Videos by Giulia Bonacci
Petite conférence grand public de 13 minutes à partir de la chanson Captureland de Chronixx - pou... more Petite conférence grand public de 13 minutes à partir de la chanson Captureland de Chronixx - pour expliquer mon métier d'historienne. Avec traduction en langue des signes. 17 views
Articles and Book Chapters by Giulia Bonacci
Cahiers d'Études africaines, 2023
Drawing on Rastafari's campaigns for the return of sacred objects looted by British forces in Maq... more Drawing on Rastafari's campaigns for the return of sacred objects looted by British forces in Maqdala, Ethiopia, in 1868, this paper offers a significantly under-researched case of diasporic community interventions on broader debates concerning restitution, reparations, and repatriation. The focus of this intervention is Ras Seymour Mclean, who, between 1983 and 1984, reclaimed thousands of books and manuscripts held in British public institutions and was called "The Book Liberator." In situating this act within a wider resurgence of Pan-African activity and histories of repair, this paper explores the structuring impact of the demands of restitution of the objects seized in Maqdala to demonstrate how diasporic imagination can be mobilised to redress the historical relation between Ethiopia and Britain, whilst simultaneously centring the role of people of African descent in this process.
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International Journal of African Historical Studies, 2023
This article examines the African dimension of the global movement for reparations and gives part... more This article examines the African dimension of the global movement for reparations and gives particular attention to the engagement of Chief M.K.O. Abiola (1937-1998). A successful Nigerian businessman, and a neglected African figure of Pan Africanism in the late 20 th century, Abiola defended the idea that reparations for slavery and colonialism were due to Africa and its Diaspora. In his talks in the United States between 1987 and 1990, he theorized a relation of causality between Atlantic slavery and the social and economic condition of the continent and called for solidarity between African Americans and Africans. Furthermore, Chief Abiola contributed to institutionalize reparations and to place them on the international diplomatic agenda through the organization and funding of two major high-level conferences on reparations, in Lagos in 1990 and in Abuja in 1993. He also chaired the Group of Eminent Persons (GEP) founded by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1992. Chief Abiola won the June 1993 presidential elections in Nigeria, which were cancelled, and was jailed following the coup d'état by General Sani Abacha, until his death in 1998. Africa's promise, namely the political commitment to work with the Diaspora towards reparations, was broken. This article is based on archival and printed sources and sheds light on the political and ideological issues at stake in reparations within the changing context of the early 1990s.
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Gradhiva, 2023
Lors du couronnement de Hailé Sélassié Ier à Addis-Abeba en novembre 1930, des photographies ont ... more Lors du couronnement de Hailé Sélassié Ier à Addis-Abeba en novembre 1930, des photographies ont été prises pour transmettre les fondements de l’idéologie royale éthiopienne. Sur la scène médiatique internationale, le souverain incarnait une représentation alternative du pouvoir politique et un symbole d’indépendance dans l’Afrique colonisée. Cet article analyse la vie politique et sociale de ses portraits aux États-Unis et en Jamaïque. Il questionne leur agentivité dans d’autres contextes culturels, en portant une attention particulière à la matérialité des images, aux discours et pratiques qu’elles ont suscités, en particulier lors de la genèse du mouvement rastafari. Nous soutenons que la photographie a permis de créer des repères visuels partagés de part et d’autre de l’Atlantique,
en bouleversant le champ connotatif associé au phénotype noir,
en appuyant le renversement symbolique des rapports de domination et en nourrissant la création de nouvelles identités collectives.
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Pierre Singaravélou (dir.), Arthur Asseraf, Guillaume Blanc, Nadia Yala Kisukidi et Mélanie Lamotte (coord.), Colonisations. Notre histoire, Paris, Seuil, p. 554-557. , 2023
En 1948, lorsque Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-1986) demande : « Quand pourra-t-on parler de renaissance... more En 1948, lorsque Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-1986) demande : « Quand pourra-t-on parler de renaissance africaine ? », il répond que la condition préalable à cette renaissance repose dans le développement des langues africaines, capables de littérature et de science, et dans son corollaire, la destruction du prestige des langues européennes. Sans histoire, sans humanité, marquée du sceau infamant de la dispersion et de la subjugation économique, politique et culturelle, l’Afrique semble démembrée. Sa renaissance devient alors un projet fondamentalement politique, révolutionnaire et panafricaniste. Mais en fait, ce projet de renaissance africaine précède Cheikh Anta Diop de presque un siècle.
