"Following on the heels of the first African Cities Reader, we remain as convinced as ever that the youthful demographic, informality and non-conventional insertion in global circuits by African urbanites is a starting point for a sustained engagement and retelling of the city in contemporary Africa. The cultural, livelihood, religious, stylistic, commercial, familial, knowledge producing and navigational capacities of African urbanites are typically overlooked, unappreciated and undervalued. The aim of the African Cities Reader is to bring their stories and practices to the fore. The Reader seeks to become a forum where Africans tell their own stories, draw their own maps and represent their own spatial topographies as it continuous to evolve and adapt at the interstice of difference, complexity, opportunism, and irony.

The second installment is organised around the theme: "Mobilities and Fixtures". It seems apparent to us that African cities are quintessentially defined by incessant mobilities. And as people make their way in cities that are incapable of dealing with their presence, they continuously come to terms with the fact that the way of the city is a game of hide-and-seek… nothing is easily navigable; little is what it seems at first sight; and urban life becomes centred on a capacity to read the street, faces, gestures, ambience, odours, noises, danger and of course, most importantly, opportunity. Discernment demands a capacity to stay on the move, in circulation, whether by foot, rumour, sms or insertion into multiple social networks. It is therefore possible to access and explore the phenomenology of the African city through perceptive pieces that account for these dynamics..."

The African Cities Reader seeks submissions for its second issue (2010) organised around the theme: "Mobilities and Fixtures".

Moving from this exploratory vantage point, the African Cities Reader remains open to multiple genres (literature, philosophy, faction, reportage, ethnographic narrative, etc), forms of representation (text, image, sound and possibly performance), and points of view. The African Cities Reader insists on embodying the rich pluralism, cosmopolitanism and diversity of emergent urbanisms across Africa. Thus, the Reader invites and undertake to commission writing and art by practitioners, academics, activists and artists from diverse fields across Africa in all of her expansiveness.

Submissions will be accepted until Wednesday, 31st March 2010, and should be submitted electronically in Word format and low-res jpg to the email address below. Submissions may vary in subject matter and will be assessed on their relevance to theme. All work should accompany a short abstract, biography and relevant contact details.