afro-Gothic fiction, Chick-lit, and Romance Imprints; Literary narratives of new and “invisible” writers that otherwise go unrecognised but offer us innovative cultural productions and new perspectives to see and understand contemporary society; New Modes of African writing that are finding expression through modern digital technology; and forms of popular performance art such as stand-up comedy, music, film, popular media television, radio, magazines and graphic illustrations.