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Marronage, Here and There: Liberia, Enslavement's Conversion, and the Settler-Not
International Labor and Working-Class History ( IF 0.5 ) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 , DOI: 10.1017/s0147547919000206
Tryon P. Woods

This proposed contribution to the special issue of ILWCH offers a theoretical re-consideration of the Liberian project. If, as is commonly supposed in its historiography and across contemporary discourse regarding its fortunes into the twenty-first century, Liberia is a notable, albeit contested, instance of the modern era's correctable violence in that it stands as an imperfect realization of the emancipated slave, the liberated colony, and the freedom to labor unalienated, then such representation continues to hide more than it reveals. This essay, instead, reads Liberia as an instructive leitmotif for the conversion of racial slavery's synecdochical plantation system in the Americas into the plantation of the world writ large: the global scene of antiblackness and the immutable qualification for enslavement accorded black positionality alone. Transitions between political economic systems—from slave trade to “re-colonization,” from Firestone occupation to dictatorial-democratic regimes—reemerge from this re-examination as crucial but inessential to understanding Liberia's position, and thus that of black laboring subjects, in the modern world. I argue that slavery is the simultaneous primitive accumulation of black land and bodies, but that this reality largely escapes current conceptualization of not only the history of labor but also that of enslavement. In other words, the African slave trade (driven first by Arabs in the Indian Ocean region, then Europeans in the Mediterranean, and, subsequently, Euro-Americans in the Atlantic) did not simply leave as its corollary effect, or byproduct, the underdevelopment of African societies. The trade in African flesh was at once the co-production of a geography of desire in which blackness is perpetually fungible at every scale, from the body to the nation-state to its soil—all treasures not simply for violation and exploitation, but more importantly, for accumulation and all manner of usage. The Liberian project elucidates this ongoing reality in distinctive ways—especially when we regard it through the lens of the millennium-plus paradigm of African enslavement. Conceptualizing slavery's “afterlife” entails exploring the ways that emancipation extended, not ameliorated, the chattel condition, and as such, impugns the efficacy of key analytic categories like “settler,” “native,” “labor,” and “freedom” when applied to black existence. Marronage, rather than colonization or emancipation, situates Liberia within the intergenerational struggle of, and over, black work against social death. Read as enslavement's conversion, this essay neither impugns nor heralds black action and leadership on the Liberian project at a particular historical moment, but rather agitates for centering black thought on the ongoing issue of black fungibility and social captivity that Liberia exemplifies. I argue that such a reading of Liberia presents a critique of both settler colonialism and of a certain conceptualization of the black radical tradition and its futures in heavily optimist, positivist, and political economic terms that are enjoying considerable favor in leading discourse on black struggle today.

中文翻译:

