Uncommodified Blackness

This book is a study of the lived experience of African men in Australia and New Zealand. The author employs a relational account of racism which foregrounds how the colonial shaped the contemporary, with the settler states of contemporary Australia and New Zealand having been moulded by their colonial histories. Uncommodified Blackness examines the changing racial conditions in Australia and New Zealand,  inspired by the view that as racial conditions change globally, prevailing racial modalities in these two countries must be reexamined and theory must be developed or revised as appropriate.

Students and scholars across a range of social science disciplines will find this book of interest, particularly those with an interest in refugees, immigration, race and masculinity.

“Mandisi Majavu’s book, Uncommodified Blackness. The African Male Experience in Australia and New Zealand offers a detailed, critical examination of the everyday, cultural and social experiences of African male migrants in Australia and New Zealand. … this is a welcome contribution to the limited sociological knowledge and understanding of everyday life experiences of Africans living in the West, and especially in Australia and New Zealand, given their small but growing African populations.” (Louise Owusu-Kwarteng, Ethnic and Racial Studies, September, 2017)

“The book offers valuable insights for studies of refugees and migration, global African and urban geographies, and the past-presents of white supremacy. … Majavu’s work highlights the exciting insights afforded by closer ties between African Geographies and this new body of scholarship. It pushes us toward a diversely imagined Africa, one inclusive of global African and Afro-descendent communities, marked by, and resisting, colonial pasts and presents, and invigorated by the long legacies of anti-racist thought.” (Caroline Faria, African Geographical Review, July, 2017) 

“The long outrageous history of racist discrimination against Africans in the U.S., Canada, and South Africa, whether through slavery, Jim Crow, or apartheid, is a familiar story, if one that requires constant retelling. But the two other Anglo white settler states—Australia and New Zealand—have not been a part of this narrative. Now, in this important addition to the literature on comparative global racism, Mandisi Majavu provides a devastating picture of the everyday harassment faced in these societies by African refugees. It is a book we urgently need to add to our libraries.” (Charles W. Mills, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, CUNY Graduate Center)

Mandisi Majavu works on the critical theorization of anti-black racism. He was born and grew up in apartheid South Africa. He has been researching and writing about race and racism for the past fifteen years.