This document discusses the dismembering practices used against African subjects during colonialism and in the diaspora. It describes how European colonizers imposed their own names and memory onto the African landscape, erasing indigenous place names. It also discusses how enslaved Africans in the diaspora had their own names and naming systems eliminated as part of a systematic program of enforced amnesia, and were instead given the names of their owners. The document then examines linguicide, the destruction of languages, among diasporic Africans and linguifam, the imposition of a dominant language, on the African continent.

1. Something Torn and
New:
Self-definition, Re-
membering and the
Sociological Imagination

2. 1.
The Sociological
Imagination

3. 2.
Dismembering
Practices
the African colonial subject and the diasporic African subject

4. 2a.
the African colonial
subject

5. ”
“the African landscape is blanketed with
European memory of place. Names like
Port Elisabeth, King Williamstown,
Queenstown, and Grahams-town cover
the landscape that Hintsa died
protecting from foreign occupation.
Westlands (formerly Kĩrũngiĩ) and
Karen now become the names of the
lands Waiyaki once traversed.” (8)

6. 2b.
the diasporic African
subject

7. ”
“A systematic program eliminated
their memory of Africa. Their own
names and naming systems once
again were seen as a barrier to the
intended amnesia. So, break up their
names. Give them the names of the
owners of the plantations to signify
their being the property of Brown or
Smith or Williams.” (13-14)

8. 3.
Language as a Monolith
linguicide in the diaspora & linguifam on the continent

9. Conclusion:
❖ Why is it important to think of the process of self-definition as it relates to
Africanness and blackness through the lens of the sociological imagination?
❖ Tada Akin Aina exemplifies the autonomy possible in this process of self-
actualization:
➢ “Africans must interpret and explain Africa… In other words, we must find
our voices and our minds by providing our own narratives. Africa must be
its own interpreter through generating its own knowledge, discourses,
stories, myths and narratives.” (98)

10. Questions:
❖ Where do we see the effects of self-defining blackness in an
oppressive colonial framework of whiteness exemplified in the
text?

11. Thanks!
Any questions?