Transition (journal)

Transition (journal) is a literary and political journal established to explore African, African diasporic, and global modernist perspectives through essays, fiction, poetry, visual art, and criticism. Founded in the postcolonial era, the journal has been associated with debates involving decolonization, pan-Africanism, Cold War cultural politics, and transatlantic intellectual networks. Editors and contributors have often engaged with figures, institutions, and events spanning Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, and France.

History

The journal emerged in the early 1960s amid intersections of Kwame Nkrumah's policies in Ghana, the independence movements in Algeria and Kenya, and intellectual currents around Frantz Fanon, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Aimé Césaire. Its founding period coincided with the decolonization conferences such as the Bandung Conference and cultural programs linked to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Organisation of African Unity. Later decades saw influence from editorial practices associated with Edward Said, James Baldwin, Chinua Achebe, and networks that included exchanges with publishers like Heinemann and periodicals such as Présence Africaine and The New Yorker. The journal’s trajectory intersected with global crises including the Cold War, the Nigerian Civil War, the Soweto Uprising, and the end of apartheid, which shaped editorial choices and contributor networks tied to universities like Harvard University, University of Ibadan, Makerere University, and University of Cape Town.

Editorial mission and focus

The editorial mission emphasized cross-disciplinary engagement among writers and intellectuals such as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Toni Morrison, Paul Gilroy, and Stuart Hall, foregrounding narratives connected to Pan-Africanism, migration studies tied to ports like Liverpool and Accra, and cultural movements linked to venues such as the Apollo Theater and Royal Festival Hall. The focus included critique of postcolonial governance exemplified by figures like Jomo Kenyatta and Robert Mugabe, literary experimentation in the vein of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, and engagement with visual artists including El Anatsui and Yinka Shonibare. Editors have positioned the journal as a forum for debates on sovereignty, identity, diaspora, and modernity alongside institutions like the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and archives such as the British Library.

Publication and format

Published on a semiannual schedule, the journal combined long-form essays, short fiction, poetry, interviews, and visual portfolios involving collaborations with galleries such as the Tate Modern and museums like the Smithsonian Institution. Design and typesetting drew on interactions with presses such as Oxford University Press and small independent houses comparable to Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications and Karia Press. Distribution networks linked to bookstores like Barnes & Noble and literary festivals including the Hay Festival and the Cape Town International Literary Festival. Special issues were organized around themes connected to events such as the World Festival of Black Arts, anniversaries of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and symposia at institutions like the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Contributors and notable pieces

Contributors have included a wide range of authors, critics, and artists: Wole Soyinka, Ayi Kwei Armah, Arthur Nortje, Grace Ogot, Bessie Head, Lilian Ngoyi, Molefi Kete Asante, NoViolet Bulawayo, Dambisa Moyo, Helon Habila, Ama Ata Aidoo, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Abiola Irele, Kwesi Brew, Ben Okri, Nadine Gordimer, V. S. Naipaul, Saul Bellow, E. P. Thompson, Michel Foucault, Stuart Hall, bell hooks, Cornel West, John Berger, R.S. Thomas, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, S. I. Hayakawa, Pauline Melville, Derek Walcott, Edwidge Danticat, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Chinelo Okparanta, Eudora Welty, A. S. Byatt, Isabel Allende, Ryszard Kapuściński, Albert Memmi, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jacques Derrida, Homi K. Bhabha, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Notable pieces addressed crises such as the Biafran War, apartheid-era censorship exemplified by cases involving John Kane-Berman and publications banned after the Sharpeville Massacre, and literary interventions into canon debates sparked by works comparable to Things Fall Apart and essays in response to the Suez Crisis.

Reception and impact

The journal has been cited by scholars and cultural critics at institutions including Columbia University, University of Oxford, Yale University, University of California, Berkeley, and think tanks such as the Brookings Institution for shaping discussions of postcolonial theory, diaspora politics, and African literature. It influenced anthology projects like the Heinemann African Writers Series and curricular choices at departments dealing with authors in collections alongside Modern Language Association conferences and prize lists such as the Man Booker Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature. Critics and advocates compared its role to that of The New Yorker, Granta, and Présence Africaine in creating transnational dialogues that resonated through cultural policy debates in capitals like London, Accra, Lagos, Nairobi, and Johannesburg.

Category:Literary journals Category:African studies journals