Coming out this month is Catherine John’s Afroindigenization: A Theory of Grassroots Cultural Practice (Duke University Press, 2026). Dianne M. Stewart (Emory University) writes, “Afroindigenzation is a transdisciplinary study by a senior scholar that demonstrates with originality, finesse, and power African spiritual modes of habitation, survival, and thriving among African descendants past and present across the Americas and the Caribbean. Catherine John’s skill at elaborating a new theory of African diaspora religiosity, spirituality, and cultural production/performance is truly exceptional.” See description, table of contents, and author’s bio below.
Description: In Afroindigenization, Catherine A. John addresses the underbelly of spiritual resilience shaping a range of African diasporic institutions, traditions, and practices. John argues that repressed forms of indigenous African knowledge systems manifest in a myriad of culturally embodied ways in African diaspora spaces and places. From mermaid lore in rural Jamaica to hip-hop trance-induced dance in Los Angeles to the stories of two debaters-turned-social-media-influencers, John shows how the descendants of enslaved Africans express the signs and substance of their afroindigenous power through collective creativity. Drawing from scholars such as Vèvè Clark, Hortense Spillers, Dianne M. Stewart, and Sylvia Wynter, Afroindigenization exposes the cultural and spiritual ancestries that lie at the heart of modern Black identities and practices.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction. KRIK: Afroindigenization and Marasa Consciousness 1
1. Mermaids in Woodside, Jamaica: Submerged Consciousness 37
2. Mountings in Rize: Becoming the Horse and the Turn Loose in Hip-Hop 64
3. Ìyá but Not Western Woman: A Grassroots Formulation of the Afrospora Feminine 106
4. Enter the Dragons of Debate: Rashid Campbell and George Lee’s 2014 Run 149
Afterword. KRAK: “Jack Mandora Mi Nuh Choose None” 184 [. . .]
Catherine A. John is Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Rhode Island and author of Clear Word and Third Sight: Folk Groundings and Diasporic Consciousness in African Caribbean Writing, published by Duke University Press.
For more information, see https://dukeupress.edu/Afroindigenization?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=blog%20post&utm_campaign=b-NewBooks_Aug26