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Oxford Research Encyclopedia African History, 2023
Slavery and the slave trade were persistent features of the cultural, social, and economic fabric... more Slavery and the slave trade were persistent features of the cultural, social, and economic fabric of the Ethiopian-Eritrean region, which is historically constituted by various polities and societies across the Christian, Semiticspeaking highlands and the Rift Valley with its surrounding lowland regions, bordered by the Nile Valley on the west and the Red Sea coast to the east. The connectedness of this vast region through long-distance trade routes reaching the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean world is attested in sources since antiquity. There were multiple ways into enslavement: wars, raids, debt, birth, or trade, which involved various actors, be they shifta (bandits), soldiers, traders, or kings. Slave markets dotted the region along the general trade routes, and slaves were distributed into various social categories and labor occupations. While the expansion of the Ethiopian empire turned an increasing number of peasants into servants of the feudal class, the 19th century saw both a growth in the volume of slaves traded in the region and a growth in sources related to slavery thanks to increasing international attention. Despite a pronounced commitment to abolition by Ethiopian rulers since the late 19th century, abolition happened late and slowly. Legacies of slavery play a role in the continuing exclusion and marginalization of persons of slave descent in the 21st century.
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Global Africa, 2022
While the term Global Africa seems to be increasingly used in sectors as diverse as art, fashion,... more While the term Global Africa seems to be increasingly used in sectors as diverse as art, fashion, banking, services and academic research to evoke the multiple connections between Africa and the world, it is worth returning to the activist origins of this term. Indeed, the term stems directly from African and international activism of the early 1990s, which claimed the right to reparations for slavery and colonialism. One step further, the term can be almost superimposed on the social and political history of Pan-Africanism over several centuries and across spaces. The author adopts a pedagogical approach that presents two salient works on the subject (by A. Mazrui and M. O. West) and mobilizes a multilingual and multidisciplinary bibliography to analyse the term in order to clarify the project and the struggles underpinning its use. The article covers the critical origins of Global Africa from its militant emergence to its institutionalization by the African Union and UNESCO. It argues that the stakes are high and the key issue is to grasp the changes in the way we think and represent Africa and Africans in our globalised world.
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Global Africa, 2022
Alors que les termes Global Africa semblent de plus en plus utilisés dans des secteurs aussi dive... more Alors que les termes Global Africa semblent de plus en plus utilisés dans des secteurs aussi divers que l'art, la mode, la banque, les services ou la recherche universitaire afin d'évoquer les multiples connexions entre l'Afrique et le monde, il convient de revenir sur l'origine militante de ces termes. En effet, ils sont directement issus de la mobilisation africaine et internationale du début des années 1990, qui revendiquait le droit à des réparations au titre de l'esclavage et du colonialisme. Un pas plus loin, ils peuvent être presque exactement superposés à l'histoire sociale et politique du panafricanisme qui se déploie sur plusieurs siècles et espaces. En adoptant une démarche pédagogique, qui présente deux écrits de référence sur le sujet (par A. Mazrui et M. O. West) et mobilise une bibliothèque polyglotte et pluridisciplinaire, cet article propose une analyse de ces termes afin d'élucider le projet et les luttes qui les ont constitués. De leur émergence militante à leur institutionnalisation par l'Union africaine et l'Unesco, c'est une généalogie critique qui est ici proposée. L'enjeu n'est pas mince : il s'agit de saisir les mutations des manières de penser et de représenter la présence de l'Afrique et des Africains dans notre monde globalisé.
