Crossing the Sahara: Fanon's notes on African Unity
Long recognized as one of the most prominent thinkers of the African diaspora, Martinican-born psychiatrist Frantz Fanon has nevertheless been read in limited orbits: his work on race, gender and sexual relations in Martinique remains distinctly separate from his writings on colonial trauma in Algeria. Yet if anyone embodies the central role that mobility plays in shaping understandings of Afro-diasporic identities it is Fanon. What does the notion of dispersal mean for Fanon? How might his entire geography, including but not limited to the triumvirate of France-Martinique-Algeria allow us to better understand Fanon's thinking on mobility as decolonization?
This exhibit maps Fanon's travel notes from his tenure as Algerian ambassador to Ghana in 1960. Known as the first sub-Saharan African country to attain independence from colonial rule, Ghana, for Fanon, becomes a key site for challenging the Saharan divide and envisioning new possibilities for African unity.
A. Joseph-Gabriel
*Please stay tuned, exhibit forthcoming shortly.
Fanon's travel notes cited from Fanon, Frantz. <em>OEuvres</em>. Paris: Découverte, 2011. Print<br /><br />Photo credits: Image made available on Wikimedia Commons by Pacha J. Willka
English and French
Neatline exhibit
Congo Diary: Eslanda Robeson's Second African Journey
This first exhibit charts African American anthropologist and civil rights activist, Eslanda Robeson's travels through colonial Central Africa in 1946. Bringing together sometimes far-flung archival materials, this digital map allows users to visualize black women's travel and mobility as ways of articulating both diaspora and anti-colonial resistance. Ultimately, the goal is to insipire new conversations on the connection between decolonization processes and the making of diaspora.
A. Joseph-Gabriel
<h4><strong>Follow Robeson's journey <a href="http://digitizingdiaspora.com/neatline/show/eslandarobesontravels" target="_blank">here.</a></strong></h4>
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Primary sources for this exhibit are located at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.
Photo credits: This image was provided to Wikimedia Commons by the German Federal Archive (Deutsches Bundesarchiv) as part of a cooperation project.
English and French
Neatilne exhibit