Decentering the Black Atlantic in “global” pop: Afrobeats and the politics of cultural visibility
Jaana Serres, postdoctoral scholar, Groningen University
Before platformization made it a segment of global pop, Afrobeats was already shaped by circulations spanning the Nigerian ethnoscape. Its expansion from below relied on fluid structures and mobile agents operating notably through trading hubs, such as Dubai or Kuala Lumpur. This paper examines how these liminal actors and geographies have been erased from the dominant #AfricaToTheWorld narrative centered in London, Paris, and New York, where Afrobeats is increasingly championed by cultural institutions and Afro-diasporic corporate professionals. It then presents ongoing research on the multiple contemporary mediations of Afrobeats across Asia. Preliminary findings reveal how top-down, Western-mediated corporate initiatives articulate with entrepreneurial, diasporic practices. The paper suggests a novel use of the “inter-Asia” theoretical-methodological framework, mobilizing it to trace the commercial circulations of West African cultural production across networked Asian hubs. This delineates the construction of a “global” popular culture that bypasses the historical routes of the Black Atlantic. Ultimately, the paper interrogates the politics of visibility in an emerging multipolar cultural order and calls for a reassessment of reference epistemological frameworks.