Long seen as a watershed moment in the history of decolonization, the Asian-African Conference of 1955 has acquired a mythic dimension, a “spirit.” Richard Wright’s Indonesian travelogue has acquired some of the same mythic quality, especially as scholars in the fields of Afro-Asian studies and postcolonial studies have sought to narrate the conference.

Brian Roberts teaches American literature in BYU’s English Department and is the coordinator for the American Studies Program. Roberts has published widely on topics in black internationalism and the study of transnational American culture, with a particular interest in cultural traffic between the U.S. and Indonesia. He is currently working on two book projects: a collection of translated short stories by Indonesian modernist Sitor Situmorang, and a single-authored book tentatively titled Archipelagoes/Oceans/Americas.