Publisher Description

Cartographies of Blackness and Black Indigeneities acknowledges the saliency of Blackness in contemporary social formations, insisting that how bodies are read is extremely important. The contributors to this volume elicit or produce both tangible and intangible social, political, material, spiritual and emotional effects and consequences on Black and African bodies, globally. Cartographies of Blackness and Black Indigeneities is a call to celebrate Blackness in all its complexities, including race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, (dis)ability, spiritualities, and geographies. Understanding Blackness is to insist on Black and African political and cultural appreciation of the phenomenon outside of Euro-colonial attempts to regulate and define how Black and African bodies are perceived. This book intersperses discussions of Blackness with Black racial identity and cultural politics and the required responsibilities for the Global Black and African populations to build viable communities utilizing our differences—knowledges, cultures, politics, identities, histories—as strengths.

Author Biography

Ghanaian-born George J. Sefa Dei is Professor of Social Justice Education and Director of the Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT). He has written extensively on anti-racism education, minority youth and schooling, Indigenous knowledge, Blackness and Black Indigeneity.

Ezinwanne (Ezi) Odozor is a Nigerian-born writer and scholar based in Toronto. Her work, whether fiction or non-fiction, focuses on themes of identity, culture, gender, race, health, and intimacy. Ezinwanne is currently completing a master's in education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

Andrea Vásquez Jiménez is an Afro-Latina born to Colombian parents in Toronto, Canada. She is a community organizer, community educator, previous 2018 Ontario NDP Candidate, and a scholar-warrior. Andrea is Co-Director and Co-Founder of the Latinx, Afro-Latin-America, Abya Yala Education Network (LAEN), a Toronto-based, grassroots organization.

Table of Contents

• Mapping Blackness: An Introduction
• George J. Sefa Dei, Ezinwanne Odozor and Andrea Vásquez Jiménez (Editors)
• Conceptualizing Blackness: Theorizing Indigeneity
• 1. Teaching Race and (African) Indigeneity: Personal Reflections of a Black Scholar
• George J. Sefa Dei
• 2. Black Indigenization as Politics of Transformation: Implications of the Zimbabwe Experiment
• Munyaradzi Hwami and Edward Shizha
• 3. Making Peace with Movement: Dislocation and the Black Diaspora
• Ezinwanne Toochukwu Odozor
• Resisting Anti-Blackness and Anti-Black Racisms
• 4. Writing Black Life: Theoretical Underpinnings
• Marlon Simmons
• 5. Navigating Being a Tall Black Female in Hostile Environments
• Carla Rodney
• 6. In Search of Dark Stars: Addressing Anti-Blackness in Schools through Critical Racial Embodiment in Educational Leadership
• Michelle Forde
• 7. Unlearning Our Blackness
• John Castillo
• 8. The Black Woman Who Has Learned to Fear Herself: An Inquiry of the Myth of the Angry Black Woman
• Ke'Shana Danvers
• 9. Special Education: When and Where Does Blackness Fit in?
• Shaniqwa Thomas
• 10. Prisoners of a Skin Color: The Criminalization and the Social Construction of Blackness in Risk Assessment of Black Youth
• Paul Banahene Adjei and Harriet Akanmor
• Black Futurity and Educational Praxis
• 11. The Complexities of Race, Racialization, Blackness, and Africanness: Working to Decolonize My Teacher Education Program
• Andrew Allen
• 12. Black Theorizing in Academia: Toward an Anti-Colonial Reading, a Response to Professor George J. Sefa Dei
• Jennifer Mills
• 13. Black Graduation at the University of Toronto: A Case for Placemaking as Liberation Praxis
• Jessica P. Kirk
• 14. A Spiritual Call for Afrocentric Learning Spaces and A Reflection on the Current State of Afrocentric Education in Toronto
• Kimbra Yohannes Iket
• 15. The Intersection of Afrofuturism and African Indigenous Knowledge Systems: The Implications for Black Studies
• Gloria Emeagwali

Review

"Our education of Blackness and Africanness for political action and social change would be incomplete without attention to the perspectives, frameworks, theorizations, analyses, and visions provided in Cartographies of Blackness and Black Indigeneities."
"Dei, Odozor, and Vasquez Jiminez' edited book Cartographies of Blackness and Black Indigeneities brings together a wonderfully wide range of voices on the issue of Blackness and all its complexities. This text therefore is not only relevant to researchers and graduate students but also community workers, policy makers, and individuals in the wider society who need to be aware and ready to act on the challenges facing Black peoples everywhere. Indeed, it is even more important in this political era when to be identified as Black brings with it a host of difficulties. The multiplicity of spaces and perspectives addressed in this volume certainly afford the readers the opportunity to come to "a critical consciousness of our existential and ontological realities as African and Black peoples" that, according the editors, is one of their objectives. Cartographies of Blackness and Black Indigeneities provides the evidence for those of us wanting to make the case, in our own voices, for the importance and significance of Blackness, Africanness and Indigeneity and is therefore a must read."--Janice B. Fournillier, Georgia State University

Review Quote

"Our education of Blackness and Africanness for political action and social change would be incomplete without attention to the perspectives, frameworks, theorizations, analyses, and visions provided in Cartographies of Blackness and Black Indigeneities ."

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