Imagining Afrodescendance and the African Diaspora in Spain: Re-/De-Centering Belonging in Literature, Photography, and Film

Abstract

In recent years, an increasing number of African and Afrodescendant artists in Spain have been speaking from an in-between space defined by the experience of being perceived as the “racialized Other.” Their work is characterized by a political commitment and an aim to provide visibility to their communities and (re)value their African heritage. From a cultural studies and discourse analysis perspective, I explore three diverse examples, poems by Yeison García López, a photobook by Rubén H. Bermúdez, and a documentary by Sergio Aparicio, that all imagine Afrodescendance as a shared narrative and empowering moment relating Africa and her diaspora. In their works, García López, Bermúdez, and Aparicio conceptualize Afrodescendance as a powerful source of belonging. Relating to the multitude of African/Afrodiasporic realities, they offer a decentered space of identification that enables the subject to embrace (new) networks of solidarity and, through active self-positioning, transcend an experience of marginalization characteristic of her/his diasporic condition.