Theorizing the Afropolitan Past and Present

Bibliographic Data

ID5000711
AuthorsRosa Carrasquillo, Rosa Elena Carrasquillo, Melina Pappademos, Lorelle Semley (0000-0003-0182-9382)
Year2022
Volume2022
Issue144
Pages1-18
Publication date2022-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueRadical History Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0163-6545 • E-ISSN: 1534-1453
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/01636545-9847774
OpenAlexW4312647701
LanguageEN
References cited27

The term Afropolitan-evoking the image of mobility, cultural production, and consumerism in Africa and the African diaspora-has enjoyed some salience in popular culture. However, much of the scholarly debate has focused on the elitism associated with the concept. Linked initially to short reflective pieces by Taiye Selasi in 2005 and Achille Mbembe in 2007, Afropolitanism has rarely been analyzed in historical contexts. The contributors engage the concept of the Afropolitan across a broad time and space that spans the fourteenth to twenty-first centuries and locates the Afropolitan in Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Asia. This introduction analyzes their written and photographic essays along three themes: visual culture, narrativity, and intersectionality, recognizing that their work also pushes against and expands on these frameworks. By engaging with the Afropolitan as a historical phenomenon, the issue highlights new methods and theories for analyzing global diasporas-past, present, and future

Aesthetics · Art · Consumerism · Diaspora · Elitism · Epistemology · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Narrativity · Phenomenon · Political science · Politics · Popular culture · Salience (neuroscience · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · History · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · Psychology