Lunchtime Talk: How to Mint a Digital Nation: Crypto-Capitalism and its African Merchants of Hope

This project focuses on an online group called Afropolitan Network. Using theories of constitutive rhetoric, publics, rhetorical circulation, and digital diasporas, it investigates the emergent dependence of liberatory movements on the promises of Web 3.0. I analyze the self-conscious constitutive rhetoric by which Afropolitan Network invites continental and diasporic Africans into what they call a “digital network state” that will function as an independent supranational digital nation. This nation, they claim, will have its own currency built on blockchain and cryptocurrency, its own digital passport and citizenship which is currently for sale as NFTs, and its own offline geopolitical relations. In short, the Afropolitan Network State merchandizes hope by offering up a techno-optimist utopia that raptures Africa and African “talent, culture, capital, information, and experiences” from brutal histories and dire political concerns. I argue that while this vision of a digital nation highlights the agency of African and African diaspora actors in rehabilitating Africa’s image and may provide critical maps for revisioning nation and history, it raises intractable issues about the role of untested technologies.