Histoire des révoltes panafricaines

by C.L.R. James

Ce petit livre de C. L. R. James, dont la première édition est parue en 1938, la même année que Les Jacobins noirs, propose une histoire mondiale de la résistance des Noirs, de Saint-Domingue aux colonies africaines, en passant par les États-Unis et d’autres îles des Antilles.

Révoltes d’esclaves, émeutes, grèves, mouvements millénaristes ou antiracistes : rompant avec le cliché de populations subissant passivement leur exploitation, James souligne la diversité des rébellions, leur constance et leur place centrale dans le monde moderne. Ici comme ailleurs, ce sont les masses qui font l’histoire, dans les conditions et avec les croyances qui sont les leurs ; les leaders, Toussaint comme Nkrumah, Garvey comme Nyerere, sont toujours portés et produits par des processus collectifs.

Dans l’épilogue, écrit en 1969, James traite des luttes des Noirs aux États-Unis, des conflits ouvriers dans les Caraïbes et surtout de l’Afrique post-coloniale, prolongeant et précisant les analyses avancées trente ans plus tôt. Par son sujet comme par son traitement, ce livre n’a pas pris une ride – il pourrait même être en avance sur notre temps.

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction, Politics, Race, Anti Racist, Theory

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

C. L. R. James (1901–1989), a Trinidadian historian, political activist, and writer, is the author of The Black Jacobins, an influential study of the Haitian Revolution and the classic book on sport and culture, Beyond a Boundary. His play Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History was recently discovered in the archives and published Duke University Press.

Reviews

[Devin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll admit, I was hesitant to read C.L.R. James for awhile, because the trotskyism really made me grimace. But I realized that the historical materialism around the Pan-African struggle and the struggle for socialism, and their unification mattered more than my sectarianism that I absolutely can get over. And I did. And I read this. And I loved it.

Fundamentally of course, I disagree with James' notion that Lenin was the only good Marxist leader and that every leader of the USSR after him was a bureaucrat; I will say that I believe the USSR began to break up from its socialist core in the 1950s after Stalin's death, but James' assertion that Stalin was the worst bureaucrat of them all is far, far from the truth. Even later in life as he abandoned trotskyism and took a Third Camp position, his views of the USSR remained pretty similar to before. But I can overlook it.

This book is an incredible, detailed look into the history of revolts against colonialism, white supremacy, and capitalism by African slaves, be it throughout Africa, the Caribbean, or the united states -- most of this I did not know and had never heard of. Of course I know about Haiti, but James dives into the contradictions that made up the Haitian Revolution, the successes and the failures. He explores the contradictions in every Black-led revolt that he discusses here, even in the epilogue written 30 years after the initial publication of this book.

James is not afraid to highlight where Pan-African revolts failed; he is not afraid to say "this is where it went wrong, this was who was behind it, and this is why", because ultimately he arrives at the conclusion that all of these failures really prove the ongoing and growing resistance of Black revolutionaries to break down the yoke of capitalism-imperialism-colonialism and destroy it once and for all. And of course he is correct.

I'd say this is absolutely a necessary and required reading for all Marxists, even if you roll your eyes at trotskyism like I do. It is necessary and imperative to understand the Pan-African movement, the struggle to unify it with socialism in order to continue the upheaval of the aforementioned oppression.

