EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

Dr. Obioma Nnaemeka (President)
nnaemeka@iupui.edu
A multilingual, widely traveled scholar/social reformer, Obioma Nnaemeka is Professor of French, Women’s Studies and African/African Diaspora Studies and a former Director of the Women’s Studies Program at Indiana University, Indianapolis. She studied French, German, and African Studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (Nigeria), the former Université de Dakar (Senegal), Université de Grenoble (France), and the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) where she earned an M. A. and a Ph. D. with distinction.

A former Rockefeller Humanist-in-Residence (University of Minnesota), Edith Kreeger-Wolf Distinguished Visiting Professor (Northwestern University, Evanston), and Verne Wagner Distinguished Visiting Professor (University of Kansas), Professor Nnaemeka is the Founder and current President of the Association of African Women Scholars (AAWS) and the List Administrator of an internet discussion group on gender issues in Africa and the African Diaspora (AFWOSCHO). She has received numerous national and international awards as well as grants and fellowships from several foundations and agencies, including Rockefeller, MacArthur, SIDA and SAREC (Sweden), and IRDC (Canada).

Prior to coming to Indiana University, Professor Nnaemeka taught at the University of Nigeria (Nsukka) and College of Wooster (Wooster, Ohio). She is a commentator/cultural critic for the French Service of the International Service of Radio Netherlands in Helversum (Netherlands), a Nominator for the Civitella Ranieri Foundation (Italy) and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a Board member of Global Women’s Leadership Center at the Leavey School of Business, and a member of the National Advisory Board of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) for the Liberal Education and Global Citizenship Project.

She is a member of the Board of Trustees of many international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and on the Advisory Board of several refereed scholarly journals. As an expert in African/African Diaspora studies, development, globalization, women's/gender studies, human rights, and multiculturalism, Professor Nnaemeka combines research and consultancy for the United Nations, foreign governments, international agencies, and academic institutions with speaking engagements and active participation in national and international conferences and programs. She is the convener of the "Women in Africa and the African Diaspora” international conferences.

A sought-after speaker, Professor Nnaemeka has delivered over 100 keynote addresses, lectures, and papers in over thirty countries. She has published extensively in the following areas: women/gender in development, literature by Black women from Africa and the African Diaspora, feminist theory, war and conflict resolution, human rights, and African oral and written literatures. She is the author of over fifty scholarly articles and book chapters, and author/editor of nine books, including Engendering Human Rights: Cultural and Socio-economic Realities in Africa and the African Diaspora; Female Circumcision and the Politics of Knowledge: African Women in Imperialist Discourses; Sisterhood, Feminisms, and Power: From Africa to the Diaspora; and The Politics of (M)Othering: Womanhood, Identity, and Resistance in African Literature.

Dr. Chinyere Okafor (Vice President)
chiok@uniswac1.uniswa.sz
Dr. Chinyere Grace Okafor, academic, writer and artist, teaches in the English Department, University of Swaziland. She combines teaching and research with writing, performance and speaking engagements. A specialist in drama and cultural studies, Okafor teaches oral and written African literature at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Her areas of research are gender and traditional dramatic forms. She won two Rockefeller Humanist-in-Residence Fellowships—at Cornell University and Hunter College—to continue an on-going research into the poetics of African festival drama from a gender perspective. Her essays are published in edited volumes and academic journals, including Okike, Literary Review, Research in African Literatures, World Literature Today, and Commonwealth: Essays and Studies. Chinyere Okafor is a poet, playwright, and prose writer whose achievements include a special recognition by the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) in 1994 for proficiency in the three genres of literature, Outstanding Finalist ranking in the Bertram's Literature of Africa Awards in 1996, a Rockefeller Fellowship for Residency as a Writer in the Bellagio Center (Italy) in 1998. Her published creative works include He Wants to Marry Me Again and Other Stories, The Lion and the Iroko (a play), From Earth's Bed Chamber (a collection of poems), Campus Palavar and Other Plays, as well as several contributions in literary anthologies, journals, and magazines.

Dr. Okafor is a member of the Humanities Committee of Swaziland's National Research Council (NRC). She coordinates the literature section of the English Department, University of Swaziland, produces plays and organizes Creative Workshops for young writers and performers. A former Secretary of the Academic Congregation of the University of Benin, Vice Chair of Association of Nigerian Authors (Edo/Delta branch), Public Relation Officer of the Nigerian Association of Women and AIDS (Edo/Delta branch), Chair of the Catholic Community Council of University of Swaziland and two times Winner of Song's competition, Okafor's interests and preoccupations are diverse. She has a number of completed manuscripts including the ones that won the Bertram's Award—Choice (a novella) and Scar of Freedom and Other Stories. A collection of poems and a manuscript on Festival Theater are awaiting publication.

Dr. Pamela Smith (Secretary)
smithpjo@cwis.unomaha.edu
Dr. Pamela Smith is Associate Professor of English and Humanities at the University of Nebraska at Omaha where she teaches courses ranging from English Composition, multicultural humanities, and African American literature to Black women writers, Black Diaspora, Caribbean, Commonwealth, and African literatures in the English Department and the Goodrich Scholarship Program, a multicultural and interdisciplinary two-year undergraduate program. Dr. Smith is the recipient of numerous campus-wide faculty and NEH pedagogy and research grants. A multilingual with a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, Dr. Smith's professional training and experience are interdisciplinary, spanning the broad areas of national literatures as well as culture and translation studies. Her research interests are in translation and the criticism of African literatures, Yoruba language and literature, Anglophone and Francophone African literatures. Professor Smith has published several articles and book reviews in several refereed journals, and presented numerous conference papers on translation, pedagogy and literary criticism.

