Episode #93: Covid-19, Pop Culture and the Anticolonial Turn in Africana Studies

Black Power Talks

In this episode, we speak with Professor Layla Brown about her scholarship, the covid-19 pandemic and the way forward. Professor Brown’s work is emblematic of that anticolonial turn, or might we say anticolonial return, that has taken place in Africana Studies. This anticolonial return has been directly impacted by the spread of African Internationalism, evinced in the Chairman Omali Yeshitela's 2019 Oxford Union "Africa Debate".

Professor Brown is trained as a Cultural Anthropologist, researcher, and educator. She earned her PhD from Duke University and specializes in the contemporary and historical study of social movements in the African Diaspora. She places specific focus on African communities in the Americas as well as African women liberation. She is Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Africana Studies at Northeastern University but is currently a visiting professor in Germany. Professor Brown’s recent research looks at the covid-19 colonial virus pandemic, African resistance, and colonial domination. Her recent article “The Pandemic of Racial Capitalism: Another World is Possible” was published in From the European South.

Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.