[Joel Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cyril Lionel Robert James was a scholarly critic of colonialism and European imperialism; a pioneer of cultural studies now institutionalized in Western academies; a Pan-African revolutionary, and a Trotskyite theoretician. Born in Trinidad in 1901 James later became a schoolmaster and a mentor to the country’s first Prime Minister, the late Dr. Eric Williams. A History of Pan-African Revolt stands as a concise group of case studies chronologically arranged documenting notable black resistance and uprisings around the world, covering a tightly compressed, yet dense time frame of 180 years—the linchpin being the Haitian Revolution, all the way to the tumultuous postcolonial period. The author’s direct writing style and his astute awareness of international politics betrays his erudition. The prose is detached, though simultaneously embodies the fiery yearnings of a black revolutionary who adroitly chooses to remain tactful without ever giving in to affectivity. In general, the book is masterfully succinct and superbly crafted allowing James to cut straight to the chase, evading an unnecessarily broad-sweeping historicism that can get bogged down in behind-the-scene dynamics, minutiae, and obscure personalities. Another strength of the book lies in its ability to connect seemingly disparate events and piece them together like a jigsaw puzzle into a coherent, tangible explanation. For instance at the opening of the book with its discussion of the Haiti Revolution, C.L.R. James records the factors that contributed to the decline and eventual abandonment of slave labour, writing “[t]he British West Indian colonies were in comparison poor, and with the loss of America, were of diminished importance. The monopoly of the West Indian sugar planters galled the rising industrial bourgeoisie, potential free traders. Adam Smith and Arthur Young, economists of the coming industrial age, condemned the expensiveness of slave labor. India offered the example of a country where the laborer cost only a penny a day, did not have to be bought, and did not brand his master as a slave-owner (James 2012: 39). James’s methodology is not one characteristic of a “Marxist” theoretician, but a military strategist who bluntly pinpoints the fissures and weaknesses of black revolutionary movements from their inception to their subsequent gestation. From this standpoint, it is similar to the aims of the sociologist Chancellor Williams' book The Destruction of Black Civilization (1971), which identifies the precise cultural, economic and political factors responsible for the fall of formidable African empires, kingdoms, and states. Close attention is paid to the nature of the alliances formed by rebel leaders, the cause for their agitation, the role of religion in inciting rebellions and the disastrous roles both mechanical technology and geography played in precipitating successful counterinsurgencies on the part of the colonial authorities. A revealing analysis appears in Chapter 2 “The Old United States” where James gives a short account of a foiled 1795 Louisiana revolt that came about in part due to the humanitarianism of the rebellious slaves who saw Frenchmen, Methodists, Quakers and poor whites as co-equal fellow humans, instead of enemies. As a consequence, the rebel leader “Gabriel was captured, tried and executed. It is not known how many Negroes were concerned, but the numbers suggested varied between 2,000 and 10,000 (James 2012: 53).

Ironically though, despite the term “Pan-African” in the book’s title, the author only uses it once in the epilogue to the 1969 edition. This raises serious questions about the decision to alter the original name “A History of Negro Revolt” as it had been published in 1938, the socio-historical circumstances that influenced that change and lastly the very meaning of the term, now loosely used to designate someone dedicated to the notion “Africa for the Africans” with a noticeable capitalist orientation. To the contrary, Pan-Africanism has a historical specificity in the context of the epilogue, the book’s last chapter written to review all the major black revolutionary uprisings covering the period 1939-1969. James quite plainly in the third paragraph states, ‘I wish my readers to understand the history of Pan-African Revolt during the last thirty years” (James 2012: 108). Throughout the text, he uses the following terms interchangeably to designate blacks: coloured, negro, black and African. In opting for the word “Pan-African” the publishers chose to collectivize black resistance around the world, despite the fact that the movements in question were for the most part not internationally oriented, but locally confined and isolated from one another with distinct causes and aims. Any truly Pan-African movement in earnest can only be pinpointed at the turn of the twentieth century beginning in the year 1900 when Henry Sylvester Williams a Trinidadian barrister organized the first ever Pan-African Congress in Britain. The historian’s job is to approach history and its reconstruction on a specific basis, placing emphasis on context and the probability of an event’s unfolding using concrete evidence, especially documentary records. By resorting to a collectivist label, Pan-African throws all matters black in the spirit of insurrection under one, nebulous category that lacks distinctiveness and specificity. Correctly, Pan-Africanism is an organized mass revolutionary movement spurred by the precepts of socialism that has at its aim, opposition against and the destruction of colonialism, imperialism and racism so as to allow self-determination and independence amongst all blacks around the world. Ideologically, Pan-Africanism stood in defiance against the capitalist West, which had historically used capitalism to expropriate labor, land, and vast natural resources from Africans on the continent, North, Central and South America, as well as the West Indies. Hence, I am skeptical about the employment of the term in the title, but also its mis-use and abuse amongst African-Americans in the United States.

