ICALEL is an acronym for the Calabar International Conference on African Literature and the English Language founded and chaired by African scholar and critic Ernest Emenyonu. At the centre of the conference are African writers and critics from all over the world. The first conference entitled “The Woman as a Writer in Africa” was held at the University of Calabar auditorium in May 1981 and Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo was keynote speaker. The themes of 1982 namely “Literature in African Languages” and “Writing Books for Children” featured Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and Bessie Head as keynote speakers. Till date a host of African writers have featured at the conference including Cyprian Ekwensi, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Chinweizu, Dennis Brutus, Buchi Emecheta, Flora Nwapa, Elechi Amadi, Ken Saro Wiwa, Chukwuemeka Ike, Nurrudin Farah, Syl Cheney Coker, to mention a few.
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“Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”
—Francis Bacon (15611626)
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—Claire Oberon Garcia, African American college professor. As quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, p. B3 (July 27, 1994)
“The contemporary thing in art and literature is the thing which doesnt make enough difference to the people of that generation so that they can accept it or reject it.”
—Gertrude Stein (18741946)
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—John Michael Hayes (b.1919)
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—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)