Africana Thought

This special issue ofSouth Atlantic Quarterlybrings together scholars from a range of disciplines_including philosophy, anthropology, and literature_who are committed to thinking about the condition of contemporary black life. Moving among Africa, The United States, and The Caribbean, this issue demonstrates the vibrancy and historical roots of Africana thought and philosophy. One essay reveals the intricate richness of Africana thought, moving through psychoanalysis, folktales, Western metaphysics, and a critique of the political. Another essay offers a cautionary tale about the prospects for black life in the United States, even in the wake of Barack Obama_s historic political victory. A third essay argues that a _dead zone__a place where black lives are lost, where hopes are dashed, where history has failed the black subject_exists between the black elite and The disenfranchised black underclass. Still another essay addresses how the discourse about the political has triumphed over everything else in considerations of colonialism and its aftermath and proposes that a turn to culture might offer a new thinking of black futures. Contributors. Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf, Robert Bernasconi, Grant Farred, Joy James, Natalie Melas, V. Y. Mudimbe, Tejumola Olaniyan, Michael Ralph, Paul C. Taylor Grant Farred is Professor of Africana Studies and English at Cornell University.