-History
Africa Since 1940
Frederick Cooper's latest book on the history of decolonization and independence in Africa helps students understand the historical process from which Africa's current position in the world has emerged. Bridging the divide between colonial and post-colonial history, it shows what political independence did and did not signify and how men and women, peasants and workers, religious leaders and local leaders sought to refashion the way they lived, worked, and interacted with each other.
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African Stars
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Aids and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography
Does the scientific "theory" that HIV came to North America from Haiti stem from underlying attitudes of racism and ethnocentrism in the United States rather than from hard evidence? Award-winning author and anthropologist-physician Paul Farmer answers with this, the first full-length ethnographic study of AIDS in a poor society. First published in 1992 this new edition has been updated and a new preface added.
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Another Black Like Me: the Construction of Identities and Solidarity in the African Diaspora
This book brings together authors from different institutions and perspectives and from researchers specialising in different aspects of the experiences of the African Diaspora from Latin America. It creates an overview of the complexities of the lives of Black people over various periods of history, as they struggled to build lives away from Africa in societies that, in general, denied them the basic right of fully belonging, such as the right of fully belonging in the countries where, by choice or force of circumstance, they lived. Another Black Like Me thus presents a few notable scenes from the long history of Blacks in Latin America: as runaway slaves seen through the official documentation denouncing as illegal those who resisted captivity; through the memoirs of a slave who still dreamt of his homeland; reflections on the status of Black women; demands for citizenship and kinship by Black immigrants; the fantasies of Blacks in the United States about the lives of Blacks in Brazil; a case study of some of those who returned to Africa and had to build a new identity based on their experiences as slaves; and the abstract representations of race and color in the Caribbean. All of these provide the reader with a glimpse of complex phenomena that, though they cannot be generalized in a single definition of blackness in Latin America, share the common element of living in societies where the definition of blackness was flexible, there were no laws of racial segregation, and where the culture on one hand tolerates miscegenation, and on the other denies full recognition of rights to Blacks.
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Barbados: Cuffee's Kingdom
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Black Skin, White Masks
First published in English in 1968, Frantz Fanon's seminal text was immediately acclaimed as a classic of black liberationalist writing. Fanon's descriptions of the feelings of inadequacy and dependence experienced by people of colour in a white world are as salient and as compelling as ever. Fanon identifies a devastating pathology at the heart of Western culture, a denial of difference, that persists to this day. His writings speak to all who continue the struggle for political and cultural liberation in our troubled times.
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Britain's Black Debt
Since the mid-nineteenth-century abolition of slavery, the call for reparations for the crime of African enslavement and native genocide has been growing. In the Caribbean, grassroots and official voices now constitute a regional reparations movement. While it remains a fractured, contentious and divisive call, it generates considerable public interest, especially within sections of the community that are concerned with issues of social justice, equity, civil and human rights, education, and cultural identity. The reparations discourse has been shaped by the voices from these fields as they seek to build a future upon the settlement of historical crimes.
Since the mid-nineteenth-century abolition of slavery, the call for reparations for the crime of African enslavement and native genocide has been growing. In the Caribbean, grassroots and official voices now constitute a regional reparations movement. While it remains a fractured, contentious and divisive call, it generates considerable public interest, especially within sections of the community that are concerned with issues of social justice, equity, civil and human rights, education, and cultural identity. The reparations discourse has been shaped by the voices from these fields as they seek to build a future upon the settlement of historical crimes.
This is the first scholarly work that looks comprehensively at the reparations discussion in the Caribbean. Written by a leading economic historian of the region, a seasoned activist in the wider movement for social justice and advocacy of historical truth, Britain's Black Debt looks at the origins and development of reparations as a regional and international process. Weaving detailed historical data on Caribbean slavery and the transatlantic slave trade together with legal principles and the politics of postcolonialism, Beckles sets out a solid academic analysis of the evidence. He concludes that Britain has a case of reparations to answer which the Caribbean should litigate.
