85 p., This thesis examines the practice of Obeah--an Afro-Caribbean system of healing, harming, and divination through the use of spiritual powers--within two slave communities in Berbice and Demerara (British Guiana). This study is based primarily on legal documents--including testimony from more than a dozen slaves--generated during the criminal trials of two men accused of practicing Obeah in 1819 and 1821-22. In contrast to most previous studies of Obeah, which have been based largely on descriptions provided by British observers, this project takes advantage of this complex, overlapping body of evidence to explore the social dynamics of Obeah as experienced by enslaved men and women themselves, including Obeah practitioners, their clients, and other witnesses. This study reveals that Obeah rituals could be extremely violent, that Obeah practitioners were feared as well as respected among their contemporaries, that the authority of Obeah practitioners was based on demonstrable success, and that slave communities in general were complex social worlds characterized by conflict and division as well as by support and unity--conclusions that combine to produce a fresh, humane vision of Afro-diasporan culture and community under slavery.
In 2004, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva published an article in which he argued that the US system of race is beginning to resemble that of Latin America. This article is a critical reply to Bonilla-Silva’s Latin Americanization thesis. The author introduces a Latin American perspective.
Christina A. Sue commented on my 2004 article in Ethnic and Racial Studies on the Latin Americanization of racial stratification in the USA. Almost all her observations hinge on the assumption that racial stratification in Latin American countries is fundamentally structured around ‘two racial poles’. I disagree with her and in my reply do three things. First, I address three major claims or issues in her comment. Second, I point out some methodological limitations of American-centered race analysis in Latin America. Third, I conclude by discussing briefly the Obama phenomenon and suggest this event fits in many ways my Latin Americanization thesis.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Based on a conference which took place in Sandton, Johannesburg from 14-15 July 2008., 346 p., This conference is the first of three conferences on the African diaspora with respect to the returnee phenomenon of 'Back to Africa'. Contents: volume 1. Afro-Brazilian returnees and their communities -- volume 2. The ideology and practice of the African returnee phenomenon from the Caribbean and North-America to Africa.
Current reality shows another picture, with a considerable degree of discrimination for the blacks: the basic food basket for a black person demands 76 hours of work compared to the average 54 hours for a white person. Similarly illiteracy among blacks runs as high as 20%, but only 6% for whites.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
292 p., Definitive information on the identity and status of the emancipados who were a special group of Africans in Brazil, Cuba and Latin America. The author establishes that the peculiar nature of the introduction of the emacipados into Brazil and America made them free Africans, both de jure and de facto, thereby setting them apart from freed Africans or slaves in Brazilian and Cuban societies. Emancipados held a much better status within these societies.
Here is a big bomb. What people need to do is to examine the number of people who list themselves as Negro in Central and South American countries. Then cultural shock sets in. Spain imported in its possessions, Negroes by the thousands. Mexico, Peru, Panama, Columbia, and Argentina, all had large Negro populations. Today many of these Negroes have assimilated into the population, and are no longer distinguished as Negroes.