Contrary to the popular belief that the movement was born “in the womb of Africa” it was conceptualized in its formal, organized form in the Diaspora, specifically by three Trinidadians: H. Williams, C.L.R. James, and George Padmore, his childhood friend, who later guided and advised Ghana’s first Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972). It is safe to say that without the leadership and vision of Henry Sylvester Williams, the Organization of African Unity established on May 25, 1963 in Ethiopia and the African Union, which later followed would not have materialized as it did. Notwithstanding his paramount importance, Williams is but a faint memory, mentioned sparingly in obscure academic publications and largely unknown in his country of birth. As the Hungarian researcher Marika Sherwood rightfully puts it, “he has been heretofore virtually written out of history….” All the more is the pity.

Once the term transplanted itself in North America and found a willing, attentive audience in the civil rights activists and black nationalists of the 1960s and 1970s, the original meaning of the term got displaced and repurposed to suit the aims, desires and cultural character of the American black struggle. Unsurprisingly, the first thing to change in James text was the title to engender the revolutionary fervor and zeitgeist of the Civil Movement, together with that of Black Power. Around this period the word negro gained social disfavor amongst the black population and quickly fell into disuse. Malcolm X had popularized the term “black,” which historically had been deemed offensive in association with idea of evil, corruption, the absence of light, and ugliness. It is interesting to note that in Chinese culture, black represents wealth and power. In retrospect the name change from The History of Negro Revolt to The History of Pan-African Revolt is a sharp indicator of deep insecurity and malaise blacks in America feel toward their racial identity. Present day, Pan-Africanism, insofar as an abstract philosophy, has taken a rightward turn in the attempt to reconcile capitalism with left-wing, revolutionary organization, or in other respects, connotative of grand opportunism personified by red, black and green hustlers who speak abstractly about a supposed return to the mother continent, without having a concrete, viable plan, a final destination, much less a genuine affinity with African cultures on the continent. C.L.R James in chapter 5 actually criticizes Marcus Garvey for exploiting the infantile mentality of blacks in America. When assessing the goal of Marcus Garvey’s “Back to Africa” program, the author candidly opines, “it was pitiable rubbish, but the Negroes wanted a leader and they took the first that was offered them. Furthermore, desperate men often hear, not the actual words of an orator but their own thoughts” (James 2012: 92). Furthermore, James observes that Garvey exploited the post-war economic boom when black soldiers who had fought valiantly in World War Two returned home with money. Many followers naively sold their valuable possessions to bankroll the Garvey movement through the Universal Negro Improvement Association (U.N.I.A). Thus, it is easy to see where the self-anointed Garveyite, “Prince of Pan-Africanism” Umar Johnson got his hustling cues from and the apple has not fallen far from the tree. Quite tellingly, he never once talks about the Trinidadian progenitors of Pan-Africanism, reserving all the credits to W.E.B. duBois who was handed over the torch, after the passing of Henry Sylvester Williams. It is a great error of C.L.R. James to have made no passing reference or honorable mention of the movement’s progenitor and pioneer. Other noticeable omissions include his failure to acknowledge the significant Jewish support and funding of Civil Rights organizations, namely the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. While recognizing the limitations of the book at the outset, it is a great pity the author could not elaborate further on the Berbice slave uprising in Dutch Guyana (February 23, 1763-1764). It was an Ashanti rebellion led by a slave called Cuffy who defeated the Dutch, took control of the colony and astoundingly established if only briefly an Ashanti government away from Africa in the Americas. This took place well before the Haitian Revolution and it should in light of the abundant historical literature on the subject be given more acknowledgment. How ironic that such disregard for the unvarnished truth of history, the intentionality and spirit of Pan-Africanism is practiced carelessly by blacks themselves, not whites as assumed. In the epilogue, James's prognostication on a violent end to the Apartheid regime in South Africa proved to be false. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission established in 1996 helped facilitate the needed transition to "democracy." Political power was peacefully handed over to the African National Congress in 1994. Apart from that, a possible contradiction in C.L.R. James's argument is his understanding of the movement in Ghana for self-rule, which started off as an organized boycott on European imported goods. Since the boycott was organized by the local elites, specifically the chiefs, this movement does not qualify truly as a grassroots or working class movement. James in the text is insistent on black uprisings being in character mass movements directed from below and the inclusion of Ghana's situation without careful thought for his own position seems like a premature departure.