International law provides that chattel slavery as practised by Britain was a crime against humanity. Slavery was invested in by the royal family, the government, the established church, most elite families, and large public institutions in the private and public sector. Citing the legal principles of unjust and criminal enrichment, the author presents a compelling argument for Britain's payment of its black debt, a debt that it continues to deny in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
It is at once an exciting narration of Britain's dominance of the slave markets that enriched the economy and a seminal conceptual journey into the hidden politics and public posturing of leaders on both sides of the Atlantic. No work of this kind has ever been attempted. No author has had the diversity of historical research skills, national and international political involvement, and personal engagement as an activist to present such a complex yet accessible work of scholarship.
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Busha's Mistress or Catherine the Fugitive
"Recovered from the archives is Cyrus Francis Perkins' novel entitled Busha's Mistress or Catherine the Fugitive: A Stirring Romance of the Days of Slavery in Jamaica which was written in the mid-1800s and published in Jamaica in 1911 as a series of instalments in the local newspapers, the Daily Telegraph and the Jamaica Guardian. Cyrus Francis Perkins, a white Jamaican (of Canadian descent), lived through the period of Jamaica's history during which the colony was undergoing the transition from slavery to emancipation. The resulting story is, thus, rich in historically insightful details which bring that era to life and which make the book a valuable resource for scholars of Caribbean history. Revealed here are interesting tit-bits about the relationship between slave and master, the daily life on the sugar plantations, the business transactions involved, the depiction of the culture of the African slaves, the Maroon resistance and varied perspectives on the abolition of slavery. "
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Chattel House Blues
Chattel House Blues is an account of the struggles of Black Barbadians in the 20th century to secure a place within an island their labour had built as a monument to British colonialism. Having fought against the local oligarchy in the streets of Bridgetown in 1937, black workers and their middle class allies, finally secured universal adult suffrage in 1950 and finally independence in 1966 ending the Great House Rule that had begun three hundred years earlier.
But political democracy and national independence did not bring to the new majority community the full feeling of citizenship promised by the founders of the nation. Politically enfranchised but economically disenfranchised and culturally alienated the struggle was rekindled to confront the past and bring justice and equality to the new dispensation; a cultural movement that seeks to centre and promote the African sensibility of the majority community took root and found expression in discourses within the arts, academia, and grass-roots community organisations.
The remaking of colonial Barbados as a postmodern nation state has its political roots buried deep within the past. In Chattel House Blues, Hilary Beckles sets out to rewrite modern Barbadian history by centring the evolution of the nation in centuries of grassroots struggle. Democracy in Barbados, he argues, as a social, political and cultural reality, has its origins principally within working class demands for freedom, justice and equality and not as a bestowal upon the masses by elites at moments of imperial and colonial enlightenment. In the second volume of his trilogy, Great House Rules: Landless Emancipation and Workers' Protest in Barbados 1838-1938, Prof. Beckles convincingly shows that for the first one hundred years after emancipation, an unbroken chain of resistance, protest and agitation for democratic governance, resulted in a decisive breach in the walls of the structures of white supremacy culminating in the Clement Payne Movement and the Riots of 1937. Black workers and their middle class allies secured Universal Adult Suffrage in 1950 and finally politically independence in 1966, ending the 'Great House Rule' that had begun three hundred years earlier. This process he further argues, reached maturity in 1994 when Owen Arthur, a young man from the chattel house in the plantation tenantry became prime minister. Independence and nationhood, though critical markers in the journey towards social justice and equity d not mean an end to the struggle. The politically enfranchised workers have since risen to an appreciation of their economic rights and the issue of popular economic democracy is now seen as the next step I civil rights development that Barbadians must confront. Chattel House Blues connects current political thinking with the historical process. In producing this work of historical literature that emphasises a people-centred culture of change and transformation, Prof. Beckles' thesis is challenging if not controversial and is bound to result in widespread debate among Barbadians at home and in the diaspora.
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Europe 1783-1914
Europe 1783–1914 provides a comprehensive overview of Europe from the background of the French Revolution to the origins of the First World War. William Simpson and Martin Jones combine accounts of the most important countries with the wider political, economic, social and cultural themes affecting Europe as a whole, including:
- the impact of the French Revolution and Napoleon
- the rise of industry
- the growth of nationalism
- the 1848 revolutions
- Imperialism
- Marxism and left wing movements.
