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This is an powerful in-depth conversation with Dr Norman Ajari, an African scholar from France on his forthcoming (Jan 2022) book entitled Afropessimism and Black Male Studies. I suggest you watch this ready to take notes!
Timestamps:
00:00 I introduce AfricansArise, in particular explaining why I’m posting videos on Odysee now, and not YouTube.
01:18 Norman introduces himself, his personal and intellectual heritage.
10:40 Francophone Black Studies. Norman points out that though Francophone Africans played a key role in Black radical thought and practice, including the formation of Black Studies and HBCUs in the US, there is no Black Studies tradition within the Francophone Black world.
26:16 Norman explains how he got interested in Afropessimism.
31:11 Norman’s explains the genealogy of Afropessimism. He outlines the “original” anti-Black theory of the 1970s and 1980s that because Africans are inherently incapable of applying Liberal Democracy and Free Market Capitalism, Africa is thus doomed. He then explains how the term is "appropriated" by the Frank Wilderson III and Jared Sexton, building on the work of the likes of Saidiya Hartman and Hortense Spillers. This Afropessimism asks the basic question “why are we continuing to see this continuing violence and exploitation of Black people worldwide.”
43:17 Norman outlines how he sees Afropessimism as a good critique of Stuart Hall and Ernesto Laclau’s Hegemony theory. More widely, he challenges the foundations of intersectional alliances which Black people are compelled to join, but which can never and will never address Black suffering.
01:19:00 Black Male Studies as an indispensable component of Afropessimism. Norman explains that he is building on the work of Dr Tommy Curry who coined the term Black Male Studies in his 2017 book “The Man Not?” Norman explains that he was troubled at how some Afropessimist scholars such as Zakiyyah Imam Jackson were troubled by a text by David Marriot called “On Black Men” and only learned to value it by seeing it is as a tool to help to think about queer feminism and black feminism. This led Norman to build his argument that in fact, Black Male Studies is on its own terms, an indispensable part of Afropessimism and radical Black thought more widely.
01:28:20 Black Male suffering and Bourgeois Black Feminism. We end with Norman critiquing the Bourgeoisie or Liberal Black feminism of the likes of Bell Hooks for what he sees as its sustained attack on Black radical intellectual traditions.