Abstract

The study of African cultural production in Brazilian universities has always been entangled with broad social changes regarding the making of national identity and the place black people occupy in Brazil—both symbolically and materially. African Studies conducted in Brazil reflect the centrality of Africa for these disputes in their peculiar thematic, chronological and geographical focus, as well as certain theoretical and epistemological approaches. In this chapter, I intend to briefly sketch the emergence of African Literature in Brazil as a legitimate field of research in order to address three inter-connected, dominant yet diffuse features developed over time—stretching from research practice to theory and involving teaching and university departmental politics as well—that are currently hampering our ability to build relevant, critical knowledge about Africa from the reading of literary works written by Africans.