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Esclavage & Post-esclavages (5), 2021
Cet article étudie la dimension africaine du mouvement global pour les réparations, et donne une ... more Cet article étudie la dimension africaine du mouvement global pour les réparations, et donne une attention particulière à l’engagement de Chief M. K. O. Abiola (1937-1998). Riche homme d’affaires nigérian, Abiola a défendu l’idée que des réparations au titre de l’esclavage et du colonialisme devaient être accordée à l’Afrique et à ses diasporas. Ses conférences aux États-Unis, entre 1987 et 1990, lui permettent d’articuler une relation de causalité entre l’esclavage atlantique et la situation sociale et économique du continent, et d’appeler à la solidarité entre Afro-Américains et Africains. Surtout, Chief Abiola a financé et organisé la première conférence mondiale sur les réparations, à Lagos en 1990, suite à laquelle des comités pour les réparations sont établis dans plusieurs pays, dont le Royaume-Uni et la Jamaïque. Avec le soutien du Général-Président Babangida du Nigéria, Abiola a présidé le Groupe d’éminentes personnalités (GEP) établi par l’Organisation de l’Unité africaine (OUA) en 1992 ; et il a porté la première conférence panafricaine sur les réparations tenue à Abuja en 1993. En mobilisant à la fois des états africains et des acteurs du mouvement panafricain comme Dudley Thompson (Jamaïque), Bernie Grant (Guyana, Royaume-Uni) ou Abdulrahman Babu (Zanzibar, Tanzanie), l’engagement d’Abiola a contribué à institutionnaliser la cause des réparations et à la placer dans l’agenda diplomatique international. Il sort victorieux des élections présidentielles de juin 1993 au Nigéria, mais celles-ci sont annulées et suite au coup d’état qui porte le Général Sani Abacha au pouvoir, Abiola est emprisonné. La promesse de l’Afrique, formulée dans cet engagement politique au côté des diasporas pour obtenir des réparations, se voit brisée. A partir de sources d’archives et d’imprimés, cet article éclaire les enjeux politiques et idéologiques de la cause des réparations dans le contexte changeant du début des années 1990. Abiola, mort en détention en 1998, est mémorialisé comme un « martyr de la démocratie », mais il est aussi une des figures africaines méconnues du panafricanisme de la fin du 20ème siècle.
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Cuba & Africa, 1959-1994. Writing an Alternative Atlantic History , 2020
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IDEAZ vol.15, 2020
Repatriation to Africa represents a cornerstone of Rastafari faith and livity, a structuring para... more Repatriation to Africa represents a cornerstone of Rastafari faith and livity, a structuring paradigm of the movement's development, and an ongoing physical mobility toward Africa. This paper proposes an assessment of the significance of Repatriation, which is still largely ignored in the literature on the Rastafari movement. The claim for the right to return to Africa ties Rastafari to the broader history of Black peoples in the Americas who have emphasized return as a redemptive mobility or as a political solution to their marginalized condition. Repatriation is a concept and a practice that raises many challenges and contradictions; and it endures in many different forms and places. Particular attention is given to repatriation to Ethiopia, but other African countries are addressed as well.
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Esclavages & Post-esclavages, 2020
Le reggae jamaïcain a produit un vaste répertoire extrêmement populaire, qui a contribué comm... more Le reggae jamaïcain a produit un vaste répertoire extrêmement populaire, qui a contribué comme aucune autre pratique culturelle à faire émerger des représentations de l’esclavage dès les années 1970. En Jamaïque, cette posture subversive a contribué à des évolutions sociétales majeures ; et ces représentations ont été instillées dans le sillage de la diffusion globale du reggae. Cet article s’intéresse à la langue visuelle de cette musique, approchée par le biais des pochettes des disques vinyles LP (Long Play). La pochette de disque se situe au croisement des arts visuels et des arts musicaux et malgré l’attention savante qu’elle mobilise, elle demeure un objet fermement inscrit dans les cultures populaires.
Sur le format de la leçon d’objet mise en œuvre dans le beau livre de Tim Barringer et de Wayne Modest, Victorian Jamaica (Durham, Duke University Press, 2018), je propose plus modestement une sélection de pochettes de disques vinyles LP (long play) de reggae jamaïcain représentant l’esclavage. Certaines images sont très connues (Burning Spear, Marcus Garvey, 1975), d’autres beaucoup moins (Little Roy, Columbus Ship, 1996) ; certaines sont relativement anciennes (John Holt, Still in Chains, 1971) et d’autres, récentes (Chronixx, Captureland, 2014). La lecture et l’analyse de ces pochettes sont mises en forme dans de courts textes. Ici, ce que ces pochettes de disques illustrent, ce n’est pas seulement l’évidence des symboles liés à l’esclavage (le fouet, les chaînes, le bateau, etc.), c’est aussi la constance de la contestation de l’ordre social, politique et racial hérité de l’esclavage.
