Spaces of Entanglement in the Bight of Biafra

Intersected by small creeks, rivulets, and dotted with mangrove swamps, the interior of the Bight of Biafra is a region with a long history of decentralized political arrangements and intricate trading networks predating the emergence of the Atlantic world. This presentation focuses on the often- overlooked built environments of the region. Often smaller-scale and impermanent in nature, these spaces of entanglement have long been productive sites of Black identity formation involving competing and overlapping interests. By historicizing these spaces, we can challenge linear assumptions about agency, progress, and domination in the literature on colonial and postcolonial cities and add an important sub-Saharan comparative case study to the scholarship on globalization and modernity.