DISEMBODYING THE BLACK BRIT
Christiana Ajai-Thomas
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Christiana Ajai-Thomas
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The Black Brit embodies the exploitative relation between Global North and South, Britain and Africa. The power dynamics that form race and nationhood draw Africans to Britain whilst preventing true belonging here. The Black Brit then is formed of truths imposed upon bodies.
iWhere museums have acted as spaces for formation of truth, this visual serves to put the truthmaking process into the hands of those who it has historically harmed. A compilation of photos taken by Black Brits documenting the mundane accompanied by audio of three Black Brits of African descent. The museum itself is removed from physical location as the Black Brit presents themself in difference and shared experiences. In so doing, Western truths of racial homogeneity and inferiority are displaced. Both museum and Black Brit are disembodied.
iiThemes:
Premonitions of Bodies, Presencing the Erotic
Methods: Digital Ethnography, Intimate, Film, Documenting the Mundane
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[i] Another recitation of Black British stories can be found in: ODE TO INCOHERENCE by Nasra Abdullahi
[ii] For another piece on migration, diaspora and memory, see: AFROREQUIEM by k. eltinaé
Methods: Digital Ethnography, Intimate, Film, Documenting the Mundane
[i] Another recitation of Black British stories can be found in: ODE TO INCOHERENCE by Nasra Abdullahi
[ii] For another piece on migration, diaspora and memory, see: AFROREQUIEM by k. eltinaé
My name is Christiana Ajai-Thomas but most people refer to me as Roni. I am a Black Brit currently an MSc student in Sociology at the LSE. I am most interested in postcolonial, Black Marxist and queer theories, and my recent dissertation looks at how LGBT+ Nigerians experience and respond to policing in Nigeria.
︎ @xt1ana
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︎ The Unenlightenment Project
︎ @xt1ana
︎ @unenlightenmentproject
︎ The Unenlightenment Project