Object lessons. Record sleeves and the representation of slavery in Jamaican reggae
Jamaican reggae has produced a very large and popular repertoire that has contributed like no other cultural practice to the emergence of representations of slavery since the 1970s. In Jamaica, this subversive posture has contributed to major societal evolutions, and these representations circulated in the wake of the global diffusion of reggae. This paper focuses on the visual language of this music, apprehended through the sleeves of LP (long play) vinyl discs. The study of album sleeves is situated at the intersection of the visual arts and the musical arts, and despite the scholarly attention they attract, album sleeves remain firmly inscribed in popular cultures. Following the format of the object lesson deployed in the publication of Tim Barringer and Wayne Modest’sVictorian Jamaica(Durham, Duke University Press, 2018), I propose more modestly a selection of Jamaican reggae album sleeves (long play vinyl discs) that represent slavery. Some images are very well known (Burning Spear, Marcus Garvey, 1975), others much less so (Little Roy, Columbus Ship, 1996); some are relatively ancient (John Holt, Still in Chains, 1971), and others are recent (Chronixx, Captureland, 2014). The reading and the analysis of these sleeves are presented in short texts. Here, these sleeves illustrate not only the obvious symbols related to slavery (the whip, the chains, the ship, etc.), but also the constancy of the contestation of the social, political, and racial order inherited from slavery.
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Tumultes, 2019
"Afrocentered Genealogies. Ethiopianism and the Writing of History."
Afrocentrism is often consid... more "Afrocentered Genealogies. Ethiopianism and the Writing of History."
Afrocentrism is often considered as a relatively new phenomenon shaped by African American intellectuals at the end of the 20th century, that relied on the reinterpretation of Egyptian antiquity. However, before Afrocentrism, other spaces, and in particular Ethiopia, anchored a renewed history of ancient Africa. This paper explores the role played by (real and imagined) Ethiopia in the American writing of African history up to the 1950s; and argues that Ethiopianism preceded and nurtured the centrality of Egypt in Afrocentric productions .
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International Journal of African Historical Studies, 2018
Helen and James Piper were born in the early years of the 20th century in Montserrat, Eastern Car... more Helen and James Piper were born in the early years of the 20th century in Montserrat, Eastern Caribbean. Migrants to the United States, they were Garveyites, Black Jews, and members of the Ethiopian World Federation, founded in 1937 in New York. In 1948 they settled in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, like a generation of Pan-Africanists who were engaged in the reconstruction of the country after the war with Italy. A couple years later, they were the first settlers on the Shashemene land grant, given by Emperor Haile Selassie I to the “black people of the world” to thank them for their support during the war. There they built their house, developed relationships with their Ethiopian neighbours, and got engaged in agricultural and educational development. Helen and James Piper represent a missing link in the history of the Back to Africa movement. The hinge between the United States and the Caribbean, between the Black Jews and the Rastafari, they started the Shashemene settlement where hundreds of Rastafari live today, despite the vicissitude of social life and political change in Ethiopia. Based on archival sources, newspapers and oral history, this paper follows the trajectory of the Pipers to shed new light on the social history of return to Africa in the 20th century.
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Northeast African Studies, 2017
Slavery remains one of the blind spots in the historiography of the Horn of Africa in general and... more Slavery remains one of the blind spots in the historiography of the Horn of Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular. This is peculiar in light of the fact that in the territories of the Horn slavery left a signifijicant imprint on the sociocultural fabric, and that the ports along the Horn of Africa coast fed the slave trade to the Arab, Ottoman, and Indian Ocean worlds for many centuries. In this article, we highlight some of the research trends on slavery in Africa and discuss slavery and the slave trade in diffferent Ethiopian regions. We also question the public silence around the legacies of slavery in the country. By means of introducing the articles of this special issue, we point towards new, pending, or unresolved research questions.
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Volume!, 2017
« Capture Land » est à la fois une chanson tirée du deuxième album de Chronixx (2014), un clip vi... more « Capture Land » est à la fois une chanson tirée du deuxième album de Chronixx (2014), un clip vidéo et un court métrage réalisé par Nabil Elderkin sorti la même année. Une analyse textuelle et contextuelle est appliquée à ces matériaux afin d'étudier les mémoires collectives qui y sont mises en scène. Il apparaît que l'esclavage reste la matrice à partir de laquelle la Jamaïque comprend les conditions socio-économiques actuelles de la majorité de sa population. La condamnation morale de l'esclavage et des conquêtes européennes s'articule au sentiment diasporique, et Capture Land met en scène le désir de « retour » en Afrique. La figure du Rastafari continue d'incarner les identités (raciale, sociale et politique) jamaïcaines et ancre ainsi solidement le reggae contemporain dans le patrimoine représenté par le reggae roots des années 1970 et 1980.
