Manuel Zapata Olivella, an Afro-Colombian Renaissance Man

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Manuel Zapata Olivella (1920–2004) is the most important and prolific Afro-Hispanic novelist of the twentieth century. He cultivated all genres of literature. He also studied and performed African and Amerindian arts, particularly oral traditions regarding myth, music, dance, and healing. He traveled the world. He was also foundational in creating and supporting black movements in Colombia, which focuses on cultural inclusion and social justice. Despite cultivating a highly experimental narrative form in his literary masterpiece, Changó el gran putas (1983), he received minimal critical attention in the United States and Colombia until 2000, when the coalition of activists, scholars, and individuals focused on “Afro-descent” created a resurgence of interest in his work. This panel will present on the latest developments in this on-going rediscovery of an Afro-Colombian Renaissance Man, whose complete works will soon be published. John Maddox will present an empowering interpretation of Zapata’s “curse of Changó,” which claims the deity condemned blacks to slavery: Maddox argues that the cultural context of the myth mitigates his choice and depicts shame and disunity that blacks, Africa, and the Americas must overcome. Hanna Nohe gives a narratological analysis of the voices and unified structure of the novel, which invert the (neo)colonial gaze. For Daiana Nascimento dos Santos, the ocean is a bridge for constructing identities between Africa and its diaspora. She compares Changó to contemporary novels from Haiti and Brazil. Lucía Ortiz presents on groundbreaking scholarly discoveries at the Manuel Zapata Olivella archives at Vanderbilt University.

Sub Track

• Afro-Latin/Indigenous Peoples

Session Organizer

• John T Maddox, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Chair

• John T Maddox, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Discussant

• Lucia P Ortiz, Regis College

Individual Presentations

• The Curse of Changó Revisited - John T Maddox, University of Alabama at Birmingham

• Un universo narrativo que invierte la diferencia colonial: Changó, el gran putas de Manuel Zapata Olivella - Hanna Nohe, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

• Desplazamientos, identidades y resistencias en el océano - Daiana Nascimento dos Santos, Centro de Estudios Avanzados, Universidad de Playa Ancha