HI HINA NKARHI LOWU TAKA! Histórias, Culturas, Artes e Futuros Encruzilhados

Abstract

“We are the builders of the time to come!”, or, in xichangana, Hi Hina Nkarhi Lowu Taka! This endeavor opens pathways and possibilities for thinking about the new reality of societies based on technological innovations, and it offers a horizon for moving beyond their singular narrative construction. The vestiges of this turn are identified as aspects related to cultures and the arts (literature, cinema, visual arts, and music), originating mainly from the United States of America and Brazil, in a broad time frame from the mid-20th century to its most contemporary outlines in the 21th century. This includes the post-humanist advent in science fiction, which conceives of humanity in increasingly intertwined ways. The central problematic at hand leans on the critique raised by racialized social groups from these locations regarding the stereotypes and prejudices that demarcate certain social places and roles, particularly concerning their inclusion (or exclusion) in the constructions of societies or their idealizations. The impasse here, which we will attempt to explicit and challenge through Afro-referenced cultures, arts, and epistemes, from a contextualized perspective, but also as constructions of reality, concerns the coexistence of forms of oppression with certain visions of "progress," "development," or "future" that are presented as universal. We will show that these, in fact, correspond to specific groups that struggle to impose themselves through the various relationships of colonization, imperialism, and globalization. Furthermore, we will point out that the cultural and artistic productions of these groups perform an act of reaffirmation identity, existential and collectively self-determined.