Abstract: " Capture Land " is a song from Chronixx's second album (2014), a video clip, and a short film by Nabil Elderkin that came out the same year. I apply a textual and contextual analysis to these materials in order to study the collective memory that they stage. It appears that slavery remains the matrix from which Jamaica understands the socioeconomic condition of the majority of its population. The moral condemnation of slavery and of European conquest is articulated to the diasporic sentiment, and Capture Land stages the desire to " return " to Africa. The character of the Rastafari keeps on embodying the racial, social and political identities of Jamaica, and therefore anchors firmly contemporary reggae as the legacy of roots reggae from the 1970s and the 1980s.
Keywords: reggae – Jamaica – slavery – memory – blackness – diaspora
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New West Indian Guide, 2016
Twenty-eight years ago, F.J. van Dijk published in the New West Indian Guide what remained for a ... more Twenty-eight years ago, F.J. van Dijk published in the New West Indian Guide what remained for a long time the only scholarly paper on the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Undoubtedly the largest Rastafari organization both in terms of membership and international expansion, the Twelve Tribes of Israel remains little known in public and academic circles. This article fills two major but closely related gaps in Van Dijk's seminal article. The first is information on the formation and history of the Twelve Tribes, and the second is how the organization mobilized the return of members to Africa, a cornerstone of Rastafari belief. This article argues that the issue of return to the continent determined the very genesis of the organization and subsequently the development of its eighteen international branches. In its turn, this focus on return to Africa offers another perspective on the internal dynamics of the Rastafari movement, namely the structuring role of Rastafari organizations, a role which challenges the common image of Rastafari as an " acephalous " movement. Exploring the tangible relationship of Rastafari with Ethiopia, through the return to Ethiopia of members of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, offers new insight into the history of the Rastafari movement.
Keywords Twelve Tribes of Israel – Rastafari organizations – Back-to-Africa – Ethiopia – Shashemene
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in G. Prunier & E. Ficquet. Understanding Contemporary Ethiopia. Monarchy, Revolution and the Legacy of Meles Zenawi. Hurst: 147-157, 2015
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African Diaspora 8 (2015) 1 - 13, 2015
Special Issue Guest Editor, Introduction.
This collection of papers contributes empirical mate... more Special Issue Guest Editor, Introduction.
This collection of papers contributes empirical material to the scholarly discussions on diasporas within and without Africa. The insights offered by the familiarity of the authors with both Ethiopian and diasporic contexts not only play a part in renewing research perspectives within Ethiopian studies, but also hopefully contribute to inscribing Ethiopia firmly within discussions on the African diaspora.
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Videos by Giulia Bonacci
Articles and Book Chapters by Giulia Bonacci
en bouleversant le champ connotatif associé au phénotype noir,
en appuyant le renversement symbolique des rapports de domination et en nourrissant la création de nouvelles identités collectives.
Sur le format de la leçon d’objet mise en œuvre dans le beau livre de Tim Barringer et de Wayne Modest, Victorian Jamaica (Durham, Duke University Press, 2018), je propose plus modestement une sélection de pochettes de disques vinyles LP (long play) de reggae jamaïcain représentant l’esclavage. Certaines images sont très connues (Burning Spear, Marcus Garvey, 1975), d’autres beaucoup moins (Little Roy, Columbus Ship, 1996) ; certaines sont relativement anciennes (John Holt, Still in Chains, 1971) et d’autres, récentes (Chronixx, Captureland, 2014). La lecture et l’analyse de ces pochettes sont mises en forme dans de courts textes. Ici, ce que ces pochettes de disques illustrent, ce n’est pas seulement l’évidence des symboles liés à l’esclavage (le fouet, les chaînes, le bateau, etc.), c’est aussi la constance de la contestation de l’ordre social, politique et racial hérité de l’esclavage.
Object lessons. Record sleeves and the representation of slavery in Jamaican reggae
Jamaican reggae has produced a very large and popular repertoire that has contributed like no other cultural practice to the emergence of representations of slavery since the 1970s. In Jamaica, this subversive posture has contributed to major societal evolutions, and these representations circulated in the wake of the global diffusion of reggae. This paper focuses on the visual language of this music, apprehended through the sleeves of LP (long play) vinyl discs. The study of album sleeves is situated at the intersection of the visual arts and the musical arts, and despite the scholarly attention they attract, album sleeves remain firmly inscribed in popular cultures. Following the format of the object lesson deployed in the publication of Tim Barringer and Wayne Modest’sVictorian Jamaica(Durham, Duke University Press, 2018), I propose more modestly a selection of Jamaican reggae album sleeves (long play vinyl discs) that represent slavery. Some images are very well known (Burning Spear, Marcus Garvey, 1975), others much less so (Little Roy, Columbus Ship, 1996); some are relatively ancient (John Holt, Still in Chains, 1971), and others are recent (Chronixx, Captureland, 2014). The reading and the analysis of these sleeves are presented in short texts. Here, these sleeves illustrate not only the obvious symbols related to slavery (the whip, the chains, the ship, etc.), but also the constancy of the contestation of the social, political, and racial order inherited from slavery.
