Dancing salsa in Benin: Connecting the Creole Atlantic. Issue 1 (2nd January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Djebbari, Elina
• Is Part Of: Atlantic studies. Volume 17:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 110
• Page End: 134
• Publication Date: 2020-01-02
• Subjects: Salsa -- Benin -- Creole Atlantic -- appropriation -- transatlantic circulations -- music -- dance; Globalization -- Periodicals; Atlantic Ocean Region -- History -- Periodicals; Atlantic Ocean Region -- Intellectual life -- Periodicals; Atlantic Ocean Region -- In literature -- Periodicals; Cross-cultural studies -- Atlantic Ocean Region -- Periodicals; 909.0963
• DOI: 10.1080/14788810.2019.1697579
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1478-8810

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Cotonou, Benin, the essay explores historical and contemporary dynamics pertaining to the different ways in which salsa is creatively appropriated in Benin. The analysis of the specificities of Beninese salsa dialogues with the ever-growing body of literature interrogating the ability of the Black Atlantic heuristic to grasp South-South transatlantic cultural circulations. I thereby redefine the transatlantic affiliations that are perceptible through the beninisation of salsa as emanating instead from what I call the Creole Atlantic .