Call for Papers!

Delos: A Journal of Translation and World Literature (a University Press of Florida journal) is dedicating the Spring 2022 issue to a special topic:

Sacred Texts and Images from Africa and the African Diaspora
Deadline: October 1, 2021

Guest editors: Benjamin Hebblethwaite ([email protected]) and Kole Odutola ([email protected])

African and African Diaspora religions and their cultures are important pillars of society, but their sacred texts and images require far more dissemination and analysis. Sacred texts or images form traditions that communities of faith revere. This volume approaches the sacred texts and images from an academic and interfaith orientation, letting diverse perspectives speak for themselves. In so doing, our goal is to preserve the sources and understand the subtext of the traditions of African people worldwide.

The sacred texts must be provided in the original language and accompanied by an English translation with analysis and commentary about the text in English. Submissions that focus on images of the sacred should include the image as a high-quality black-and-white photograph in addition to English-language analysis. All submissions should provide substantial analysis and commentary about the origin, use, history, context, language, cultural background, structure, style, importance, and literary, linguistic, ritual, or artistic features of the sacred text or image in paragraphs that follow the source-language sacred text and its target-language translation or image. Submissions that only include texts or photographs without commentary will not be accepted.

What will be accepted are listed below:

• Sacred texts in the original language plus the English translation or images. 
• English-only submissions are possible if the sacred text was originally composed in English. 
• The author must investigate and obtain permissions for the copyrights of the sacred text or images (if any). 
• Analysis and commentary about the texts or images is required. 
• 1,000-5,000 words (we will consider longer submissions). 
• Deadline: October 1, 2021 (if your submission will be late, please contact both guest editors). 
• Photographs will only be printed in grayscale. 
• Identify the geographical and linguistic origin of the text or image in the submission’s title, for example: Five Haitian Vodou songs for Ogou, or, Contemporary African American Gullah-Geechee Christian Hymns, or, A Selection of Yoruba Ifa Sacred Texts from Nigeria, or, Ge’ez Liturgical Texts from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, or Moroccan Sufi Texts in Arabic, etc. 

All texts and images from Africa and its Diaspora are welcome. Analysis of the relationship of the text or image to ceremonies, rituals, services, and ideologies is encouraged. Attention to language and terminology is of great interest. Authors are encouraged to contemplate the connections of the sacred literature to deep currents (subtext) in African and African Diasporic thought.  
 
The guest editors encourage submissions of sacred texts or images with analyses from traditions as diverse as Orisha religion, Vodun, Vodou, Ifa, Candomblé, Palo Monte, Santería, Pocomania, Revivalism, Maroon religion, Church of St. John Coltrane, Obeah, Myalism, Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Ethiopianism, Garveyism, Rastafari, Shango Temples in Trinidad, Independent Christian churches, African Islam including Sunni, Shia and Sufi texts, Nation of Islam, Five-Percent Nation, African Judaism, Gereformeerde Kerke in South Africa, Catholicism, Pentecostalism, Anglicanism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Hare Krishna, and Chinese religions as practiced in Africa, etc.

Please complete all submissions through the University Press of Florida’s submission portal.

• http://journals.upress.ufl.edu/delos/submit
• You can also submit to Benjamin Hebblethwaite ([email protected]) and Kole Odutola ([email protected]). When doing so, please include both emails in email correspondence.