Afropolitanism as critical consciousness

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's and Teju Cole's internet presence

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2173095
AutoresMiriam Pahl
Ano2016
Volume28
Fascículo1
Páginas73-87
Data de publicação2016-01-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of African Cultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1369-6815 • E-ISSN: 1469-9346
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13696815.2015.1123143
OpenAlexW2225215003
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas16
Referências citadas13

Critiques of Afropolitanism that dismiss the concept because of its links to consumerism and commodification assume an unchallenging compliance of those considered as Afropolitans with dominant ideologies of consumption and the rule of capital. Considering Taiye Selasi's article 'Bye-Bye Babar', this seems plausible, but it is also a reductive interpretation that effaces the transformative potential of Afropolitanism. The literary works and online presence in public discourses of writers labelled Afropolitan show that they challenge and revise the present world order in the way that Walter Mignolo and other theorists of decoloniality envisage in their concept of 'critical cosmopolitanism'. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Teju Cole, for example, implement Afropolitanism as a critical assessment of global culture that defies a reduction of the concept simply to its commercial dimension. In their own ways, Adichie and Cole explore the affordances and the limitations of the internet, mobility and globalization

Aesthetics · Commodification · Consciousness · Cosmopolitanism · Epistemology · Globalization · Ideology · Media studies · Omnipresence · Political science · Politics · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · South African History and Culture · Law · Philosophy