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Facing the Challenge of Emancipation: A Study of the Ministry of William Hart Coleridge, First Bishop of Barbados, 1824-1842
The 1820s and 1830s were a crucial period in the historical experience of the British Caribbean colonies, because it marked the adoption of a policy of slaveemancipation by the British government. Central to the implementation of that policy was the formal embrace of the enslaved Africans by the state church, the Anglican Church. This was made clear in the official pronouncement that religious instruction is the surest foundation for the amelioration of the state of the slave population.
Facing the Challenge of Emancipation shows, in clear and concise fashion, how William Hart Coleridge, the first Anglican bishop of Barbados and the Leewards, executed new mandate of the Anglican Church. Between 1824 and 1842, this inexperienced theologian displayed immense energy and skill in establishing his control over the diocese, in neutralizing the entrenched opposition to reform, and in raising financial support for a phenomenal building programme.
The result was that the Anglican Church for the first time became fully accessible to the enslaved and to their successors, the so-called apprentices and the newly freed persons. Particularly important was the provision of the rudiments of education, both religious and secular, to an increasing number of converts and their children through the agency of newly constructed chapels of ease and chapel schools. Goodridge demonstrates that, by the time that Bishop Coleridge retired to England, a flood of beneficial light had been cast on a dark period and that the Anglican Church in Barbados could be said to possess a popular dimension.
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Field Archeology: An Introduction
Peter Drewett's comprehensive survey explores every stage of the dig process, from the core work of discovery and excavation to the final product: the published archaeological report.
Main topics covered are:
- how an archaeological site is formed
- finding and recording archaeological sites
- planning excavations, digging the site and recording the results
- post-fieldwork planning, processing and finds analysis
- interpreting the evidence
- publishing the report.
Illustrated with 100 photographs and line drawings, and using numerous case studies, Field Archaeology is the essential introductory guide for archaeology students, and is certain to be welcomed by the growing number of enthusiasts for the subject.
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Freedoms Won
Written by two of the Caribbean's leading historians, Freedoms Won is an essential book for students engaged in following courses on the history of the Caribbean. It will also be of interest to general readers seeking information on the history of the region. Starting with the aftermath of emancipation, Freedoms Won covers the African-Caribbean peasantry, Asian arrival in the Caribbean, social and political experiences of the working classes in the immediate post-slavery period, the Caribbean economy, US intervention and imperialst tendencies from the 18th century, the Labour Movement in the Caribbean in the 20th centurym the social life and culture of the Caribbean people, and social protest, decolonisation and nationhood.
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Great House Rules
"When Emancipation came in 1938, Blacks in Barbados imagined that the terms of their everyday lives would undergo radical change. Instead, an unrelenting landless freedom would be violently imposed upon a community whose conditions of life and work remained largely unchanged, on plantations that produced more sugar with less labour for below subsistence wages. It was the rule of the Great House that subverted the promise of Emancipation. This is the story of the post-Emancipation betrayal of 83, 000 Blacks in Barbados; it is also a narration of how these Blacks prepared for persistent resistance and civil war as the only means to effectively break the rule of the Great House and establish preconditions for genuine Emancipation. The battles over progress were fought on the plantations, in the streets, in the courts, in the Legislative Councils and wherever Blacks recognised sites to effect change. This chain of organised rebellion was linked to produce the 1876 rebellion. Against this background of 19th century popular protest and workers agitation, the modern labour movement, the anti-colonial campaign and the agitation for democratic governance came to maturity by the 1920s. The final breach in the walls of the structure of white supremacy was achieved in 1937 when, under the ideological leadership of Clement Payne, workers took to the streets and fields with arms. Professor Beckles argues that this unbroken chain of protest and political activity from 1838 to the 1937 Riots constitute the Hundred Year War against Great House Rules. It had taken a full century of struggle after emancipation to see, even at a distance, the freedom that was promised by the abolition of slavery legislation. Written in a clear, discourse style, the author succeeds in presenting the text as an accessible document for public consumption, rather than a dense academic work. "
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How Britain Underdeveloped the Caribbean: A Reparation Response to Europe's Legacy of Plunder and Poverty
"The modern Caribbean
economy was invented, structured and managed by European states for one
purpose: to achieve maximum wealth extraction to fuel and sustain their
national financial, commercial and industrial transformation." So begins How Britain Underdeveloped the Caribbean: A
Reparation Response to Europe's Legacy of Plunder and Poverty as Hilary
McD. Beckles continues the groundbreaking work he began in Britain's Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native
Genocide.
