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ArticleOpen Access http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/ssp.2026.06.002

(Re) claiming Cultural Agency: Afrocentric Strategies in Challenging Hegemonic Narratives

Khalid Lahlou1,*, Martina Pavlikova2, Roman Kralik3

1Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Ben M'Sik-Casablanca, Casablanca 20670, Morocco.

2Constantine the Philosopher University, Nitra 949 01, Slovakia.

3Catholic University, Ruzomberok 034 01, Slovakia.

*Corresponding author: Khalid Lahlou

Published: March 19,2026

Abstract

This article examines Afrocentrism as a critical and prescriptive framework for reclaiming cultural agency and contesting hegemonic Eurocentric narratives. Grounded in MK Asante’s formulation of Afrocentricity, the study situates Afrocentrism alongside key postcolonial theories—Edward Said’s Orientalism, Homi Bhabha’s concepts of mimicry and hybridity, and Michel Foucault’s power/resistance dynamics—to show how Afrocentric strategies both diagnose misrepresentation and actively recenter marginalized voices. The paper outlines Afrocentrism’s core aims: confronting dominant powers, recognizing the construction of “Otherness,” and restoring the centrality of ethnic subgroups. It engages debates on agency by drawing on Giddens and postcolonial critics to argue that Afrocentrism insists on autonomous cultural self-definition in the face of essentializing portrayals that silence non-Western subjects. Comparative readings of Said and Asante highlight complementarities and gaps: while Said’s con-trapuntal reading and “voyage in” expose how imperial texts embed prejudice and open avenues for counter-narratives, critics argue his account underplays active forms of resistance. Bhabha’s emphasis on ambivalence, mimicry, and hybridity problematizes claims of total colonial authority by revealing every day, often unconscious forms of subversion, though his focus on cultural discursivity has been critiqued for minimizing possibilities of structural change. Fou-cault’s notion that power presupposes and inscribes resistance informs the pa-per’s treatment of opposition as plural, contextual, and frequently rendered in-visible by dominant institutions. The study further incorporates James C. Scott’s ideas of hidden transcripts and infrapolitics to account for low-profile, pre-political forms of dissent that may later erupt into public opposition. Throughout, the authors caution against divorcing cultural analysis from material structures of domination, noting critiques that discourse-centered approaches can understate repression’s concrete effects.Concluding, the article argues that Afrocentrism’s distinctive contribution lies in its prescriptive insistence on (re)framing history, identity, and knowledge from African-centered reference points. By combining critique of representation with an affirmative project of cultural reclamation, Afrocentrism offers both analytical tools and normative mandates for amplifying silenced voices and challenging hegemonic power rela-tions.

Keywords

Afrocentrism; cultural agency; hegemony; Otherness; postcolonial resistance

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How to cite this paper

(Re) claiming Cultural Agency: Afrocentric Strategies in Challenging Hegemonic Narratives

How to cite this paper: Khalid Lahlou, Martina Pavlikova, Roman Kralik. (2026). (Re) claiming Cultural Agency: Afrocentric Strategies in Challenging Hegemonic Narratives. Sociology & Social Policy3(1), 7-13.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/ssp.2026.06.002