Following the lead of Wole Soyinka, 1986 Nobel laureate in literature who translated Ogboju Ode, the classical novel of pioneer Nigerian writer, D. O. Fagunwa from Yoruba into English in 1968, Dr. Smith translated in 1984 Igbo Olodumare (Forest of the Almighty), the second of Fagunwa's five Yoruba classics. Her essays on Fagunwa are considered critical to the relatively sparse criticism available on indigenous African literatures. Recently, she has translated Efunsetan Aniwura, Iyalode Ibadan, the much acclaimed historical dramatic tragedy written by leading contemporary Yoruba writer, Akinwumi Isola. Presently, Dr. Smith is working on an edited volume of essays on translation and criticism—The Theory and Politics of Translation and Criticism of African Literature—and a number of essays on the problems of translation. Dr. Smith has won numerous awards for research and teaching, including the 1994 Excellence in Teaching Award at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Dr. Smith is an active member of Omaha Network, an Omaha professional women's organization. She is currently Secretary of the Association of African Women Scholars (AAWS). Dr. Smith is a member of the African Studies Association. She served recently on the Executive Council of the African Literature Association to which she has been a longtime member.

Dr. Omofolabo Ajayi-Soyinka ( Treasurer) omofola@falcon.cc.ukans.edu
Scholar, creative artist, and political activist, Dr. Omofolabo Ajayi-Soyinka is Associate Professor of Theatre & Film and Women's Studies at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. She previously taught at the Obafemi Awolowo University (formerly University of Ife), Nigeria and was also a Visiting Assistant Professor at Cornell University. As a scholar, her research and publications focus on women’s writings and gender issues in African literary theory and criticism, gender aesthetics in the African and Diaspora African revolutionary theaters, and cultural paradigms in national and gender identities. Along these lines, Professor Ajayi designs and teaches courses such as Women in African Literature, Race and the American Theater, Women In Africa Today, Post-Modern Theory and Criticism, African Dance Theater, Post-Colonial Discourse, African Literature in the Diaspora: Intersections of Race, Gender, Power and Identity, and a Teachers’ Seminar on African American Literature, 1960s-1990s. Dr. Ajayi's numerous publications appear in edited volumes and scholarly journals including Women’s Studies Quarterly, Research Notes, and Journal of Dramatic Theory & Criticism. Her book on the Semiotics of Yoruba Dance, was published in 1998. Dr. Ajayi's artistic endeavors span playwriting, poetry, short stories, stage performances, directing and choreography.

Dr. Ajayi-Soyinka belongs to, and is active in a number of academic, human and civil rights organizations. Formerly the Secretary of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, branch of the Association of Staff Unions of Universities (ASUU) in Nigeria, Professor Ajayi is the current the Treasurer of the Association of African Women Scholars (AAWS), and serves on the Board of the Association of African Studies Association (ASA). She has served on the African-Americans in History and Literature Project, Kansas Humanities Council, and with a couple of other women founded Sistah Speak, an organization committed to racial justice, and better relationship between Africans and African-Americans. Inducted to the Women’s Hall of Fame, University of Kansas, in recognition of her leadership qualities, contributions in scholarly and creative works, Dr. Ajayi is also honored as a ROADS Scholar by the Kansas Humanities Council, and the city’s nominee to the Lawrence Art Commission. She is also a biographee of the forthcoming volume of the International Biography Center, Cambridge, UK. Professor Ajayi-Soyinka is the recipient of several grants and awards including the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, Intra-faculty Keeler Professorship Award, The Kimbel Theater Faculty Enrichment Award, The Kennedy Center 25th Anniversary Faculty Grant on Play writing and Directing, Frequently consulted for her scholarship and expertise in the performing arts, she has served in organizations and projects such as the Los Angeles Art Festival (African Division), WNET 13 World Dance Project, Committee on Intercultural Performance, and the African-Americans in History and Literature Project, in Kansas State. Omofolabo relaxes with vegetable and flower gardening. She enjoys walking, bicycling and political discussion and activities.

Dr. Opportune Zongo (PublicitySecretary)
ozongo@bgnet.bgsu.edu
Professor Opportune Zongo is an Assistant Professor of French at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. She earned a Licence in English and African Literature at the Université de Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and an M. A. and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Cruz. A past recipient of a Summer N. E. H., she is a referee/reviewer for academic journals and participates actively in regional, national, and international conferences. She has published in African literatures and cultures and Women's Studies. Her publications have appeared in Research in African Literatures, the International Journal of Third World Studies, and the College Language Association Journal. A specialist in interdisciplinary and multicultural studies, Professor Zongo has designed and taught courses in French, Francophone, and Anglophone African Literatures and Cultures, Ethnic Studies, and Women's Studies. In 1996-97, she was the Director of the Bowling Green State University Academic Year Abroad Programs in Tours, France, and the coordinator of the Bowling Green State University French and Francophone module in Burkina Faso.

Dr. Tanella Boni (Coordinator/FrancophoneAfrica)
bonita@syfed.ci.refer.org
Dr. Tanella Boni is an educator and a well-known poet and novelist from Ivory Coast. After her secondary school education in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, she travelled to France where she studied in Toulouse and Paris. After earning a doctorate degree in philosophy, she returned to Ivory Coast where she teaches philosophy at the University of Abidjan. An accomplished and prolific writer, Dr. Boni has published numerous critical and literary works including Labyrinthe (Dakar: Les Nouvelles Editions Africaines, 1984) Une Vie de crabe (Dakar: Les Nouvelles Editions Africaines, 1990), De l’autre côté du soleil (Paris: EDICEF, 1991), and short stories for children.

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