Afrocentrism is often considered as a relatively new phenomenon shaped by African American intellectuals at the end of the 20th century, that relied on the reinterpretation of Egyptian antiquity. However, before Afrocentrism, other spaces, and in particular Ethiopia, anchored a renewed history of ancient Africa. This paper explores the role played by (real and imagined) Ethiopia in the American writing of African history up to the 1950s; and argues that Ethiopianism preceded and nurtured the centrality of Egypt in Afrocentric productions .
Abstract: " Capture Land " is a song from Chronixx's second album (2014), a video clip, and a short film by Nabil Elderkin that came out the same year. I apply a textual and contextual analysis to these materials in order to study the collective memory that they stage. It appears that slavery remains the matrix from which Jamaica understands the socioeconomic condition of the majority of its population. The moral condemnation of slavery and of European conquest is articulated to the diasporic sentiment, and Capture Land stages the desire to " return " to Africa. The character of the Rastafari keeps on embodying the racial, social and political identities of Jamaica, and therefore anchors firmly contemporary reggae as the legacy of roots reggae from the 1970s and the 1980s.
Keywords: reggae – Jamaica – slavery – memory – blackness – diaspora
Keywords Twelve Tribes of Israel – Rastafari organizations – Back-to-Africa – Ethiopia – Shashemene
This collection of papers contributes empirical material to the scholarly discussions on diasporas within and without Africa. The insights offered by the familiarity of the authors with both Ethiopian and diasporic contexts not only play a part in renewing research perspectives within Ethiopian studies, but also hopefully contribute to inscribing Ethiopia firmly within discussions on the African diaspora.
en bouleversant le champ connotatif associé au phénotype noir,
en appuyant le renversement symbolique des rapports de domination et en nourrissant la création de nouvelles identités collectives.
Sur le format de la leçon d’objet mise en œuvre dans le beau livre de Tim Barringer et de Wayne Modest, Victorian Jamaica (Durham, Duke University Press, 2018), je propose plus modestement une sélection de pochettes de disques vinyles LP (long play) de reggae jamaïcain représentant l’esclavage. Certaines images sont très connues (Burning Spear, Marcus Garvey, 1975), d’autres beaucoup moins (Little Roy, Columbus Ship, 1996) ; certaines sont relativement anciennes (John Holt, Still in Chains, 1971) et d’autres, récentes (Chronixx, Captureland, 2014). La lecture et l’analyse de ces pochettes sont mises en forme dans de courts textes. Ici, ce que ces pochettes de disques illustrent, ce n’est pas seulement l’évidence des symboles liés à l’esclavage (le fouet, les chaînes, le bateau, etc.), c’est aussi la constance de la contestation de l’ordre social, politique et racial hérité de l’esclavage.
Object lessons. Record sleeves and the representation of slavery in Jamaican reggae
Jamaican reggae has produced a very large and popular repertoire that has contributed like no other cultural practice to the emergence of representations of slavery since the 1970s. In Jamaica, this subversive posture has contributed to major societal evolutions, and these representations circulated in the wake of the global diffusion of reggae. This paper focuses on the visual language of this music, apprehended through the sleeves of LP (long play) vinyl discs. The study of album sleeves is situated at the intersection of the visual arts and the musical arts, and despite the scholarly attention they attract, album sleeves remain firmly inscribed in popular cultures. Following the format of the object lesson deployed in the publication of Tim Barringer and Wayne Modest’sVictorian Jamaica(Durham, Duke University Press, 2018), I propose more modestly a selection of Jamaican reggae album sleeves (long play vinyl discs) that represent slavery. Some images are very well known (Burning Spear, Marcus Garvey, 1975), others much less so (Little Roy, Columbus Ship, 1996); some are relatively ancient (John Holt, Still in Chains, 1971), and others are recent (Chronixx, Captureland, 2014). The reading and the analysis of these sleeves are presented in short texts. Here, these sleeves illustrate not only the obvious symbols related to slavery (the whip, the chains, the ship, etc.), but also the constancy of the contestation of the social, political, and racial order inherited from slavery.
