At twenty: take two.(Kola's twentieth year of publication)(Editorial)

In my editorial introduction to Kola 20.1, 1 pointed out (or celebrated) several particularities pertinent to the literary journal's first decade: its pan-African and multicultural catholicity, its de facto near-colonization by African-American writers, its private funding, its gradual turn toward concentrating on African-Canadian scribes (by 1997-1998), its relatively limited circulation, and its editors' great, shaping powers/visions. After reviewing the second decade of Kola's publishing history, I must offer new observations. 1) Kola has become almost entirely African-Canadian in content, with far fewer foreign writers being included or reviewed than was the case originally. 2) As a "Black Literary Magazine" (as its subtitle states), it is not only, now, truly African-Canadian, but, for the most part, Afro-Quebecois and African Nova Scotian (Africadian). Its world-view is now, in real terms, mainly Eastern Canadian and Caribbean. (Even cover photos feature Montreal or Barbadian scenes.) 3) Commensurate with these first two shifts, interviews have disappeared, and critical articles treat African-Canadian aesthetics. Save for Afro-Quebecois author Robert Edison Sandiford's interview in 12.2 (Winter 2000), there have been no others this past decade, and only one critical article has discussed an offshore author, namely Horace 1. Goddard's commentary on Nigerian playwright (and Nobel Laureate) Wole Soyinka in 13.2 (Fall 2001). 4) Likewise, illustrations vanish in the second decade; rather, photocopied photos provide interior visuals. 5) The deadly Al-Qaeda-hijacked aircraft attacks on New York City, N.Y., and Washington, D.C., of September 11, 2001, became, in subsequent years, a motif in both illustrations and contributors' poetry. 6) Its editors have become a large presence--perhaps too large--in Kola. For instance, though artist and editor Anthony Joyette produced philosophical prose (see his essay, "'Self-Discovery and the Quest for an Aesthetic: The Emergence of Black Canadian Literature: 1975 towards the Millennium," in 11.1 [1999]), his fine ...