Delimitation of the theme and theoretical framework
The need to bring together Euro-African and Afro-European history with African diasporic experiences in Europe and specifically in the Iberian Peninsula is very urgent.
It is worth remembering, on the one hand, that this area was the migratory destination of a population from the African continent, especially from the second quarter of the 20th century, and exceptionally from 1880 onwards, and that, on the other hand, colonialism was the determining factor that facilitated the arrival of Africans and North Africans in Spain and Portugal, and also the socio-political framework that conditioned their visibility and integration in the metropolises.
This panel is projected from a postcolonial thinking and a decolonial theory that offer a clear opportunity to recover and make visible historically subalternized voices. Our objective is to favor the emergence of a new Afro-Ibero-African and Ibero-African geography that allows the de-racialization of European narratives that have historically ignored their own diversity, prioritizing the search for memories that allow the circulation of new histories and herstories.
Likewise, our proposal is also interested in the original combination of methodologies from Anthropology and History to contrast, contrast or claim alternative documents and/or archives capable of reflecting the experiences of the groups that were the object of colonization.
Brief state of the art
Some African and Maghrebi traces in Spain and Portugal can be traced and documented (Falconi 2016, García 2018, Buettner 2020, Aixelà-Cabré 2022, Garrido-Castellano and Leitão 2022) to draw the Afro-Hispanic, and Afro-Portuguese mosaic, as well as other very interesting cases such as Afro-Catalan and Afro-Maghrebi (Moreras 2017, 2024; Aixelà-Cabré 2020; Bayo 2021; Aixelà-Cabré 2024a, 20024b; Falconi 2024; García 2024; Moreras 2024; Pérsanch 2024; Raposo and Garrido-Castellanos 2024; Grau-Rebollo, García and García 2024, Rizo 2024). These tasks are essential to enrich the African and Maghrebi history of Iberian cultures (Resina 2009, Cervelló 1999, Stucki 2019), since it is through shared history that one can combat the racisms that continue to circulate (Clúa 2011, Martín Díaz and Cuberos 2022) and that are constructed from the colonial otherness (Mbembe 2001, Walsh 2018) that had subalternized African populations (Prakash 1994). The study of African traces and legacies is still a pending subject that we intend to reverse.
This activity is part of the R+D+i project “Africans, Maghrebies and Latinos (1808-1975). Negritude, resistances and desracialization of elites” (BLACKSPAIN) (PID2022-138689NB-I00), funded by MCIN/ AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ and “FEDER A way of doing Europe” (PI: Y. Aixelà-Cabré).
1. African studies and diasporas. The Black Spain and Afro-Iberia cases
Bibliografía
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