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Best regards, Andrew Stewart Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.msu.edu> > Date: October 8, 2018 at 6:30:12 PM EDT > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Law]: M'Baye on Gulick, 'Literature, Law, and > Rhetorical Performance in the Anticolonial Atlantic' > Reply-To: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.msu.edu> > > Anne W. Gulick. Literature, Law, and Rhetorical Performance in the > Anticolonial Atlantic. Columbus Ohio State University Press, 2016. > xi + 258 pp. $99.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8142-1302-5; $34.95 (paper), > ISBN 978-0-8142-5213-0. > > Reviewed by Babacar M'Baye (Kent State University) > Published on H-Law (October, 2018) > Commissioned by Michael J. Pfeifer > > Anne W. Gulick's _Literature, Law, and Rhetorical Performance in the > Anticolonial Atlantic_ is a very important work which explores the > paradox that Pan-African postcolonial states and intellectuals have > experienced since the early nineteenth century. The quandary lies in > the fact that such states and scholars freed themselves from their > previous colonial oppressors only to become confined by the legal and > intellectual legacies of their former imperial subjugators. Gulick > explains one of the main causes of this ambiguity: "The legal texts > and institutions that helped grant decolonized nations their > political autonomy were usually crafted by a small elite in > conjunction with the country's former rulers, and often did little to > reconfigure colonial economic and political power relations" (p. 1). > Gulick's thesis statement is pertinent since, whether they are in > Africa or in the Caribbean, postcolonial nations continue to > experience both legal duality and contingency. For instance, as > Gulick points out, "law has served both emancipatory and oppressive > functions in Africa and the Caribbean, offering newly independent > states and their citizens the means of asserting political legibility > while also reinforcing colonial structures of rules and fostering new > forms of economic and political dependency in a decolonized, but > hardly postcolonial, world" (pp. 1-2). To understand the seriousness > of the predicament that Gulick describes, one has to wonder why, for > example, Haiti is still suffering from dire economic, social, and > political conflicts although it was the first modern independent > black nation. Moreover, this is the country that, as Gulick argues, > provided through its independence movement "an alternative vision of > the meaning of legal authorship and authority not just for Haiti but > also for the postcolonial international community yet to come" (p. > 17). Yet it is shocking to see that Haiti, which is a nation that has > contributed so much to the fundamental importance of basic democratic > freedom and modernity, as evidenced in Toussaint L'Ouverture's and > Jean-Jacques Dessalines's republican victories over French > imperialism, became after 1804 a postcolonial nation that did not > completely sever itself from the legal traditions of its previous > oppressor. As Gulick writes, "the challenge Haiti faces in the > present is an anticolonial challenge of the sort that Frantz Fanon > would describe 150 years later in _The Wretched of the Earth _[1961]" > (pp. 26-27). There lies the strongest part of Gulick's book, which is > its articulation of a problem that formerly colonized blacks are > still unable to resolve. This problem is that black liberation > movements become extremely weakened when they are co-opted by the > former or current oppressors and when their elites' postcolonial > visions and minds are modeled after those of the previous imperial > powers. > > Yet Haiti's past revolutionary movement was and remains relevant > since it provided the legal and rhetorical performance that has > empowered anticolonial resistance in black African and Atlantic > cultures since the 1960s. Yet this revolutionary consciousness was > often inspired by what Gulick calls "First World law's texts," which > includes legal or intellectual traditions that Karl Marx, Vladimir > Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Hannah Arendt, and other thinkers have provided > in defense of poor and oppressed people (pp. 48-49). According to > Gulick, these figures' doctrines especially influenced the black > Trinidadian scholar C. L. R. James to develop and inspire "a romance > of revolutionary rhetorical performance" that has endured in the > Atlantic world, enabling blacks to demand their rights in both > colonial and postcolonial contexts (p. 49). This is an excellent > argument since it reveals how black transnationalism and the > Negritude movement to which it gave birth were forms of Atlantic > revolutions. By perceiving Negritude and especially Aimé Césaire's > classical book-length poem _Cahier d'un retour au pays natal_ > (_Notebook/Journal of a Return to My Native Land_), as a pivotal > moment in these revolutions, Gulick writes the Caribbean into a > history in which it has not been sufficiently studied. > > Yet, as Gulick suggests, black intellectuals such as James and > Césaire allowed the Caribbean to have a strong presence in the study > of Atlantic revolutions. First, according to Gulick, James and > Césaire wanted to help blacks gain a freedom that Western-inspired > legal traditions were not likely to provide them. Doubting the League > of Nations' and the United Nations' ability "to address the racial > and economic violence carried out by empire and capitalism" and "the > political and economic structures