Jalada 10, Resistance: Re-Opened Call-Out

In 2022, the Collective issued a call for its tenth anthology, on the theme of Resistance. At the time, we sensed continental encroachments on the civic space where arts and literature thrive. We desired to create an anthology to speak to this shifting mood and to bear witness.

In the intervening period, even greater upheavals started which speak directly to our theme of resistance: the Kenyan youth protests, the lingering Russia—Ukraine war, as well as the latest outrages surrounding Palestine and the Israeli occupation, and now Lebanon. Israel, again, with Iran, have recently traded missiles. Nigeria, and Kenya, seem in the grips of a cost-of-living crisis set in motion by two governments that style themselves very differently but are similar in the ways they squeeze their citizens. And then, there’s Sudan where the State and the RSF have turned a history-steeped country into an arena of conflict attended by the destruction of heritage. The Congo continues to spasm from internal politics and external meddling, creating a human context where every African life, every day, is both complicit and defiant.

The increasing influence of India, China, and even Turkey in the developing world and its effect on peoples, cultures, and creativity assume urgency considering the US presidential elections, which brought out the worst of both democracies as a way of aggregating consent and the viability of nation-states as the building blocks of international order.

Besides these are a hundred contexts, local and often life-or-death to those directly involved in them, that problematize ideas of agency, proximity and dissidence.

Then there is the personal resistance—the roses growing out of the concrete—where we find bravery at the micro-level, in personal places away from the mainstream and the broad stroke of what becomes historical. Resistance by the people of the commons, the stalwarts of every day trapped in Lubumbashi, Skopje, Baltimore and elsewhere, who draw back and say: “This?? No!”.

These make Jalada’s curating individual, collective and bespoke resistance(s) even more crucial. This necessitates the re-opening of the call-out for Jalada 10. We are particularly interested in visual arts, essays, and interviews as well as poetry, digital art, short stories, and films.

This expanded call will complement the fantastic submissions already received and accepted. The anthology will be published in the first quarter of 2025.

From the Original Call-Out

Rooted in the Latin word resistere—to make a stand, to oppose, to be dissident—resistance evokes images: of Mandela at Robben Island bearing the dreams of his people, of Che at the beachfront in Havana framed by Alberto Korda; of a little girl reading Little Women by lamplight, defiant of Boko Haram and fundamentalist terrors; of Kenya’s Freedom Corner Mothers who staged a hunger strike and stripped down to stop senseless violence and secure the release of their sons detained as political prisoners; of young protesters across the globe united by a single banner–that #BlackLivesMatter; of the lonesome poet or painter locked down in this period of pandemics and upheavals, creating nonetheless.

The current state of the world is tumultuous, and the past few years have seen many resistance movements rise. We envision Resistance as encompassing political, cultural and social opposition, from personal acts of dissidence to large-scale protests echoing across the world. 

Resistance is a call to arms, a cry for change, an acknowledgement of the injustices that exist and the anthem of the oppressed. It is the quiet moments, witnessing, raising our voices, amplifying those who have been silenced. It is defiance and truth-telling, existing in spaces that were never meant for us. It is a whisper that dances between the trees, a devastating wind that transforms a community into a movement. It is found in refusing the language of the oppressors, creating and re-creating our own narratives, taking control of our songs and stories. It is joyful solidarity, tactics of care and empathy woven through with grief and struggle.

It is us, yearning, mourning, transforming and building a new world.

Key words: dissidence, protest, rebel, charge, witnessing, linguistic resistance, rights, struggle, defiance, freedom, margins, movement, community, solidarity, hope, change.

EXPANDED CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS 

1. Resistance Online 

We welcome responses to the question of ​Resistance​ online as short poems, flash fiction and musings presented as (or alongside) original GIFs, memes, photos and videos.    

Tag our handle ​Jalada Africa​ on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and use #Jalada10 to make sure we see it.   

The submission window opens on November 11th, 2024 until Jalada 10 is published.

2. Jalada 10: Resistance Anthology 

We seek to create an anthology of short fiction, poetry, essays, visual art, films and interviews (audio, visual or written) on the subject of ​Resistance.   

Submissions will be received between ​ November 15th, 2024 and December 20th, 2024.

Guidelines

Fiction 

Each writer may submit one short fiction piece or excerpt not exceeding 6,000 words. Pieces should be formatted as follows: 1.5 spacing, 12pt Font Times New Roman.

Poetry 

Please send no more than one poem. Pieces should be formatted as follows: 1.5 spacing, 12pt Font Times New Roman.

Essays

We invite scholarly and critical essays on the subject of Resistance. Essays must not extend beyond 5,000 words. Pieces should be formatted as follows: 1.5 spacing, 12pt  Font Times New Roman.

Interviews 

We welcome in-depth Q&A​ ​interviews/conversations of a journalistic, artistic or literary nature in response to the question of ​Resistance​. A transcript should accompany any audio-visual file.

Visual art  

Artists should submit their work as JPEGS (Min resolution: 150dpi, min size: 2000 px on the shortest side of the image, colour space: RGB). Each piece of art should include the following information: title of piece, year created, and if the artist feels it necessary, a short caption or contextualising/descriptive text of max 50 words. Images may also be submitted as accompaniments to written pieces. 

This category will also include all submissions that present language in a visual manner, from typographic poems and posters to all other forms of text and display typography. 

Audio
Audio submissions should include a title, short synopsis, and transcript. If it is accompanying a written work please indicate this in the description so the components may be published together. Audio files should be submitted in MP3 format. Ideally no files above 15MB (but can be negotiated if necessary).

Video  

We welcome short clips on the theme of resistance, video poems, interviews and other presentations of up to 10 mins (longer clips may be accepted after consultation with editors). These should be either sent as a link to the video hosted externally as a hidden file e.g. an unlisted video on YouTube or Vimeo with access instructions, or as an MP4 file. Video submissions that are not hosted elsewhere may need to be sent via an appropriate drive link due to file size. Google Drive, DropBox, WeTransfer are some sites that you may want to use. Please include the following information: title of piece, year created, a short 50-word description, and transcript.

Notes: 

All submissions must be sent to jalada.submissions@gmail.com .

Each story has to be sent as a separate Microsoft Word attachment, in the .doc/.docx format (strictly no PDFs). Clear label the story title and the names of the writer and/or translator.

Each submission must contain the title of your piece and word count.

Where applicable, the submission must contain both the original piece and the translation.

If the submission includes language with non-roman script e.g. Arabic, it is preferable for the scripted portion to be sent as a high-fidelity image as well as a word document. This will ensure correct formatting for publication.

All submissions must be accompanied by a biographical note, written in third person, and no more than 100 words in length.   

All submissions must be previously unpublished, except for the case of translations where the source text may have appeared elsewhere.