[Commlist] Call for Contributors: Transnational Africanisms in Communication: Diasporic Epistemologies, and Afrocentric Ways of Knowing Across the Black Diaspora

    CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS Edited Handbook (In discussion with Palgrave
    Macmillan)
    Transnational Africanisms in Communication: Diasporic Epistemologies
    and Afrocentric Ways of Knowing Across the Black Diaspora
    Editors: Nickesia S. Gordon & Kehbuma Langmia

    Chapter proposal extended deadline: November 30, 2026

    Afrocentric communication theory gave the discipline a durable
    vocabulary for African ways of knowing. Molefi Kete Asante's concept
    of nommo, the generative, world-making force of the spoken word, and
    Ama Mazama's articulation of the Afrocentric paradigm established
    that communication could be theorized from an African center rather
    than measured against a Western monolith. This handbook seeks to
    build directly on that foundation.

    We invite proposals across five thematic streams. These are
    illustrative and not exhaustive as we welcome
    chapters that push the boundaries of each stream or that bridge more
    than one.

    I. Rhetoric Across the Diaspora
    • Diasporic rhetorical traditions: nommo, signifying, oratory, and
    call-and-response
    • The griot as rhetor: praise, genealogy, memory, and authority in
    diasporic publics
    • “Nation language” (Kamau Brathwaite) as rhetorical practice across
    diasporic tongues

    II. Media, Sound, and the Diasporic Public
    • Black, community, and alternative media; radio and sound studies
    • Religion and media; the constitution of diasporic publics
    • The “digital griot;” orality and authority remediated on
    contemporary platforms

    III. Performance and Embodied Communication
    • Ritual, drum, and dance as performance and as message-systems
    • Candomblé, Vodou, Santería/Lukumí, Orisha traditions, and
    Rastafari livity as epistemic and
    communicative practice

    IV. Relational and Intercultural Ethics
    • Ubuntu and kindred relational philosophies as theories of
    communication and community
    • Amefricanidade and other frameworks theorized from an African center

    V. Communication and Resistance
    • Marronage, the quilombo, and counterpublics
    • Communicative practices of refusal, secrecy, and survival

    Diasporic Reach: Who We Are Seeking
    This is a global call. We are especially keen to hear from scholars
    working from and on:

      *
        South America - especially Brazil (Black, quilombola, and
        Candomblé media and comunicação) and Afro-
      *
        Colombian and Afro-Ecuadorian Pacific-coast traditions.
      *
        The Caribbean - Vodou and Rastafari semiotics, creolization, and
        nation language.
      *
        Black Europe - Lusophone, Francophone, and Anglophone Black
        European media and epistemologies.
      *
        Afro-Asia - the Siddi/Sheedi communities of South Asia and the
        Indian Ocean African diaspora, an area
      *
        almost wholly absent from communication scholarship.
      *
        North America - Gullah Geechee language and storytelling,
        African American oral traditions, First
      *
        Nations and Indigenous Black communicative experiences,
        including but not limited to media
      *
        representations.


    What to Submit
    Please submit a chapter proposal that includes:

      *
        A working title for your proposed chapter.
      *
        A 500-word abstract outlining your chapter's argument, its
        theoretical and/or empirical grounding, its
      *
        regional/diasporic site, and its contribution to one (or more)
        of the five thematic streams above.
      *
        5–6 keywords identifying the chapter's core themes and
        geographic/cultural focus.


    Proposals should be submitted as a single PDF or Word document.

    Please send your proposal (working title, 500-word abstract, and
    keywords) as a single PDF or Word
    document to (nsggpt /at/ rit.edu) <mailto:(nsggpt /at/ rit.edu)> by November 30,
    2026. Please use the subject line “Transnational
    Africanisms Chapter Proposal.”


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