Contemporary considerations of the Bandung Conference and the vision of Afro-Asian affinity that it raised have been tinged with skepticism. Through the lens of a world defined by the Cold War, with its vision of decolonized people coming together against the West with a spirit of ressentiment, Afro-Asian solidarity means little more for the former colonial powers than a pragmatic politics of a new elite seeking to consolidate itself. Very little historical work has been done to show the emerging network of affinities, ideologies, and institutions that made up the texture of the Afro-Asian world. And, again, the role of the Soviet Union in the decolonized world needs a rethinking outside of the Cold War frame. This review argues that an evaluation of a few works of literature cannot be a substitute for historical research. Arguably, the emerging theoretical challenge from the global South to Western epistemologies builds on the Bandung spirit.
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Spring 2014
Issue Editors
Book Review|
May 01 2014
Bandung Is Back: Afro-Asian Affinities
Burton, Antoinette,
Brown over Black: Race and the Politics of Postcolonial Citation
. (Delhi
: Three Essays Collective
, 2012
); x+172 pp
. ISBN 978–81–88789–79–5, paper, US$12.00.Radical History Review (2014) 2014 (119): 241–245.
Citation
Dilip M. Menon; Bandung Is Back: Afro-Asian Affinities. Radical History Review 1 January 2014; 2014 (119): 241–245. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/01636545-2402153
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