An Afropolitan in South Asia

Abstract

In this photo essay, the authors gather a set of photographs of only partially visible subjects to speak about the tense and unpredictable encounters between different postcolonial histories. Staged as a conversation between an anthropologist and a photographer, the essay touches on the necessary modalities of such encounters, be it surprise, friendship, location and dislocation, or sometimes even invisibility. Central to the essay are conversations about encounters between the authors themselves, mediated by the sights, sounds, and serendipities of the postcolonial city. Using the Invisible Borders Trans-African Project—a decade-long venture bringing together artists, photographers, and writers in road trips across Africa—as a starting point, the essay considers the implications of broadening this imaginary into other borders and postcolonial border beings and whether this might constitute a particular kind of utopian project.