these institutions were of course > designed to uphold," James, Gulick argues, "was deeply invested in > imagining alternative modes of political organization and > participation, and how new political communities might form and > assert their authority through revolutionary means" (pp. 48-49). > Césaire echoed a similar weariness toward Western-based legal > institutions since he found strength in Negritude as a means to > provide alienated communities of African descent the global human > rights traditions to which L'Ouverture and other black > revolutionaries had contributed. In this sense, Gulick interprets > Césaire's _Cahier_ "as a radical supplement to the Universal > Declaration, a necessary mode of imagining--and performatively > iterating--global justice through an engaged internationalist > politics at the moment of the birth of a universal human rights > movement riddled with conservative and depoliticizing tendencies" (p. > 79). > > Another strength of Gulick's book is its comparisons of African forms > of decolonization movements. Without delving into the whole history > of such forms, Gulick, however, reveals that constitutions of a few > African nations were similar in their urgent needs to be different > from those of their colonial oppressors. Gulick shows the independent > nations' constant efforts to make their foundational and legal texts > be free from the ideologies of their former imperial hegemonies. > Citing examples of Kenya and Algeria where "postcolonial > constitutions were discarded and replaced with new, dramatically > different constitutions within a short period of time," Gulick > writes: "Africa did not take long after independence to start looking > for constitutional forms better suited to the continent" (pp. > 153-154). > > The plight of blacks in South Africa was not dissimilar to the plight > of other formerly colonized people. First, during and after their > fights against apartheid, South African blacks and other oppressed > people had to consider accommodating the democratic conception of > resistance as a movement necessitating cross-racial alliances. The > Freedom Charter provided oppressed South Africans the legal and > ideological framework that made such alliances possible. According to > Gulick, "the Charter--and the Congress of the People, the mass > meeting at which the document was formally approved and endorsed in > 1955--solidified the anti-apartheid movement as a mass resistance > struggle dependent on solidarity across racial, ethnic, and > ideological lines." It might be possible to see this cross-racial and > ethnic solidarity as limited since, as Gulick points out, "the text's > profession of racial inclusivity alienated some of the ANC's [African > National Congress] more committed Africanists, who would go on in > 1958 to form the Pan Africanist Congress" (p. 122). Yet cross-racial > and cross-ethnic alliances remained vital in the anti-apartheid > struggles, since, as evidenced in 1994, they were part of the > democratic and universalist ideologies that allowed Nelson Mandela > and his supporters to positively change the course of South Africa's > history. As Gulick also suggests, South Africa's experiment confirms > that "revolution's end goal, as the work of James and Césaire > attests, cannot be reduced to the constitution of a new legal regime; > the real work of revolution lies in the cultivation of a dynamic and > radically democratic political community, one equipped to continually > reconstitute the nation in the present" (p. 123). > > Additionally, Gulick's book examines connections that most scholars > of black studies assume exist but often fail to explore. These links > include those between the Kenyan writer and critic Ngūgī wa > Thiong'o and the Martinican poet, novelist, and essayist Edouard > Glissant. First, Gulick opens up new avenues for scholarship in black > Atlantic studies by lamenting the limited work on the relations > between such kinds of black Anglophone and Francophone intellectuals. > She states: "The long-standing and quite formidable disciplinary > divide between francophone and anglophone literature means that as of > Glissant's death in 2011 these two writers had never been in contact, > nor had they ever referenced one another in their work." Breaking > tradition, Gulick establishes strong connections between Ngūgī and > Glissant, emphasizing that "both set out to interrogate the depths of > the impact of colonialism on culture. Both are prominent theorists of > language in postcolonial contexts, heavily influenced by an earlier > generation of black internationalist anticolonial thinkers such as > Césaire and Fanon.... Most importantly, both champion what I am > calling radical multilingualism, a politics of linguistic diversity > for the postcolonial world that is also an aesthetics" (p. 189). > Through such powerful linkages and assertions, Gulick opens us space > for further studies of the relationships between black Anglophone and > Francophone intellectuals. Such inquiries will invigorate black > Atlantic studies and show the pivotal role that Africa and its > parental cultures in the New World have played in the development of > ideas of universal freedom that are often perceived as mainly white, > Western, and European. > > Citation: Babacar M'Baye. Review of Gulick, Anne W., _Literature, > Law, and Rhetorical Performance in the Anticolonial Atlantic_. H-Law, > H-Net Reviews. October, 2018. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=50348 > > 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: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
