Return to Bandung Outsourcing Imperialism in Africa with Samar Al-Bulushi
In this episode, I’m joined by Samar Al-Bulushi, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at UC Irvine and author of War-Making as World-Making: Kenya, the United States, and the War on Terror (Stanford University Press, 2024), to discuss how the United States outsources the violence of empire to countries in the Global South—particularly in Africa—in the context of the War on Terror. Focusing on Kenya as a case study, we explore the nuances and contradictions of the United States’ so-called ‘security partnerships’ with Global South states, examining what this cooperation looks like in practice and how the governments and populations of these states navigate the complexities of this dynamic.
Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Washington, D.C. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock.
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Sources and helpful links:
Samar Al-Bulushi — War-Making as World-Making: Kenya, the United States, and the War on Terror (Stanford University Press, 2024)
Chinyere Obasi — It’s Time to Ratify the Rome Statute. No, Really This Time. (Harvard Political Review, November 2021)
Samar Al-Bulushi — The US Plan to Outsource Its Imperialism in Haiti to Kenya (Jacobin, May 2024)
Samar Al-Bulushi — The Global Stakes of Kenya’s Protests (Jacobin, July 2024)
Black Alliance for Peace — U.S. Out of Africa Campaign
International Crisis Group — Overkill: Reforming the Legal Basis for the U.S. War on Terror (September 2021)
Tim Krüger — Kenya’s Tax Protests Have Ignited a Movement (New Internationalist, July 2024)
Non-Aligned Movement — Kampala Declaration (January 2024)
Pranay Somayajula — Bandung’s Ghosts (Protean, April 2025)
Patrice Lumumba — Speech at the opening of the All-African Conference in Léopoldville (August 1960)
Social links:
Return to Bandung:
Twitter: twitter.com/returntobandung
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/returntobandung/
Pranay Somayajula:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/p_somayajula
Website: https://www.pranaysomayajula.com/
Substack: https://www.culture-shock.xyz/
Samar Al-Bulushi:
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/samar42