African writers urge reclaiming of African narratives at Seoul seminar

Two African writers called on storytellers from their continent to seize control of African narratives at a Seoul forum March 31, pushing back against decades of crisis-driven portrayals in global media.

The event, co-hosted by the Network for Glocal Activism and the Institute of African Cultural Studies in Korea, offered two intellectual frameworks — Afropolitanism and Black consciousness — for reframing how global audiences understand African identity.

Ishmael Beah, Sierra Leonean author of the 2007 memoir *A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier*, and Zukile Jama, a professor in the African Language Department at the University of the Western Cape, addressed a public audience at Korea University. The forum was co-hosted by the Network for Glocal Activism and the Institute of African Cultural Studies in Korea, according to The Korea Times.

Beah, who has had two books translated into Korean and also participated in the DMZ World Literature Festa during his Seoul visit, said outside narrators consistently distort African realities. "For many years, our stories have been told by other people. Even when well-intentioned, they often miss the context. And without the right context, people form stereotypes and incomplete conclusions," Beah told The Korea Times.

In his presentation, Beah framed Afropolitanism as a reshaping of the continent's global image. "For much of the 20th century, Africa was often portrayed in global media through narratives of crisis — war, poverty and political instability. Afropolitanism challenges this narrow portrayal by emphasizing creativity, intellectual life and cultural dynamism across the continent and its diaspora," he said. He added that Afropolitanism "is not merely a cultural label but also a political and intellectual project."

On displacement, Beah offered a pointed reframe of migration. "Nobody wants to leave home if it's functioning. You leave because you can no longer live there," he said.

Jama, a linguist and researcher, opened with a stark diagnosis of the present moment. "We have lost our humanity and appetite for peace. The world is facing extreme corruption, internal and external wars and extreme violence," he told the audience. Citing the 1972 Policy Manifesto of the South African Students' Organization, Jama defined Black consciousness as "an attitude of mind, a way of life whose basic tenet is that the Black must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity."

Jama argued that inner liberation must precede structural change. "If one is free at heart, no man-made chains can bind one to servitude, but if one's mind is so manipulated and controlled by the oppressor, then there will be nothing the oppressed can do to scare his master," he said.

In his closing remarks, Jama called for centering Blackness within wider human ecologies. "We cannot talk about Black freedom when Black history, Black culture and Black philosophy are on the margins," he said. "Black consciousness can continue to engender the principles of social justice and the liberation of Black people in South Africa ... and is necessary for the affirmation of Black people not only in South Africa but around the world." Beah, who is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Cape Town's Department of English Literary Studies, is among the seminar's authors whose work the organizers hope will deepen Korean audiences' understanding of the African world.