In closing the original portion of the book is the most informative as well as the most satisfying because the epilogue represents not the fully-evolved views of the author, but instead, his growing disillusionment with the ideals of Pan-Africanism following the rapid attainment of independence by many African states, in addition to the disconcerting unfamiliarity or abandonment of African systems and values exhibited by both nationalist leaders, who were educated in the West and their people. Although C.L.R. James pays homage to women revolutionaries, his entry on Harriet Tubman is given a cursory treatment. Never is it mentioned in the text that in addition to being a formidable spy for the Union army, Tubman also had advocated the rights of women, woman suffrage, and the equality of all people, regardless of ethnicity, gender or race (Cole 2016). Her military campaigns and activism thus cannot be deemed Pan-African, but cosmopolitan in political terms. Such noteworthy examples in the text do not serve to bolster the argumentative claims of the text; on the contrary, to undermine it, leaving the term Pan-Africanism devoid of any intrinsic objective meaning and hanging suspended in mid-air awaiting someone to fill in the void. Without a doubt, much work needs to go into rehabilitating Pan-Africanism and its overlooked formative history since overtime it has been bastardized, misconstrued to mean something it is not and applied to loosely. This much is clear. What remains to be seen is the initiative to reverse the present trend.

[JRT · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The only place where Negroes did not revolt is in the pages of capitalist historians.”

“…the Negro was no docile animal. He revolted continuously.”

This book is all about the mass movement and organized revolt of African people around the colonized world, from the time of the Haitian Revolution up through the decolonial period. The great CLR James briefly details a few of the revolutionary struggles in the Americas and the continent of Africa, and gives his assessment of where they succeeded and where they faltered. The underlying theme—as articulated by Robin Kelley in the introduction—is that only through the complete and total destruction of the European colonial structure can African people secure their sociopolitical and economic freedom.

While this book is not as complete of an account of Black rebellion as Cedric Robinson’s “Black Marxism” or Gerald Horne’s work on settler colonialism and the development of the United States, it does offer up James’ unique view of revolution: It’s all about the masses, and it must entail complete independence from the colonial order.

[Neal Adolph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as essential as, say, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, but still pretty essential. And, in a way that the other book couldn't - because of the limitations of the form if not the limitations of his vision - this one really hints at some great force in political action on the part of working people. Not quite a "history from below", thank you E.P. Thompson, but something that almost gets there.

Also, this quote seems prophetic to our contemporary American calamity, at least viewed from the northern side of the 49th parralel.

One can only record the question most often and most seriously asked: can any government mobilize the white population, or a great majority of it, in defense of white racism against militant blacks? The only legitimate answer lies in the continuing militancy or retreat of the black population. This population is at least 30 million in number, strategically situated in the heart ofmany of the most important cities in the United States. If the black population continues to resist racism, the militants and youth actively and the middle classes sympathetic or neutral, then the physical defeat of the black struggle against racism will involve the destruction of the United States as it has held together since 1776.

