Afro-Indigenous Lifeworlds in Amefrica Ladina/Abya Yala* Research Working Group
Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies (CLACLS)
Most scholarship tends to see Afro-Latin American/Caribbean and Indigenous communities of the region as having two discrete and separate histories and lifeworlds, not recognizing the existence of intertwined histories, common conditions, and the existence of a long-term dialectic of collaboration and competition. In light of these complexly intertwined histories, we convene to study different instances of common living, collaboration and coalition-building, but also of competition and conflict between Afrodescendent and Indigenous peoples.
* Afro-Brazilian feminist Lelia Gonzalez called the continent Amefrica Ladina (referring also to Amerindian lifeworlds) and the Indigenous movement baptized the continent Abya Yala—an indigenous word from the Kuna people which means the big land of all of us, inclusive ways of renaming this continent called “the Americas” in occidentalist discourse.
Coordinators: Agustin Lao-Montes and Stephanie Fetta
Email: clacls@umass.edu to participate.