Introduction: On Simon Gikandi’s Slavery and the Culture of Taste

INTRODUCTION

The critical conversation gathered here emerged from the venerable book “Review Forum” of the African Literature Association (ALA) at its annual meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, in March 20–24, 2013. The forum’s practice is to select one or two significant recent books in the field for focused critical discussions in dedicated panels, followed by responses from authors. Simon Gikandi’s Slavery and the Culture of Taste (2011) was a selection for the 2013 meeting. My gratitude to Gikandi for agreeing to participate in the forum. He was not able to be there physically and respond, but the large audience that showed up for the panel can now have their full reward in these pages. I am also grateful to the panelists—Adélékè Adéåkö, Kenneth Harrow, and Ato Quayson—for enthusiastically assenting to the task and for their stimulating engagements with Gikandi’s book. The Graduate Student Caucus heard about the planned book choice and requested to sponsor the panel and promote it in its conference activities. To underscore the significance of Gikandi’s book as a model to emulate, and to an audience at a stage of searching for examples of best practices, I took the request of the caucus seriously and oriented much of my remarks to its members.