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GEOGRAPHY HESITANT AND AFRICAN ASCENDANT: ADDICTION, DEBT, AND OTHER BIOSOCIAL BARRIERS TO (RE)MEMBERING—A CASE FOR BLACK SPACE AND AFRICANA GEOGRAPHICAL STUDIES
Henderson, Michael B.
Henderson, Michael B.
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Thesis/Dissertation
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2025-05
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Geography
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https://doi.org/10.34944/425j-hr04
Abstract
Africana Studies addresses fundamental though insufficiently considered Human Geography questions of existence, namely: what unique ways of knowing can African people offer humanity to ensure our collective survival on Earth? Less explored are the foundational assumptions being made about who does and does not constitute the “human” in Human Geography, and who has the authority to make such determinations. What is clear is that other people’s ability to define the metes and bounds of another person’s humanity and the geographies they may occupy and define, are a form of oppression. Described as a “preexisting constellation of African intellectual work, shaped by millennia of migration, adaptation, and improvisation,” Africana Studies provides a liberatory framework rooted in concepts of movement and memory—which, properly understood, scandalizes the violence in western exclusionary, if geographic, assumptions about humanity. This dissertation explores these frameworks to theorize interconnected Black spaces—be they global networks, communities, or human bodies (collectively a “Black Archipelago”)—as interconnected sites of healing and liberation. Grounded in the oldest ideas of humanity, this dissertation puts the discipline of Geography in conversation with Africana Studies scholars (such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Franz Fanon, and Sylvia Wynter) —who are increasingly, if not frequently referenced by Black geographers; and also those scholars rarely, if ever appearing in geography manuscripts (including Cheikh Anta Diop, June Jordan, Oyèrónké Oyewùmí, Greg Carr, Marimba Ani, Jacob Carruthers, et al.). This dissertation builds on decades and centuries if not millennia of conversations by important scholars of letters and those without portfolio, to suggest that “debt” and “addiction” are valuable concepts (“handles”) for demystifying durable systems that ensure we hoard resources, vote against our collective human interests, and empower those who promise to harm others on our behalf. I argue that this cycle can be broken by renegotiating our understanding of humanity on corporeal, regional, and global levels, creating a new, more ethical “human geography” that centers healing and liberation.
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