Welcome to the 43rd issue of The Funambulist, the first of the eighth year of the magazine’s existence. It approaches the diasporic question through various political aspects, from the asset they constitute in their respective national struggles, to the political imaginaries they can provide to the anti-racist Left. The issue particularly addresses the colonial formation of diasporas through enslavement (Atlantic Afro-Diaspora, Raphaëlle Red), indenture (Indian diaspora in Guyana, South Africa, Mauritius, and Fiji, Maria del Pilar Kaladeen, Sumayya Vally, Gitan Djeli, and Shivanjani Lal; Chinese diaspora in Polynesia, Karine Shan and Yiling Changues), or forced labor (Korean Zainichi in Japan, Hyewon Song). Refugeehood is also central to it and questions the diasporic role in struggles at home (Eelam Tamils in Western Europe, Abinaya Nathan), as well as the conceptualization of a “refugee settler” condition (Vietnamese in Guåhan and Palestine, Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi). In some cases, the idea of a “radical diasporism” is seducing, but important to nuance (Jewish diaspora, Ben Ratskoff). Cultural production, and more specifically music, is approached in a political manner to describe the diasporic condition (Cape Verdeans in Portugal, Sónia Vaz Borges and Flávio Zenun Almada). Finally, the metaphor of diasporas as constellations suggested by the cover’s artwork is brought to us by Inès di Folco Djemni.

To know more, you can read the issue’s introduction in open-access by following this link.

This issue’s News from the Fronts come from Indigenous Brazil (Glicéria Tupinambá and Túlio Rosa), Western Sahara (Inma Naïma Zanoguera), and the whole island of Ireland (Maeve O’Brien).

Past Issues

The Funambulist 50 Featured
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Redefining Our Terms

Open Access

A glossary reflecting on our political concepts such as Indigenous, Intifada, Blackness, Ubuntu, Genocide, Decolonial, Queer, Violence, or Banlieues

The Funambulist 49 Featured
49

Schools of the Revolution

Radical education initiatives in several geographies across the world, and in spaces as different as the mangrove, the prison, the street, the kitchen table, or reading groups.

The Funambulist 47 Featured 1
47

Forest Struggles

An issue on political struggles taking place in and for forests in Brazil, Colombia, Gabon, India, St. Vincent, West Papua, Europe, the U.S., and Palestine

The Funambulist 45 Featured
45

The Subcontinent

Open Access

Thinking through the region shared by Pakistan, India, Kashmir, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, above and below nation-states.