Diaspora Without Displacement: The Coloniality and Promise of Capoeira in Senegal (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781478031970)

Capoeira--a game of combat primarily developed by enslaved West Central Africans--has become an icon of both Brazilian national culture and pride in the country's diasporic African heritage. Yet the sport remains less accessible in Africa itself, overshadowed in large part by participants in the Global North. In Diaspora Without Displacement, Celina de S? tells the story of capoeira as it 'returns' to the African continent through the creative initiatives of young urban professionals in Senegal. De S? demonstrates how a new generation of African capoeiristas are taking up their own Afro-diasporic performance tradition, effectively reframing notions of diaspora and race through their social practice. Though capoeira has largely Angolan roots, and the agents of return are typically white Brazilians and Europeans, the West African practitioners de S? documents nonetheless form an exceptional relationship to capoeira that, in turn, becomes a mode of political and social consciousness. Drawing on ethnographic research in Senegal as well as analyzing a capoeira network across West Africa, de S? shows how urban West Africans use capoeira to explore the relationship between Blackness, diaspora, and African heritage.

Author: Celina de S?
ISBN-10: 1478031972
ISBN-13: 9781478031970
Publisher: Duke University Press
Language: English
Published: 07/31/2025
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.98lbs