Paper Short Abstract:

This paper examines the ways in which African-Americans conceptualize decolonization, including the idea of anti-colonialism as a parallel to the Civil Rights struggle in the US, the comparison of "slavery vs. colonialism", and the more recent idea of applying the notion of decolonization to the US.

Paper Abstract:

The process of decolonization was, since its very beginning, a key influence on the political thinking of many African-American leaders (including such notable figures as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Asa Philip Randolph etc.). This paper examines the multitude of ways in which both African-American intellectuals and the wider culture in general conceptualize decolonization. These concepts are intrinsically tied to the African-American experience, with the African anti-colonial struggle seen as a parallel process to the Civil Rights struggle in the US. In recent decades, the perception of decolonization of Africa determined how the African-Americans perceive more recent immigrants from Africa, with the historical comparison of "slavery vs. colonialism" being relatively ubiquitous. The theoretical developments in post-colonial studies have given rise to the idea of decolonizing the US, the American society itself, applying the (post-)colonial optics to contemporary social issues in Western countries. Thus, African-American culture offers a distinct, separate and somewhat underappreciated view of decolonization, which can have direct consequences for the African diaspora (in terms of its relations with local Black communities in the US) and African countries (through, for example, the development of heritage tourism). Understanding how African-Americans perceive decolonization in relation to their own experience is necessary for anthropologists working in the US, but may prove instrumental for those working in Africa as well – today’s anthropology of Africa would undoubtedly be enriched by acknowledging and addressing the multiple perspectives from which the process of decolonization can be seen and understood.