#BlackLivesMatter

[Gabrielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good introduction to replace african an afro american revolts from the haitian revolution to the revolts of the 1930s in a marxist perspective. It shows the evolution of the means wich were used by revolutionnary forces and how the french and then the russian revolution played an inspiration role for revolutionary, such as slave revolts in the US or the developpement of revolutionnary movement in Trinidad (from wich the author is coming from).
Altrough it is still an introduction and thus the differents revolt or revolutions are mentionnend relatively quick. It make then the impression of a certain schematism, but it makes me very curious to know more about such movements and revolutions.

[Forrest Kentwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly short book that offers short anecdotes on various Black revolutionary/resistance movements across the globe. The long introduction by D.G. Kelley is extremely well research and written. He reveals crucial background on James' life and how his thinking and politics transformed overtime, from a parliamentarian to Black Marxist. I have not yet read Cedric Robinson's magnum opus "Black Marxism" but I imagine that some of his thinking was influenced by James.

James is committed to positively, yet critically detailing Black revolutions. He provides key nuances with regards to how uprisings occurred, who they allied with, and how they came to an end. By focusing on both black peasants and black urban guerrilla fighters, James moves away from traditional Marxist understandings of revolutions. However, despite his interest in Black people as revolutionary actors, his way of analyzing these movements is heavily inflected by traditional, scientific Marxism. He continually refers to scientific laws of revolutions, and how urban, "modern" proletarians have more revolutionary insight and potential, because they have progressed further on the linear plane of history towards communism. Yet, it is also true that he talks often of peasant movements and uprisings, including the Haitian revolution (the full subject of his classic study "The Black Jacobins" from 1936). Ultimately, James is a complex figure who was both a product of his time and also revolutionary in his consideration of black people as revolutionary subjects. All in all, I learned so much history that I did not know before reading this book. For revolutionary tacticians this book is a must read to understanding different strategies to challenge and defeat the longstanding oppressive systems of anti-blackness, racism, colonialism, imperialism, and the most recent iteration of neoliberal consumerism.

Last note, I really enjoyed how James openly admits his change of thought in the 1969 reissued version. He is clearly influenced by Frantz Fanon's work, particularly "The Wretched of the Earth." Nice to see how different revolutionaries from the Caribbean impacted each others thought :)

[Jason Friedlander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating snapshot at the various resistance movements by Africans on the continent and in the Caribbean, primarily during the 1920s and 30s, directly framed as a result of the broader workers’ movements spawned by the Russian Revolutions of 1917. This was published in the same year as C.L.R. James’s groundbreaking work on the Haitian Revolution, “The Black Jacobins.” Since it came out in the late 1930s, a lot of his analyses of the movements are especially interesting because of how contemporary they are. It was years before massive world war would reconfigure the power structures within the continent and later lead to many of their eventual anti-colonial movements for independence. It’s a pretty short book and likely antiquated in various ways, but was still well worth reading and has made me more excited to read more about the history of the continent.

The edition I read also contains an epilogue written about three decades later that gives a short summary of some of the decolonization movements since the book’s original publication and ends with hope for Julius Nyerere’s vision of African Socialism in Tanzania.

[Lucía Alarcón · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me ha encantado leer este libro por varias razones. Primero porque muestra la historia de muchos lugares de los que apenas tenia conocimiento de su contexto. También por la forma en la que habla de las revoluciones negras, los tipos que hay, el origen de ellas y las conclusiones tan claras que plasma de estas revelaciones. Por último, me ha gustado mucho leer a una persona que muestre la realidad desde otra perspectiva a la que no estoy acostumbrada. Una visión distinta, me gustaría investigar más sobre ello. Hace mención a modelos de gestión política diferentes, completamente válidos y entiendo, que se asemejan más a la realidad de los países en los que se propone implantar.
Quisiera releer este libro para terminar de afianzar conceptos y terminar de completar mi visión desde este otro punto. Pero estoy muy contenta de haberlo leído.

