
AbdouMaliq Simone: Africa and intersecting politics
Submitted by pt on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 09:41
There is always a potential balance in intersections between coercion, which enforces particular manifestations of identity, and the possibilities of using the intersection to become something else. Even in the intersection of localities/regions with clearly inscribed differences of status, resources, and opportunities, the power applied to and generated from these intersections does not have unilateral trajectories. In other words, the intersections become vehicles through which the projects of specific localities/regions are shaped. It is a means to reconfigure the places to which a given people belong and open-up new possibilities for becoming more than theyare (a people in the making). The generation of power, then, rests in the specificityof how intersections are conducted and the effects of the conduct which ensue.