Paper short abstract:

The paper aims to dwell on reviews such as Mensagem, Présence Africaine and Black Orpheus, the transcontinental connections they established, their contribution to the renovation of the literary environment and episteme in both Africa and Europe and to the reconfiguration of the idea of centre.

Paper long abstract:

While literature often tends to be considered, by the European tradition, as an individual practice, this contribution will focus on the collective editorial works that generations of young African intellectuals, strongly committed to the anti-colonial movements and/ or to Pan-African ideals, built through transnational connections in the 1960’s. In this sense, three journals will be considered: Mensagem, edited by Casa dos Estudantes do Império in Lisbon, Présence Africaine (Dakar and Paris) and Black Orpheus (Idaban). The circulations of texts, authors, and translation between those journals was deeply connected to a conception of art committed to the dislocation of the idea of centre. Those projects addressed oral tradition, visual arts and claimed the dignity of other forms of knowledge. Despite often using the “Metropoles” as intellectual hubs, African epistemes and their diffusion in and outside Africa were central to the reflections of the above-mentioned editorial projects.