[Gerj · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfect introduction to James’ work. Strident and concise, this work definitively carries you along as if in a busy community meeting and the stories of the room each are building on one another towards urgent action. James covers tremendous breadth in the book, and having the 1969 epilogue to review events since his original writing in 1938. I only wish the current edition (a 2012 reprint) would have added to the publishers forward from 1995. Especially since 2011, there is so much to say about the state of African activism and sovereignty-building. Tunisia, Libya, South Africa, Rwanda, Eritrea and Ethiopia, the Sudans. A contemporary voice to build on James’ original incisive perspective would have only added to this fabulous overview. I look forward immensely to The Black Jacobins.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating piece of scholarship from one of the world's great Marxist intellectuals. Much more intriguing for me than 'The Black Jacobins', this book covers more historical ground and provides more analysis too. Granted 'TBJ' was almost exclusively about the Haitian Slave Revolt, but I found this book more expansive in its theorizing and academic conjecture. James obviously has a strong grasp of history, Marxism, Pan-Africanism, and Black Power movements. Anyone interested in a better understanding of why Africa is what Africa is needs to read this book. Yes, James does let Tanzania/Nyerere off easy-ish, but one can hardly blame James for Nyerere's failures, nor can one blame James for how Africa and the world has changed, not much for the better, since his death. Essential read.

[J Dev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published as "A History of Negro Revolt" in 1938, expanded in 1969 and now with a stellar introduction from Robin D.G. Kelly, this is a relatively short introduction to global movements resisting racism, colonial occupation, apartheid, imperialism and economic exploitation. Between James' broad treatment of revolts transnational to local and Kelly's meticulously footnoted intro, this underrated book is highly recommended for anyone looking to learn more about the too-often underreported struggles of black people for liberation.

[jazzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a required reading for my class titled, Revolutionary Struggles in the African Atlantic, and this was a short yet powerful book. I thought I knew a good amount of anti-colonial revolt history, but I was proven too confident in my knowledge of history. I knew of the Haitian Revolution and Marcus Garvey's Back-to-Africa Movement. Still, I had much to learn about the details of the past and interweaving influences and motivations that continue today.

[C. Varn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise, passionate, and historically informed even if it is not perfect and highly theoretical. James' weakest analysis seems to be around Tanzania/Nyerere, where James seems soft on Nyerere. James' tendency to view Pan-African situation in the tradition of other revolutions is both clarifying and a solid corrective to seeing Africa as somehow outside of world history, although this does have the slight disadvantage of minimizing local context.

[Genevieve Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

What it says on the tin.

The preface to this book makes up 30% of the kindle version, because there is so much information needed to situate it in the proper historical and intellectual context. The book itself is a short history of revolt in Black communities around the globe, account after account of strike and militant organization, and an analysis of each movement's philosophical roots.

[Sam Whitehill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Young CLR gives a very brief overview of pan- African revolts throughout the world. It is noteworthy because it showcases his humanism and anticipates both the independence and civil rights movements to come.

[Amanda Graves · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot in this short book, about Pan Africanism but also what we can take away from a revolt even if it was unsuccessful. Very dense and need time to look up some people and events mentioned since this was my first time studying pan-Africanism but would definitely recommend!

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved this citation of lenin in the epilogue: “less argument about words! we still have too much of this sort of thing. more variety in practical experience and more study of this experience!”

wait until j. l. austin hears about this! haha

[Campbell Mcclintock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most potent academic texts I've ever encountered. The throughline James draws through the dynamic multitude of African resistances is compelling and inspiring--a version of history the colonizer simply does not want you to know!

[Тонго Данель]

it good to read this book

[Omari Jarrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read!

[Desiree Valentine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick and important read

[Fran Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish it was longer

[Nathanael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good brief book on afrikan revolts… he HATES Garvey omg