From Toussaint to Tupac

The Black International since the Age of Revolution

Edited by Michael O. West, William G. Martin, Fanon Che Wilkins

336 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 4 illus., notes, bibl., index

  • Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8078-5972-8
    Published: September 2009
  • E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-0-8078-9872-7
    Published: September 2009
  • E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-8335-3
    Published: September 2009

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Transcending geographic and cultural lines, From Toussaint to Tupac is an ambitious collection of essays exploring black internationalism and its implications for a black consciousness. At its core, black internationalism is a struggle against oppression, whether manifested in slavery, colonialism, or racism. The ten essays in this volume offer a comprehensive overview of the global movements that define black internationalism, from its origins in the colonial period to the present.

From Toussaint to Tupac focuses on three moments in global black history: the American and Haitian revolutions, the Garvey movement and the Communist International following World War I, and the Black Power movement of the late twentieth century. Contributors demonstrate how black internationalism emerged and influenced events in particular localities, how participants in the various struggles communicated across natural and man-made boundaries, and how the black international aided resistance on the local level, creating a collective consciousness.

In sharp contrast to studies that confine Black Power to particular national locales, this volume demonstrates the global reach and resonance of the movement. The volume concludes with a discussion of hip hop, including its cultural and ideological antecedents in Black Power.

Contributors:

Hakim Adi, Middlesex University, London

Sylvia R. Frey, Tulane University

William G. Martin, Binghamton University

Brian Meeks, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica

Marc D. Perry, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Lara Putnam, University of Pittsburgh

Vijay Prashad, Trinity College

Robyn Spencer, Lehman College

Robert T. Vinson, College of William and Mary

Michael O. West, Binghamton University

Fanon Che Wilkins, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan

About the Authors

Michael O. West is professor of sociology and Africana studies at Binghamton University.
For more information about Michael O. West, visit the Author Page.

William G. Martin is professor of sociology at Binghamton University.
For more information about William G. Martin, visit the Author Page.

Fanon Che Wilkins is associate professor of African American history and culture in the Graduate School of American Studies at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan.
For more information about Fanon Che Wilkins, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"A model in which the struggles of black people worldwide from the Haitian Revolution to contemporary rap fundamentally inform and shape historical questions and understandings. . . . Recommended."--Choice

“Michael West and William Martin’s stirring introduction precedes a fascinating, well-argued collection of essays whose breadth, both temporally and geographically, issues a dramatic call to scholars of the global Black Freedom struggle.”--Kalfou

"This comprehensive collection on the Black international from the eighteenth century to today is exciting, wide-ranging, and pioneering. It demonstrates the movement's multiple and complex links and its internal divisions. It will become an indispensable basis of further research and analysis."--Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University

"This masterful collection proposes an alternative paradigm for our interpretation of modern 'world history,' reconsidering the histories of South Africa, West Africa, the Caribbean, the United States, and Europe. It is a bold intervention whose intellectual, chronological, cultural, social, and geographical sweep is without rival."--Komozi Woodard, author of A Nation within a Nation: Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) and Black Power Politics