Afropolitan Projects: Music, Representation, and the Politics of Belonging in Australia

Drawing on ethnographic research in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra (2016–2017), this article examines the way musicians articulate positive African-Australian identities in the face of political and media discourse that emphasizes African difference and criminality. I use the concept of “Afropolitan projects” to describe the way musicians’ express complexity and multiplicity, simultaneously forging allegiances across difference and foregrounding the African roots of contemporary popular music.This research was funded by the Freilich Foundation at the Australian National Universit