a time of global reckoning for centuries of crimes against humanity perpetrated
by European colonial powers as they built their empires with the wealth
extracted from the territories they occupied and exploited with enslaved and,
later, indentured labour. The systematic brutality of the transatlantic trade
in enslaved Africans and the plantation economies did not disappear with the
abolition of slavery. Rather, the means of exploitation were reconfigured to
ensure that wealth continued to flow to European states. Independence
from colonial powers in the twentieth century did not mean real freedom for the
Caribbean nations, left as they were without the resources for meaningful
development and in a state of persistent poverty. Beckles focuses his attention
on the British Empire and shows how successive governments have systematically
suppressed economic development in their former colonies and have refused to accept
responsibility for the debt and development support they owe the Caribbean.
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In Miserable Slavery
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In the Fires of Hope Vol. 2: Essays of the Modern History of Trinidad and Tobago
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In Township Tonight!: South Africa's Black City Music and Theatre 2ed.
In vivid detail, Coplan comprehensively explores more than three centuries of the diverse history of South Africa’s black popular culture, taking readers from indigenous musical traditions into the world of slave orchestras, pennywhistlers, clergyman-composers, the gumboot dances of mineworkers, and touring minstrelsy and vaudeville acts. This up-to-date edition of a landmark work will be welcomed by scholars of ethnomusicology and African studies, world music fans, and anyone concerned with South Africa and its development.
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Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar
In Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar Walton Look Lai offers the first comprehensive study of Asian immigration and the indenture system in the entire British West Indies―with particular emphasis on the experiences of indentured laborers in the major receiving colonies of British Guyana, Trinidad, and Jamaica. Exploring living and working conditions as well as the makeup of immigrant communities and their cultures, Look Lai offers a "dialectical pluralist" model of Caribbean acculturation that contrasts with the more familiar "melting pot" or "pure pluralist" model.
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Jamaica in 1687
This remarkable description of Jamaica in the late 1680s was written by a contemporary English observer, John Taylor, who spent some months on the island. The original manuscript is held by the National Library of Jamaica, and has rarely been used by scholars. It contains information about Jamaica under the Spaniards, about the English invasion of 1655 and about the formation of the subsequent society, including the treatment of slaves. There are sections on the island's settlement and architecture, including a particularly full description of Port Royal. John Taylor sets out fifty current laws, many of them unknown to other such collections. He also carefully explains the nature of Jamaica's birds, beasts and plants. Taylor offers an image of the island before the general spread of sugar cultivation, citing some creatures now extinct in Jamaica; he also makes many suggestions about the medical use of natural products. His world is still one in which certain places are enchanted, though he also describes an island whose main features will be entirely familiar to modern Jamaicans. and he provides an annotated version of the manuscript, which was originally more than 850 pages and was in three volumes. This edition covers the second half of volume 1 and the whole of volume 2, providing a rich tapestry of Taylor's observations and notes on Jamaica. Most of the remaining manuscript contains autobiographical material and nautical logs. Buisseret's edition provides an annotation and a glossary. The text will be useful to generations of scholars and students alike or to anyone with an interest in Jamaica and its colourful history. Co-published with the National Library of Jamaica and the Mill Press.
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Jamaica in Slavery and Freedom: History, Heritage and Culture
Jamaica's rich history has been the subject of many books, articles and papers. This collection of 18 original essays considers aspects of Jamaican history not covered in more general histories of the island and illuminates developments in Jamaican and West Indian history. The collection emphasises the relevance of history to everyday life and the development of a national identity, culture and economy. The essays are organized in three sections: historiography and sources; society, culture and heritage; and economy, labour and politics.
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Making Women's History: The Essential Mary Ritter Beard
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