Anticolonialism as tragedy: “the black jacobins” between History and politics

Authors

  • Alexandre Almeida Marcussi Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5752/P.2237-8871.2018v19n30p95-122

Keywords:

C. L. R. James, pan-africanism, anticolonialism, Haitian Revolution.

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of The Black Jacobins, published by Afro-Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James. The book discusses the San Domingo Revolution of 1791-1804, a slave rebellion which led to the abolition of slavery and the political independence of Haiti. By means of a comparative analysis between the ideas of the book and other political essays written by James roughly in the same period, I suggest that the book intended not only to offer a historical analysis of the revolution, but also to present it as a starting point to discuss the pan-africanist movement of the 1930s and the prospects for the independence of European colonial territories in Africa. The paper will argue that James portraits Toussaint L’Ouverture (the most well-known leader of the revolution) as a tragic hero, which allows us to identify elements of a European narrative model in James’s pan-africanism, but also offers a possible reflection on the limits of this project.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Alexandre Almeida Marcussi, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)

Historiador, atuante na área de História da África e história cultural da escravidão, com Mestrado (2010) e Doutorado (2015) em História Social pela Universidade de São Paulo. É professor de História da África na Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) desde 2016, já tendo atuado também na área de patrimônio cultural como pesquisador de conteúdos do Museu Afro Brasil (São Paulo). Alguns temas relevantes em sua produção acadêmica incluem Pensamento Social Africano, Religiões Afro-Brasileiras, História da Cultura Afro-Americana, História de Angola, História do Brasil Colonial, Historiografia e Antropologia das Culturas Afro-Americanas. Foi vencedor da edição 2017 do Prémio CES para Jovens Cientistas Sociais de Língua Portuguesa conferido pelo Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra.

Downloads

Published

2018-07-29

How to Cite

MARCUSSI, Alexandre Almeida. Anticolonialism as tragedy: “the black jacobins” between History and politics. Cadernos de História, Belo Horizonte, v. 19, n. 30, p. 95–122, 2018. DOI: 10.5752/P.2237-8871.2018v19n30p95-122. Disponível em: https://periodicos.pucminas.br/cadernoshistoria/article/view/16527. Acesso em: 29 aug. 2025.

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 30 (2018): Dossier History and Historians

Section

Dossier - Articles: History and Historians

License

By submitting any manuscript (articles, reviews, or interviews) authors automatically assign full copyrights to PUC Minas. Authors are requested to ensure:

The absence of conflicts of interest (relations between authors, companies/ institutions or individuals with an interest in the topic covered by the article), as well as funding agencies or sponsoring institutions of the research that culminated in the article.

Todos os trabalhos submetidos estarão automaticamente inscritos sob uma licença creative commons do tipo "by-nc-nd/4.0".