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Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: March 17, 2020 at 1:50:56 PM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Africa]: Luongo on Carpenter and Lawrance, > 'Africans in Exile: Mobility, Law, and Identity' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Nathan Riley Carpenter, Benjamin N. Lawrance, eds. Africans in > Exile: Mobility, Law, and Identity. Framing the Global Series. > Indianapolis Indiana University Press, 2018. Illustrations, maps. > xvi + 337 pp. $35.00 (paper), ISBN 978-0-253-03808-1; $85.00 > (cloth), ISBN 978-0-253-03807-4. > > Reviewed by Katherine Luongo (Northeastern University) > Published on H-Africa (March, 2020) > Commissioned by David D. Hurlbut > > Nathan Riley Carpenter and Benjamin N. Lawrance's far-ranging, > innovative edited collection engages with experiences and > understandings of exile, focusing on "the breadth and complexity of > exile and its deep and lasting impact on people across and beyond the > African continent" (p. 3). Experiences of exile, they argue, have > been viewed too often as one of two extremes, either as profoundly > alienating or as deeply romantic. Exiles themselves have also been > misunderstood. While the archetype of the exile is the exceptional, > elite individual whose activities and existence challenge state > power, _Africans in Exile_ shows instead how ordinary Africans have > come to experience exile as a result of their everyday interactions > with the state. At the same time, the collection disrupts the popular > notion that exile necessarily equals isolation and disconnection, > demonstrating instead both how exile applies to communities and how > exile can generate communities (p. 7). The central goal of _Africans > in Exile_, which it achieves ably, is to "reconsider exile in its > totality and to argue for its centrality to theorizations of state > power in colonial and postcolonial Africa" (p. 4). > > The sixteen chapters that make up _Africans in Exile_ derive > primarily from papers presented at the 2015 Conable Conference in > International Studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology, an > interdisciplinary meeting organized around the topic of "exile and > deportation in global perspective."[1] The chapters carry the reader > across a broad expanse of time, space, and topic. Chapters on the > politics of exile in colonial Africa, such as Trina Leah Hogg's > careful examination of the deportation of political prisoners in > nineteenth-century Sierra Leone and the "violent geography of exile" > that ensued from colonial policy and practice, reveal "the critical > role that colonial engagement with frontier communities had in > constructing colonial law" (p. 56). Those chapters addressing the > complicated relationship between exile and decolonization, for > instance, Joanna Tague's lively study of the education of Mozambican > refugees in exile in Dar es Salaam during Mozambique's civil war, > challenge "the conflation of exile with punishment by framing exile > as opportunity," showing how exile could provide the space and > resources to prepare for a new kind of permanency (p. 138). And > chapters on postcolonial varieties of exile, for example, Lawrance's > sensitive treatment of the testimonies of Togolese asylum seekers' > narratives of torture, point to the "internal dynamics of > repression," which have rendered self-imposed exile the only option > for countless contemporary Africans (p. 288). > > While the chapters thus address a remarkable diversity of people, > places, and periods, they are nonetheless united by their interest in > the political purposes of exile and in the centrality of exile to > "any account of state power or critical rereading of colonial and > postcolonial oppression" (p. 4). They also share a strong focus on > how exile "was as much a state of mind as it was a physical > situation" and lend careful attention to how exiled people have > exerted agency within what is typically regarded to be a > fundamentally disempowering experience (p. 7). Whether addressing > Africans who experienced exile as a punitive measure--as something > done _to_ them--or those who experienced exile as a voluntary > condition, the chapters show how people have been able to take > ownership of their circumstances. > > The organization of the chapters into three, roughly equal, > methodologically oriented sections lends further cohesiveness to the > collection overall. Part 1, "The Legal World of Exile," brings > together a series of chapters that explore the legalities, and > _illegalities_, of exile (p. 15). Whether writing on colonial Sierra > Leone, Kenya, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, or Benin, here the authors > trace the legal genealogies of exile, questioning how "exile is a > particular form of coercive power" and highlighting the ways "the > historiography of colonial law and its application is deeply > contested" (p. 16). Part 2, "Geographies of Exile," takes on the > roles of space and place in shaping the experience of exile. > Examining nationalist and activist communities on the continent _and > _those in European capitals, the authors show how while "political > exile was a sentence, it also served as a form of resistance" (p. > 20). But at the same time, these chapters illustrate how exile was > not simply expressed in "political rhetoric" but productive of > "affective states" that such political speech could not, or would > not, capture (p. 18). Part 3, "Remembering and Performing Exile," > asks how exiled subjects experienced their displacement. The chapters > engage with the ways modalities of memory and expressive repertoires > have shaped both the experience of exile and its retellings. They > examine how exiled subjects "performed" (and remembered) the > experience of displacement, either through artistic expressions, such > as songs or poetry, or according to institutional or organizational > demands. Overall, its rich array of subject matter organized by a > clear thematic structure and a set of common questions makes > _Africans in Exile_ easily accessible as a whole, by section, or on a > chapter-by-chapter basis. > > _Africans in Exile _also makes a bold and useful methodological > claim: the "diversity of exiles' experiences across the continent can > be recovered and interpreted as an 'archive'" (p. 4). The diversity > of sources and voices that make up this "archive of African exile," > Carpenter and Lawrance assert, "speaks to the lived experiences of > persecution in an increasingly globalized mobile, migratory age" (p. > 8). Recognizing that state archives often stop short of, or shortly > after, independence, this formulation of exile-as-archive takes up > the problem faced by many scholars of postcolonial Africa: how to > push beyond state archives, "_the _archive," both to conceptualize > what counts as an "archive" more broadly and to locate fresh, rich > sources through which to interrogate Africa's past and present. > _Africans in Exile_ demonstrates that the "archive of exile emerges > in the public sphere: in newspapers, in popular song and poetry, in > television and online" (p. 12). > > Overall, _Africans in Exile_ provides an abundance of > well-researched, engaging studies that complicate the notion of exile > and push the boundaries of the archive in ways that will be > particularly useful to scholars of colonial Africa aiming to > problematize how "both law and violence were at the heart of colonial > rule" and scholars of postcolonial Africa seeking to interrogate how > "coerced displacement" has emerged as a "defining feature of the > modern era" (pp. 18, 23). > > Note > > [1]. "'A Vision of Revolution': Exile and Deportation in Global > Perspective," 4th Conable Conference, Rochester Institute of > Technology, https://www.rit.edu/cla/conable/2015-conference (accessed > March 16, 2019). > > Citation: Katherine Luongo. Review of Carpenter, Nathan Riley; > Lawrance, Benjamin N., eds., _Africans in Exile: Mobility, Law, and > Identity_. H-Africa, H-Net Reviews. March, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54550 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