Afrocentrism is often considered as a relatively new phenomenon shaped by African American intellectuals at the end of the 20th century, that relied on the reinterpretation of Egyptian antiquity. However, before Afrocentrism, other spaces, and in particular Ethiopia, anchored a renewed history of ancient Africa. This paper explores the role played by (real and imagined) Ethiopia in the American writing of African history up to the 1950s; and argues that Ethiopianism preceded and nurtured the centrality of Egypt in Afrocentric productions .
Abstract: " Capture Land " is a song from Chronixx's second album (2014), a video clip, and a short film by Nabil Elderkin that came out the same year. I apply a textual and contextual analysis to these materials in order to study the collective memory that they stage. It appears that slavery remains the matrix from which Jamaica understands the socioeconomic condition of the majority of its population. The moral condemnation of slavery and of European conquest is articulated to the diasporic sentiment, and Capture Land stages the desire to " return " to Africa. The character of the Rastafari keeps on embodying the racial, social and political identities of Jamaica, and therefore anchors firmly contemporary reggae as the legacy of roots reggae from the 1970s and the 1980s.
Keywords: reggae – Jamaica – slavery – memory – blackness – diaspora
Keywords Twelve Tribes of Israel – Rastafari organizations – Back-to-Africa – Ethiopia – Shashemene
This collection of papers contributes empirical material to the scholarly discussions on diasporas within and without Africa. The insights offered by the familiarity of the authors with both Ethiopian and diasporic contexts not only play a part in renewing research perspectives within Ethiopian studies, but also hopefully contribute to inscribing Ethiopia firmly within discussions on the African diaspora.
la tribu de Juda. » Pour une poignée d’aventuriers jamaïcains, ce sacre sonne l’heure de la libération, annoncée quelques années plus tôt par le charismatique et controversé Marcus Garvey. Un des premiers Rastafaris, Henry Archibald Dunkley, revient dans Negus Christ sur le sens de ce couronnement : « C’était un homme noir. Le Christ est un homme noir. » Une révélation, mais aussi un choix, une reconquête. Ainsi émerge en Jamaïque une christologie noire, incarnée : une transcendance à visage humain.
Les Rastafaris redessinent le visage de Dieu et font naître des communautés auto-suffisantes dans la Jamaïque coloniale. Ils battent les tambours, proclament leur allégeance à l’Éthiopie, défient la Couronne britannique et s’organisent pour « rentrer » en Afrique. Portés par le succès de la musique reggae, les Rastafaris vont conquérir les jeunesses du monde entier avec leur message et leur soif de justice.
Les historiens Giulia Bonacci et Robert A. Hill, l' anthropologue Jakes Homiak et Boris Lutanie, professeur de lettres et histoire, ont partagé leurs recherches et collaboré au travers d’entretiens et d’écritures communes pour proposer ces histoires du mouvement rastafari. Illustré
de nombreuses photos en noir et blanc, Negus Christ offre un éclairage précieux sur l’expérience des Rastafaris.
Cuba and Africa, 1959-1994 is the story of tens of thousands of individuals who crossed the Atlantic as doctors, scientists, soldiers, students and artists. Each chapter presents a case study – from Algeria to Angola, from Equatorial Guinea to South Africa – and shows how much of the encounter between Cuba and Africa took place in non militaristic fields: humanitarian and medical, scientific and educational, cultural and artistic.
The historical experience and the legacies documented in this book speak to the major ideologies that shaped the colonial and postcolonial world, including internationalism, developmentalism and South–South cooperation.
Approaching African–Cuban relations from a multiplicity of angles, this collection will appeal to an equally wide range of readers, from scholars in black Atlantic studies to cultural theorists and general readers with an interest in contemporary African history.
la tribu de Juda. » Pour une poignée d’aventuriers jamaïcains, ce sacre sonne l’heure de la libération, annoncée quelques années plus tôt par le charismatique et controversé Marcus Garvey. Un des premiers Rastafaris, Henry Archibald Dunkley, revient dans Negus Christ sur le sens de ce couronnement : « C’était un homme noir. Le Christ est un homme noir. » Une révélation, mais aussi un choix, une reconquête. Ainsi émerge en Jamaïque une christologie noire, incarnée : une transcendance à visage humain.
