Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 18 August 2025 (ECA) – The Conference on Land Policy in Africa (CLPA), a joint initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), and the African Development Bank (AfDB), is once again calling on African writers to submit short stories exploring themes of land governance, justice, and reparations for Africans and descendants of the African diaspora.
As part of the discussions building around the 2025 CLPA, taking place from November 10-14, 2025, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the organizing committee is issuing a call for the second anthology of short stories that reimagine Africa’s land governance through fiction. Writers from the African continent and the diaspora—particularly African youth —are encouraged to submit their work by the deadline of 13 September 2025.
Background: Reclaiming Africa’s Land Narrative
The conference aligns with the African Union’s 2025 theme: “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations.” This theme seeks to address historical injustices—including slavery, colonisation, apartheid, and neo-colonial exploitation —that have shaped land ownership, displacement, and economic inequality across Africa and the diaspora.
Through storytelling, the stories would aim to:
- Examine how slavery and colonialism disrupted African land systems
- Explore urbanisation, climate justice, and equitable land governance
- Imagine past or future possibilities for restitution and reparations
Details and guidelines on where to send your submissions are found here:
French: https://www.uneca.org/eca-events/sites/default/files/resources/documents/ALPC/CLAP2025/call_for_short_stories_final_revmw_fr_2.pdf in French.
For more details on the CLPA 2025 itself, go to the event page here: https://www.uneca.org/eca-events/clpa2025
About the Conference on Land Policy in Africa (CLPA):
The CLPA is a premier platform for dialogue on land governance, bringing together policymakers, researchers, civil society and traditional authorities to advance sustainable land management issues on the continent.
Rewriting Africa’s land narrative—one story at a time.
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org