Afropolitanism: Topic and Theory for Current African Studies
This lecture will trace the variously convergent, sometimes celebratory, and often critical literature on Afropolitanism as an analytic concept and mode of identification in the (African) world today. Moving beyond narrowly defined (and often antagonistic) statements concerning the nature and meaning of Afropolitanism, the talk considers what the idea of the Afropolitan may contribute as a polysemous signifier in current African Studies. In other words, Afropolitanism, as a recent addition to the Africanist lexicon, is not so much a good idea as it is “good to think with.” And, as such, we should be cognizant of the various lines of intellectual flight that scholars and public intellectuals have employed to promote, refine, and (justifiably, though perhaps too eagerly) disparage Afropolitanism as a conceptual and theoretical resource in the Africanist’s toolkit.
