Re‐membering culture: bearing witness to the spirit of identity in research

Abstract

This article examines the complexities and possibilities of identity (leaning on DuBois' notion of double consciousness) when located not in the white racial landscape of the US but in the varied racial, cultural and (inter)national contexts explicated by the scholars gathered in this issue of REE. One way to read this response might be as a critique of the limitations of DuBois' notion of double consciousness in capturing the complexities and the possibilities of identities beyond the binary of black and white, beyond nation state, ethnicities, or other racialized constructions of difference. However, more importantly, I am suggesting that our discussion of identities can also be informed by the often ignored notions of spirituality in DuBois' work, and how it might mediate our contemporary meanings of racial and other identities. Beyond wrestling with the biological and cultural explanations of identity, recognition of the spiritual nature of identity extends our ‘postcolonial’ notions beyond their over‐reliance on race as an identity – and towards the possibilities of moving through and maybe beyond race to a more equitable and subjective identity as spiritual beings.

Keywords:

• African‐American
• culture
• Ghana
• identity
• memory
• spirituality