Afro-Asianism

Abstract

This article addresses the term “Afro-Asianism” and its uses for scholars of Africa. Drawing on Pan-Africanism as an initial point of orientation, three aspects of Afro-Asianism are discussed: first, its emergence as a political concept during the period of global decolonization after the Second World War; second, its use as an analytic framework for situating historical and presentist trends across the Indian Ocean; and third, its role and function for rethinking African identities. Taken together, Afro-Asianism holds the potential for reconsidering the contours of African studies and Asian studies, thus decolonizing area studies more generally in new and productive ways.