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Author ORCID Identifier

N/A

AccessType

Open Access Dissertation

Document Type

dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Program

Sociology

Year Degree Awarded

2018

Month Degree Awarded

September

First Advisor

Agustin Lao-Montes

Second Advisor

Millie Thayer

Third Advisor

Enobong Hannah Branch

Fourth Advisor

John Bracey Jr

Subject Categories

Folklore | Other Political Science | Social and Behavioral Sciences | Sociology

Abstract

Black politics is a diverse range of social practices, actions, and thoughts through which subordinate groups, political figures, activists and artists negotiate power relations and propose alternatives to their forms of oppression. Negritude was the framework which facilitated the emergence of sites and forms of black politics in Colombia during the 70s. While the founders and leaders of the negritude movements -among them, Étiene Léro, Jules Monnerot, René Menil, Aimé Césaire, Léon Damas, Léonard Sainville, Aristide Maungée, the Achille brothers, Léopold Sedar Senghor, Osmane Sosé and Dirago Diop, from French colonies-, were thinking of “It is time for good Cuban Coffee and to say goodbye to negritude” and “to say hello to our Mother America and to the revolution that it has started here.” Afrocolombians were organizing, appropriating and re-articulating old and new sites and forms of black politics to mobilize, display and re-fashion negritude discourses, not limited to black literature. This dissertation examines how sites and forms of black politics, that emerged during the 70s, developed and proposed anti-racist agendas by using negritude discourses. I call them a. black in the left; b. the mestizo negritude; c, the liberal negritude; and d. de-subjugating black culture. Each of these sites and forms of black politics created and developed individual interpretative and explicative tools to reveal racial dominance and affirm blackness in Colombia. Each of these brought up conflicts and tensions by mobilizing agendas of the negritudes. From these dynamics of black politics, I conclude that although culture is a crucial tool for black liberation, culture by itself does not necessarily reconcile the tensions between class, political and gender differences. On the other hand, I conclude that politics should be understood as a contingent and relational ensemble of actions and discourses through which actors in difference positions negotiate power relations.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/11944316.0

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