Following a successful Call for Papers, the Eastern African Literary and Publishing Networks in the 1960s and 1970s conference, will be hosted at University of Nairobi between 10-11 August 2026. Please download the conference programme here and register for the conference here. We look forward to hosting you in Nairobi.

After political independence, during the early decolonial period, a significant number of new literary and publishing initiatives were founded in Eastern Africa due to the ‘flourishing, vibrant intellectual culture of the 1960s and 1970s’ with all the ‘major writers’ except for Ngũgĩ publishing with ‘local presses’ (Simon Gikandi & Evan Mwangi, 2007, p. 151). These initiatives redefined an African literary canon, more expansively drawing in oral literatures, popular genres, and African languages, and accepting work that would not have been published elsewhere.

The 1962 ‘Conference of African Writers of English Expression’ held at Makerere University College in Kampala, alongside newly-established university colleges in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, helped forge city-based creative hubs which attracted writers from other parts of the continent and supported the building of Eastern and pan-African literary communities.

Acknowledging that too little concerted conversation has been held to explore the impact of these literary and publishing networks in shaping African literatures, this conference draws together scholars working on this significant period in Eastern Africa’s literary history.

This event forms part of the research project Nairobi’s Literary Networks 1963-1978: Locating Publishing Histories.