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There is no race here

On blackness, slavery, and disavowal in North Africa and North African studies

Bibliographic Data

ID3979508
AuthorsLeslie Gross-Wyrtzen (0000-0002-8330-395X, Councils on African and Middle East Studies, Yale University, New Haven, USA, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume28
Issue3
Pages635-665
Publication date2023-05-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of North African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1362-9387 • E-ISSN: 1743-9345
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13629387.2022.2089124
OpenAlexW4282840305
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited63

This article brings comparative race and ethnic studies, migration studies, and North/African studies together to investigate how local-historical conceptions of blackness intersect with contemporary border policing of 'sub-Saharan' migrants. Defining race as a historically-contingent formation, I argue that blackness emerged at various periods in North African history (from the Islamic expansion to the present-day) to signify inferior social status and non-belonging, meanings that are shaped by the practices, discourses, and memories of slavery. This intervention connects critical studies on racialized border enforcement to other processes of social exclusions already at work within North African social space. It fills a critical gap in North African studies by providing a theoretically- and historically-grounded analysis of racial formation (and especially blackness) in the region that will have broad utility to scholars studying marginalisation and marginalised people's political mobilisation at various historical moments. Finally, it challenges contemporary scholarship on race as (only) a modern category forged through European colonialism and trans-Atlantic slavery

African studies · Colonialism · Political science · Politics · Race (biology · Scholarship · Sociology · African history and culture studies · African Studies and Geopolitics · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Law

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Unique citing works23
Citations per year5,75
Citation span2022 - 2026 (5)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 23
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