
ISSN 1517-5901 (online)
POLÍTICA & TRABALHO
Revista de Ciências Sociais, nº 59, Julho/Dezembro de 2023, p. 42-63
BEYOND “OUR AMERICA”:
Abiayala, Améfrica Ladina, and Our Afroamérica as Critical Geo-Historical
Categories
ALÉM DA “NOSSA AMÉRICA”:
Abya Yala, Améfrica Ladina e Nossa Afroamérica como categorias geo-
históricas críticas
Agustin Laó-Montes
Abstract
If Jose Marti coined the concept Our America as a key construct in the invention of Latin America as a
continent, here we are proposing two geo-historical categories with the aim of decolonizing the spatial and
temporal imaginary: Our Abiayala from Native American feel-thinking and Our Afroamerica from Afro-
descendant feel-thinking. Our Afroamerica is a translocal territory that crosses over and transcends national
borders throughout the Americas, while composing those spaces. Its historical universe and its spaces of culture
and politics mark a geography extending from South to North, sketching the length and the width of the routes of
enslavement and resistance, from Argentina to Canada, transgressing the – imaginary as well as material –
ramparts of the Rio Grande, that separate Our America from the Northern Colossus. On that key, Our
Afroamerica includes the Afro-Latin American histories and cultures from the Mexican North to the Patagonia,
as well as the Afro-Latinx ones that exist in the United States, thus composing (together with the Afro-North
American spaces, in themselves a montage of the cultures of Africanity) a vast and diverse historical archipelago
that we denominate Afro-American Diasporas. The main argument of the article is that Our Abiayala and Our
Afroamerica constitute critical geo-historical categories to decolonize our collective imaginaries and engender
modes of re-identification of self, history, and future horizons, which are key in the new wave of antisystemic
movements. The monograph will layout both categories but will focus in Our Afroamerica,
Keywords: Abiayala. Afroamerica. Antisystemic movements. Diaspora.
Resumo
Se José Marti engendrou o conceito de Nossa América como ideia-chave na invenção da América Latina como
continente, propomos aqui duas categorias geo-históricas com o objetivo de descolonizar o imaginário espacial e
temporal: Nossa Abiayla, originada do sentimento reflexivo de nativos americanos, e Rossa Afroamérica,
originada do sentimento reflexivo de afrodescendentes. Nossa Afroamérica é um território translocal que
atravessa e transcende as fronteiras nacionais de todas as Américas, tornando-se parte desses espaços. O seu
universo histórico e os seus espaços de cultura e política marcam uma geografia que se estende de Sul a Norte,
traçando o comprimento e a largura das rotas de escravização e resistência, da Argentina ao Canadá,
transgredindo as muralhas – tanto imaginárias quanto materiais – do Rio Grande, que separam a Nossa América
do Colosso do Norte. Nesse sentido, Nossa Afromérica inclui as histórias afrolatino-americanas e culturas do
____________
Agustin Lao-Montes is an intellectual-activist born in Puerto Rico. He has a Ph.D. in Historical Sociology, is
Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he is also Co-Director of the
Graduate Program in African Diaspora Studies, and a Researcher in the Center for Latin American and
Caribbean Studies. He published extensively in a variety of fields including: decolonial critique, historical
sociology, political sociology, urban studies, social movements, Africana & Caribbean studies, and puriversal
education. His last books are: "Contrapunteos Diasporicos: Cartogreafias Politicas de Nuestra Afroamerica"
(2020) and Du Bois on Latin America and the Caribbean: Trans-Amerian Pan-Africanism and Global Sociology"
(with Juliana Goes & Jorge Vasquez, forthcoming). He is a member of the coordinating committee of the
Articulacion Regional Afrodescendiente en las Americas y el Caribe and several other social movement
networks." E-mail: alaomontes@gmail.com