Objective/Context:

The paper aims to analyze the final period of the project of the Fourth Congress of Black Culture in the Americas and the process by which historical events on both sides of the Atlantic-such as the fifth centenary of the “discovery” of America, claims against the apartheid, the opening of the European Economic Community, and the multicultural turn of Latin America-constituted their conditions of possibility at the same time of limiting their realization.

Methodology:

With intellectual history as a methodological tool for microhistory, the article examines the power game and the tensions and contradictions that this entailed between-and within-funding agencies and black intellectuals when defining the philosophical and historical foundations of what the congress should be.

Originality:

The article makes a contribution in analytical terms, through its transnational approach, as well as a cross-analysis of primary sources unexplored by researchers.

Conclusions:

Social actors-agencies, institutions, individuals as political actors-adopted different logics of participation that were not as coherent and homogeneous as expected. Non-governmental organizations, such as the unesco and the Mitterrand Foundation, played a fundamental role in what was envisioned for the realization of the event, as well as in its cancellation.

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