The Magic of Decolonization

Using a single line in Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1961) as a jumping-off point, this article meditates on the decolonial possibilities of Afro-Atlantic religions and their associated ritual objects. In it, I argue not that Afro-Atlantic works are inherently opposed to colonial epistemes but rather that moralizing colonial regimes’ exercises of power has forced their association with the concept “magic” and, in turn, the institutional critiques that “magic” creates. As such, I speculate on the forms of ontological uprooting necessitated by a full reckoning with Afro-Atlantic spiritualities—or what the institutional structures noted above might characterize as “Black magic”—may afford the disciplines of art history and material culture.