Les Rastafaris redessinent le visage de Dieu et font naître des communautés auto-suffisantes dans la Jamaïque coloniale. Ils battent les tambours, proclament leur allégeance à l’Éthiopie, défient la Couronne britannique et s’organisent pour « rentrer » en Afrique. Portés par le succès de la musique reggae, les Rastafaris vont conquérir les jeunesses du monde entier avec leur message et leur soif de justice.
Les historiens Giulia Bonacci et Robert A. Hill, l' anthropologue Jakes Homiak et Boris Lutanie, professeur de lettres et histoire, ont partagé leurs recherches et collaboré au travers d’entretiens et d’écritures communes pour proposer ces histoires du mouvement rastafari. Illustré
de nombreuses photos en noir et blanc, Negus Christ offre un éclairage précieux sur l’expérience des Rastafaris.
Revealing personal trajectories, Giulia Bonacci shows that Rastafari were not the first black settlers in Ethiopia. She tracks the history of return over the decades, demonstrating that the utopian idea of return is also a reality. Exodus! is based on in-depth archival and print research, as well as on a wide range of oral histories collected in Ethiopia, Jamaica, Ghana, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Originally published in French, this translation is the first time Bonacci's work has been made widely available to an English-speaking audience.
Edited by Thomas Vendryes.
This special issue of Volume! is dedicated to Jamaican music. Its nine texts, along with a dozen reviews of major recent books, offer a description and an analysis of the main features of these musics, through their uses – from riddims to sound sytems – and discourses – from culture to slackness. Gathering works from leading scholars in the field, this survey sheds new light on the main debates that stem from Jamaican popular music.
Introduction
Thomas Vendryes, « Wi likkle but wi tallawah ! » L’écho musical d’une petite île des Caraïbes
Pratiques phonographiques
Peter Manuel & Wayne Marshall, « La méthode du riddim : esthétique, pratique et propriété dans le dancehall jamaïcain »
Jean-Christophe Sevin, « Le vinyle, le reggae et les soirées sound system. Une écologie médiatique »
« Culture », « slackness » et émancipation
Giulia Bonacci, « Terrible et terrifiant. Le reggae jamaïcain au prisme des mémoires
Emmanuel Parent, « Vybz Kartel : un révolutionnaire conservateur ? Mutations contemporaines de la figure de l’intellectuel organique dans l’Atlantique noir »
Carolyn Cooper, « Incarner l’émancipation : marronnages érotiques dans la culture dancehall jamaïcaine »
Hubert Devonish & Byron Jones, « Langue, musique et crise de la nation jamaïcaine »
Circulations
Herbie Miller & Roberto Moore, « Le jazz jamaïcain, sur l’île et à l’étranger »
Brian d’Aquino, Julian Henriques & Leonardo Vidigal, « A Popular Culture Research Methodology : Sound System Outernational »
Varia
Christian Béthune, « L’explicite, l’implicite et le mineur : deux blues obscènes de Lucille Bogan »
Notes de lecture
Sabine Sörgel : Markus Coester & Wolfgang Bender (eds), A Reader in African-Jamaican Music, Dance and Religion, Ian Randle Publishers, 2014
Dennis Howard : Donna Hope, International Reggae : Current and Future Trends in Jamaican Popular Music, Pelican, 2013
Werner Zips : Donna Hope, Reggae from Yaad : Traditional and Emerging Themes in Jamaican Popular Music, Ian Randle Publishers, 2016
David Katz : Michael Garnice, The Ultimate Guide to Great Reggae, Equinox Publishing, 2016
Michael Largey : Kenneth Bilby, Words of Our Mouth, Meditations of Our Heart, Wesleyan University Press, 2016
Kenneth Bilby : Alexandre Grondeau, Reggae Ambassadors. La légende du reggae, La Lune Sur le Toit, 2016
Abdoulaye Gaye : Thibaut Erhengardt, Reggae et politique dans les années 70, Natty Dread, 2016
David Aarons : Sarah Daynes, Time and Memory in Reggae Music, Manchester University Press, 2010
Hélène Lee : Clinton Hutton & al (eds), Leonard Percival Howell and the Genesis of Rastafari, University of the West Indies Press, 2015
Dennis Howard : Carolyn Cooper, Sound Clash : Jamaican Dancehall Culture At Large, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004
Sabine Sörgel : Julian Henriques, Sonic Bodies. Reggae Sound Systems, Performance Techniques, and Ways of Knowing, Bloomsbury, 2011
Erin MacLeod : Christopher Bateman & Al Fingers, In Fine Style : The Dancehall Art of Wilfred Limonious, One Love Books, 2016