Presenting incisive original readings of French writing about the Caribbean from the inception of colonization in the 1640s until the onset of the Haitian Revolution in the 1790s; Doris Garraway sheds new light on a significant chapter in French colonial history. At the same time; she makes a pathbreaking contribution to the study of the cultural contact; creolization; and social transformation that resulted in one of the most profitable yet brutal slave societies in history. Garraway’s readings highlight how French colonial writers characterized the Caribbean as a space of spiritual; social; and moral depravity. While tracing this critique in colonial accounts of Island Carib cultures; piracy; spirit beliefs; slavery; miscegenation; and incest; Garraway develops a theory of “the libertine colony.†She argues that desire and sexuality were fundamental to practices of domination; laws of exclusion; and constructions of race in the slave societies of the colonial French Caribbean.Among the texts Garraway analyzes are missionary histories by Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre; Raymond Breton; and Jean-Baptiste Labat; narratives of adventure and transgression written by pirates and others outside the official civil and religious power structures; travel accounts; treatises on slavery and colonial administration in Saint-Domingue; the first colonial novel written in French; and the earliest linguistic description of the native Carib language. Garraway also analyzes legislation—including the Code noir—that codified slavery and other racialized power relations. The Libertine Colony is both a rich cultural history of creolization as revealed in Francophone colonial literature and an important contribution to theoretical arguments about how literary critics and historians should approach colonial discourse and cultural representations of slave societies.
#1228079 in Books Ohio University Press 2003-10-24Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.25 x .80 x 6.13l; .84 #File Name: 0821415174288 pages
Review
32 of 34 people found the following review helpful. Final Grade: C+By The SeshThis book is in fact not written by Diouf but is a collection of over a dozen different essays that discuss how slavery affected West Africa. The book automatically wins points for simply addressing this topic; especially because most books about African enslavement are about its existence in the Western Hemisphere.This book helps bring to light the fact that West Africans did not go quietly into slavery and revolt only upon reaching the Americas. This book focuses on ways in which some ethnic groups resisted enslavement and capture by other ethnic groups in West Africa.That being said I was dissapointed that the book does not discuss West African resistance to Europeans. For example; the famed Senegalese King of Almammy in 1787 not only banned slavery but banned any slave being carried through his kingdom. As a result the French( with the recruitment of Arabophone Moors) destroyed his kingdom; nevertheless he is a magnificent example of West African enlightenment.Furthermore; the book does explain the political fragmentation of the coast as a major factor for the development of the Atlantic Slave Trade; but it does not discuss the Guns for Slaves policy that Europeans enacted to ensure a supply of captives. The policy states that the only way the West African traders would get guns (which was the primary trading item for slaves and not "trinkets" as so many people think)was by giving captives; not even gold would suffice. This put the West African merchants and rulers in a predicament: if they chose not to go along with this policy yet their neighbors do; where do you think the gun holding neighbors would get their captives from? This along the fact that West Africans did not have factories to produce the guns at the rate of Europeans made it nearly impossible for the slave trade to not flourish. The fact that this book does not mention the dynamics of this is quite dissapointing.It is surely the case that the reason the book does not address these issues is because; despite as progressive as Western society is claiming to be; the Eurocentric academy demands that responsibility for the Atlantic Slave Trade must remain primarily in the hands of Africans. They assert that any attempt to pay homage to those Africans who opposed it or to highlight the instigation of the trade by Europeans is not scholarly work; but African "romanticism".Black scholars working for Eurocentric institutions dread this label--romantic--because it discredits their professionalism and academic integrity. Thus they validate their credibility as a scholar by saying "I am not afraid to take full responsibility for the slave trade." Many scholars; such as Gates and Appiah; fall victim to this.The problem with this is that we are still not having a balance discussion. We are still forced in Eurocentric circles to promote a history of an African villian culture and any African who has integrity and challenges Europeans cannot be real; but a romantic character made to give African people undeserved dignity. We will never have all or even most of the stories of those valiant Africans; both commoners and royalty; who opposed the Atlantic slave trade; but we do have some; and no matter how "romantic" we are accused of being for acknowledging them; they remain some of our race's most heroic figures and must be celebrated.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Great overall book!By KhepriThe book gives a lot if detailed accounts of the slave trade that you will not find in your public school classroom. One account or person I wish the book could have discuss was; Madam Tinibu. The book will give you excellent intro into the slave trade!!