Marronage,到处都是:利比里亚,奴役的Conversion依,而不是定居者

对ILWCH特刊的拟议贡献为利比里亚项目提供了理论上的重新考虑。如果按照其史学和有关其进入二十一世纪的命运的当代话语中的一般说法,利比里亚是现代可纠正暴力的一个著名实例,尽管存在争议,因为它代表着对解放奴隶的不完美实现,被解放的殖民地和不受剥夺的劳动自由,那么,这种表现形式所隐藏的内容就远远超出了它所揭示的范围。相反,这篇文章认为利比里亚是一个有教育意义的主题,旨在将美洲的种族奴隶制​​的合道造林系统转化为世界人工林:在全球范围内,反对黑人和奴役的条件一成不变,仅黑人地位就受到重视。政治经济系统之间的过渡-从奴隶贸易到“重新殖民化”,从凡士通占领到独裁民主政权-从这种重新考验中重新显现出来,对于理解利比里亚的立场以及对黑人劳动者的立场至关重要,但这种看法并不重要。现代世界。我认为奴隶制是黑土地和尸体的同时原始积累,但这种现实在很大程度上不但没有摆脱当前对劳动史而且还对奴役史的概念化。换句话说,非洲奴隶贸易(首先由印度洋地区的阿拉伯人推动,然后由地中海的欧洲人推动,随后,大西洋沿岸的欧美人并没有因为非洲社会的不发达而直接离开市场,而是它的必然结果或副产品。非洲肉食贸易是欲望地理的共同产物,其中从身体到民族国家再到土壤,各个年龄段的黑人都可以永久地替代黑色—所有的珍宝不仅仅用于侵犯和剥削,而且还更多重要的是,为了积累和各种使用方式。利比里亚的项目以独特的方式阐明了这一现实,特别是当我们从非洲奴隶制的千年加工业范式的角度来看待这一现实时。将奴隶制的“来世”概念化需要探索解放而不是改善动产状况的方式,因此,削弱了诸如“定居者”,“本地人”,“劳动者,”和“自由”应用于黑人存在。奴隶制而不是殖民或解放,是将利比里亚置于反对社会死亡的黑人劳动的代际斗争之中。作为奴隶制的conversion依,这篇文章既没有在特定的历史时刻抨击或预示着黑人在利比里亚项目上的行动和领导,而是鼓动将黑人思想集中在利比里亚所体现的正在进行的黑人可替代性和社会俘虏问题上。我认为,这样的对利比里亚的解读以强烈的乐观主义,实证主义和政治经济学术语对定居者殖民主义和对黑人激进传统及其未来的某种概念化提出了批评,这些术语在当今关于黑人斗争的主要论述中受到极大的青睐。 。奴隶制而不是殖民或解放,是将利比里亚置于反对社会死亡的黑人劳动的代际斗争之中。作为奴隶制的conversion依,这篇文章既没有在特定的历史时刻抨击或预示着黑人对利比里亚项目的行动和领导,而是鼓动将黑人思想集中在利比里亚所体现的持续的黑人可替代性和社会俘虏问题上。我认为,这样的对利比里亚的解读以强烈的乐观主义,实证主义和政治经济学术语对定居者殖民主义和对黑人激进传统及其未来的某种概念化提出了批评,这些术语在当今关于黑人斗争的主要论述中受到极大的青睐。 。奴隶制而不是殖民或解放,是将利比里亚置于反对社会死亡的黑人劳动的代际斗争之中。作为奴隶制的conversion依,这篇文章既没有在特定的历史时刻抨击或预示着黑人在利比里亚项目上的行动和领导,而是鼓动将黑人思想集中在利比里亚所体现的正在进行的黑人可替代性和社会俘虏问题上。我认为,这样的对利比里亚的解读以强烈的乐观主义,实证主义和政治经济学术语对定居者殖民主义和对黑人激进传统及其未来的某种概念化提出了批评,这些术语在当今关于黑人斗争的主要论述中受到极大的青睐。 。将利比里亚置于反对社会死亡的黑人劳动的代际斗争之中。作为奴隶制的conversion依,这篇文章既没有在特定的历史时刻抨击或预示着黑人对利比里亚项目的行动和领导,而是鼓动将黑人思想集中在利比里亚所体现的持续的黑人可替代性和社会俘虏问题上。我认为,这样的对利比里亚的解读以强烈的乐观主义,实证主义和政治经济学术语对定居者殖民主义和对黑人激进传统及其未来的某种概念化提出了批评,这些术语在当今关于黑人斗争的主要论述中受到极大的青睐。 。将利比里亚置于反对社会死亡的黑人劳动的代际斗争之中。作为奴隶制的conversion依,这篇文章既没有在特定的历史时刻抨击或预示着黑人对利比里亚项目的行动和领导,而是鼓动将黑人思想集中在利比里亚所体现的持续的黑人可替代性和社会俘虏问题上。我认为,这样的对利比里亚的解读以强烈的乐观主义,实证主义和政治经济学术语对定居者殖民主义和对黑人激进传统及其未来的某种概念化提出了批评,这些术语在当今关于黑人斗争的主要论述中受到极大的青睐。 。本文在特定的历史时刻既不谴责黑人,也不预示着黑人对利比里亚项目的行动和领导,而是鼓动将黑人思想集中在利比里亚所体现的持续的黑人可替代性和社会俘虏问题上。我认为,这样的对利比里亚的解读以强烈的乐观主义,实证主义和政治经济学术语对定居者殖民主义和对黑人激进传统及其未来的某种概念化提出了批评,这些术语在当今关于黑人斗争的主要论述中受到极大的青睐。 。本文在特定的历史时刻既不谴责黑人,也不预示着黑人对利比里亚项目的行动和领导,而是鼓动将黑人思想集中在利比里亚所体现的持续的黑人可替代性和社会俘虏问题上。我认为,这样的对利比里亚的解读以强烈的乐观主义,实证主义和政治经济学术语对定居者殖民主义和对黑人激进传统及其未来的某种概念化提出了批评,这些术语在当今关于黑人斗争的主要论述中受到极大的青睐。 。
更新日期:2019-01-01
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