ABSTRACT
In this short chapter, I explore the terminology of Global South in relation to the theory and praxis of being engaged in grounded decolonial research and as the Founder of the Global South Center. I discuss the rapper Ana Tijoux’s musical engagements with South-South circuits and cultural formations as an important instance of sonic architectures. These are reverberating forms of expression that, unlike institutionalized notions of the Global South, produce a radical political engagement with post Bandung global histories and geographies, leading away from dispossession into the creative nexus of the otherwise.
In this short chapter, I consider what it means to theorize, generate methods, and create ways of working across difference that center the Global South, using my experience as a researcher in the Américas and as the Founding Director of the Global South Center as a knowledge archive for these reflections. What is meant by the term Global South? The term Third World, its precursor, emerged in the mid-20th century to address the non-aligned, Internationalist, and revolutionary movements that took place during the Cold War. Specifically, the third option steered a course between the binaries of capitalism and communism, providing a path for the post-colony not beholden to the economic power or cultural determinations of first-world nations. As an alternative, the third option arose from the African/Asian alliances that organized the Bandung Conference (1955), a resonant intercontinental political gathering that represented more than 50% of the global population at the time.
The conference statement of African and Asian solidarity is perhaps one of the most important documents of the 20th century, and one of the most consequential for the Global South. It offers not only a statement of economic and cultural cooperation but also a declaration for global peace in the atomic age, as well as multilateral approaches for the positive use of nuclear energy. The statement makes explicit African/Asian cooperation and solidarity by outlining support for Palestinian self-determination, and the demand to peacefully and righteously resolve the Palestinian question.
