Feeling/thinking the archive: Participatory mapping Marronage

Ana Laura Zavala Guillen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
25 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This article develops a decolonial participatory method to map the geographies of descendants of fugitives from slavery, or Maroons, to disrupt white-Mestizo constructions of Latin American territories. Maroon-descendant communities can take advantage of existing archives and their extensive oral history to explain their territorial development from a home-grown perspective. With the researcher's assistance, members of San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia, used their knowledge and emotions as a lens through which to analyse colonial records to map their territory from both a historical and present day perspective. Feeling/thinking about dispossession and resistance while counter-using the colonial archive to reclaim Afro-descendant territory is a subversive undertaking, one that is engrained in the legacy of Maroon resistance.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)416-425
Number of pages10
JournalArea
Volume55
Issue number3
Early online date24 Apr 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2023
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • archive
  • Colombia
  • decolonial methods
  • marronage
  • oral history
  • participatory mapping

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