Constellations of Blackness: Revolution, Language, and the Afro-Arab Imaginary

UChicago Center for Middle Eastern Studies

In this episode, Sophia Azeb excavates genealogies of the Afro-Arab world. Highlighting the Pan-African Festival of 1969 in Algeria, Azeb shows how art functioned as a cultural exchange between African diaspora communities and Arabs in the Middle East. In the backdrop of the Algerian War for Independence, this festival collected the various anti-colonialist, Pan-African, and Third Worldist ideas underpinning what Azeb dubs the “Afro-Arab imaginary.” Interview by Marie Helmy. The views expressed in this podcast are the participants' own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.