The Black Atlantic's Triple Burden - by Adekeye Adebajo (Paperback)

About the Book

This book demonstrates the continuities of five centuries of European-led slavery and colonialism in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas, examining calls for reparations in all three regions for what many now regard to have constituted crimes against humanity.

Book Synopsis

This volume demonstrates the continuities of five centuries of European slavery and colonialism in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas, examining calls for reparations in all three regions for crimes against humanity. Authored by eminent scholars largely based in these areas, it contributes to transforming educational curricula globally. This collection is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary and enables cross-regional comparisons to be drawn, ensuring that important global events are read from diverse perspectives. The volume is aimed at subject area experts, as well as students in diverse areas of the humanities and beyond who seek a sound introductory reference book to these important historical subjects to which they are often not exposed. The authors thus represent a multi-disciplinary group encompassing diverse fields such as history, international relations, politics, economics, sociology, anthropology, literature, and languages. The book introduces readers to foreign-language historical sources -- often inaccessible to an English-speaking audience -- on these pivotal topics.

From the Back Cover

"Sweeping across continents and centuries, this volume offers a deeply important collection of essays on the experiences and impacts of slavery and colonialism, as well as the possibilities and challenges of reparative justice. With its roster of some of the world's finest and most distinguished scholars addressing these topics, The Black Atlantic's triple burden should be required reading for academics and a general audience alike."
Caroline Elkins, author of Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire

"Beginning with Adekeye Adebajo's magisterial introduction, this volume canvasses the successive calamities for Africa of slavery and colonialism, their contemporary legacies, and the reparations movement's efforts to interrupt their future transmission. This extraordinary collection is essential reading for anybody seeking to engage with the world-leading scholarship on these critical themes."
Thula Simpson, author of History of South Africa: From 1902 to the Present

This book demonstrates the continuities of five centuries of European-led slavery and colonialism in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas, examining calls for reparations in all three regions for what many now regard to have constituted crimes against humanity. The Atlantic world economy emerged from the interactions of this triangular slave trade involving human chattel, textiles, arms, wine, sugar, coffee, tobacco, and other goods. This is thus the story of the birth of the modern capitalist system and a Black Atlantic that has shaped global trade, finance, consumer tastes, lifestyles, and fashion for over five centuries. The volume is authored by a multi-disciplinary, pan-continental group encompassing diverse subjects. This collection is concise and comprehensive, enabling cross-regional comparisons to be drawn, and ensuring that some of the most important global events of the past five centuries are read from diverse perspectives.

Review Quotes

"Sweeping across continents and centuries, this volume o_ers a deeply important collection of essays on the experiences and impacts of slavery and colonialism, as well as the possibilities and challenges of reparative justice. With its roster of some of the world's finest and most distinguished scholars addressing these topics, The Black Atlantic's Triple Burden should be required reading for academics and a general audience alike."
Caroline Elkins, author of Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire

"Beginning with Adekeye Adebajo's magisterial introduction, this volume canvasses the successive calamities for Africa of slavery and colonialism, their contemporary legacies, and the reparations movement's efforts to interrupt their future transmission. This extraordinary collection is essential reading for anybody seeking to engage with the world-leading scholarship on these critical themes."
Thula Simpson, author of History of South Africa: From 1902 to the Present

"Professor Adekeye Adebajo, an astute scholar of African affairs, has brought together a talented cast of scholars to produce an encyclopaedic work on the triple challenges that confront the people of the Black Atlantic. This tour de force has probed the innards of its subject, thereby helping readers to understand the battles that lie ahead."
Selwyn R. Cudjoe, Professor Emeritus, Wellesley College, US

"The editor, Adekeye Adebajo, and his multi-disciplinary group of contributors to The Black Atlantic's Triple Burden: Slavery, Colonialism, and Reparations must be commended for this work. These academics and advocates not only rehearse familiar themes, but also add new perspectives which together form a welcome addition to the body of work explaining the justification for reparations for historical crimes against humanity and the lingering legacies of colonialism."
Professor Verene A. Shepherd, University of the West Indies, and a member of Jamaica's National Council on Reparations

"This book is of uniformly high-quality scholarship and writing. It contains good variation in emphases and represents a wide sweep of historical and contemporary issues surrounding the themes of enslavement and colonialism. The collection marks a significant increase in information, insights, and public discussion about colonialism, enslavement and their legacies from authoritative scholars, many from or based in Africa. It is vital that we have books like this to provide concrete facts, concepts, and perspectives based on a massive amount of accumulated research. It is compelling reading."
Professor Colin Samson, Essex University, England

About the Author

Adekeye Adebajo is Senior Research Fellow and Professor at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria.