The Editors of African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal announce a Call for Papers for a special issue on Creolization and Trans Atlantic Blackness: The Visual and Material Cultures of Slavery.
European colonization forced a variety of populations into extended and imbalanced contact. United by the Atlantic Ocean, the populations and cultures of the Americas were disrupted and remade in a process that had slavery at its center. The transplantation of Africans as slave labor across the Americas was coupled with the containment, exploitation, assimilation and genocide of indigenous peoples and the strategic exploitation of other “undesirable” groups (ie. Irish, Asian etc.). Within the Trans Atlantic World, identities were constantly policed to ensure the maintenance of racial, social and cultural hierarchies. The effects of this cultural and social clash are often referred to as creolization.
For the enslaved, creolization can be defined as the transformation of Africans into “blacks” and the concomitant changes that occurred in the social habits, music, dress, culture, religion, language, food and art of these populations. For Africans, creolization was always experienced under duress since slave owners and colonialists created policies and laws, which prohibited the practice of African cultures. But they also strategically condoned, even celebrated slave culture for their own enjoyment or political benefit.
While creolization has been extensively examined as language, politics, and social control, art historical (visual cultural) inquiry has been scant. This special issue seeks contributions on the creolization of visual art and material culture of diasporized Africans and the visual representation of creolized populations within the context of Trans Atlantic Slavery. Articles that explore “high” and “low” art, popular culture and material culture are welcome and may include (but are not limited to) painting, drawing, architecture, printmaking, photography, clothing/dress, carnival, scarification, tattooing, self-care and hair styling. Comparative research (across regions or populations) is also welcome.
Prospective contributors are invited to send a short bio/affiliation (200 words) and abstract (300 words maximum) in English to the Guest Editor: Dr. Charmaine Nelson, McGill University, Montreal, Canada at: charmaine.nelson@mcgill.ca
Deadline for submitting abstracts: December 15, 2015
Notification of acceptance: January 15, 2016
Submission of final paper: June 15, 2016
African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal is devoted to a critical interrogation of the trans/ national movements, locations and intersections of subjectivity within the African Diaspora in the context of globalization as well as in different discourses, practices and political contexts. The journal maps and navigates the theoretical and political shifts imposed by the nation-state to provide a counter- narrative of subject positions of people of the African Diaspora, grounded in cultural and political responses.