Manifesto: Networks of Decolonisation in Asia and Africa

Scholarship on the Afro-Asian era has tended to focus on major diplomatic events. This manifesto is a call to acknowledge the larger Afro-Asian environment in which the “Bandung moment” took place, focusing on transnational networks outside those of interstate diplomacy. This manifesto highlights the multiple modes of internationalism by which Asian and African actors navigated and subverted the power dynamics of the early Cold War, and popularised Afro-Asianism at the local level. In approaching decolonization from the point of view of the Global South, we advocate a collaborative approach that brings together findings from multiple archives and regional specialties, both enabling and sharing research from the point of archival inquiry to dissemination. While recognizing the unique insights of archives, we seek to harness the possibilities of digital humanities in allowing us to expand research and collaborate with both academic and nonacademic participants across the world.