Moral Geographies of (Re)-Existence: Socio-Cultural Practices and Visions of a Good Life in Afro-descendant Communities in Salvador da Bahia (Brazil) and Cartagena de Indias(Colombia)

Abstract

Abstract

Our project sheds light on the ways in which Afro-descendant communities resist and (re-)exist in (post)colonial and (post-) enslavement Latin America. We focus on Salvador da Bahia (Brazil) and Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), two major arrival ports of “The Black Atlantic” (Gilroy 1993). These traumatic places of colonisation and the trade in enslaved Africans are marked by racial discrimination and socio-spatial exclusion. At the same time, their colonial city centres are recognised as UNESCO World Heritage since the 1980s, attracting thousands of tourists every year. In this ambivalent context, we focus on peri-urban neighbourhoods which tend to be ‘off the map’ for many tourists, researchers and political actors. In the face of inequality, violence and poverty, their dwellers are often stigmatised across-the-board as if they were morally inferior and incapable of fostering a peaceful social transformation. By contrast, we analyse how self-organised community initiatives may not only (re)valorise Afro-descendant identities, but also change people’s “moral topographies” (Taylor 1989) of what is right and good, altering their visions of a good life. Our transdisciplinary triangulation of ethnographic approaches, documentary methods and participatory action research integrates local communities and artists into joint reflections to stimulate mutual learning processes across the African diaspora.