Western modernity, cities, and race: Challenges to decolonial praxis in the African diaspora in the Americas

Abstract

How do we decolonize cities? By demanding control over their land and organizing their communities according to ethnic traditions and ancestral ontologies, Afro-descendant movements in the Americas create territories of lifeself-determined collectives in which people can experience new forms of life. Decolonial authors who have studied these communities define them as a path to decoloniality-a rupture with modern/colonial logics. However, most of the studies focus on communities in rural areas. Why are urban spaces not vital to the debates about decoloniality? Do cities pose specific challenges to the creation of territories of life? This paper explores these questions. Analyzing the urban experience of the African diaspora in the Americas, I argue that urban spaces challenge decoloniality because cities are often represented as the spatial and racial image of Western modernity, as white places of progress and development. I also argue this representation is based on Black people's evisceration. Finally, this paper seeks to contribute to decolonial urban struggles. Thus, I propose an urban decolonial praxis-an analytical lens and a praxis of research committed to decoloniality to explore cities' decolonization through the redefinition of territories of life, the redefinition of what 'being urban' means, and the wide range of urban resistances.