Allan da Rosa and the Creation of an Afro-Brazilian Radical Imagination

Abstract

By creating a literature rooted in the experiences of Afro-Brazilians living in São Paulo’s peripheral communities, writer Allan da Rosa articulates an imaginative space for marginalized black residents as a way to escape poverty and racism. This article frames the author’s analysis of Allan da Rosa’s literary works Zagaia (2007) and Da Cabula (2008) through the lens of Robin D. G. Kelley’s concept (2003) of the Black radical imagination to examine how liminal spaces found in São Paulo’s urban periphery become the impetus for social change. Imagination as a social practice plays a key role in the black public sphere, as Afro-descendent communities look to other historically imagined times for inspiration to conceive a future rooted in freedom. Based on these two literary works, this article analyzes the role of the imagination in the black public sphere from which Allan da Rosa’s discourses emerge in terms of how his protagonists inhabit liminal spaces that continually fluctuate between the reality of urban life and the metaphysical. The purpose of this article, therefore, was to demonstrate through Zagaia and Da Cabula that the author belongs to this tradition of engaging in the Black radical imagination as a political strategy that not only resists racial and social inequity but seeks out solutions to empower afro-descendent communities through creative strategies of cultural affirmation and social mobilization.