Review

Reviewed Work(s): Slavery and beyond: The African Impact on Latin America and the
Caribbean by Darien J. Davis
Review by: Gad Hauman
Source: Bulletin of Latin American Research , Jan., 1998, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Jan., 1998), p.
109
Published by: Wiley on behalf of Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS)

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/3339672

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 Book Reviews 109

technical terms, the book also stan

price. The diagrams, the reproduct
the reader to follow the author in
appeal both to academic specialists

Michael Bravo
Manchester University

Davis, Darien J., ed., (1995), Slavery and Beyond: The African Impact on Latin America and the
Caribbean, Scholarly Resources, Inc. (Wilmington, Delaware). xxvi 301pp. $40.00 and $14.95.

The African impact on Latin America was highly significant. In his introduction to this
collection of previously published essays and documents, Darien Davis is right to emphasize this
point. He notes the involvement of Africans in the Spanish conquest of Mexico as well as the
complex nature of African resistance to slavery. He deals with the consequences of
miscegenation as well as the cultural impact of blacks on religion, music and dance. Since
black pride has been an important twentieth-century phenomenon, Davis also discusses
movements such as Negritude and Rastafarianism. Perhaps inevitably, some of the contribu?
tions on these themes in Slavery and Beyond are better than others.
There are a number of substantial pieces. Rebecca Bateman's treatment of the Black Caribs
and Black Seminoles raises interesting questions about Indian-Black relations and provides an
important comparison between these two groups. George Reid Andrews' article on 'Black
Legions of Buenos Aires' helps to correct earlier misconceptions about the role of blacks in the
Argentinian military. Andrews concludes that black soldiers 'served not only as followers but
also as leaders, and as soldiers and officers they compiled a record of achievement that has been
too easily relegated to history's back draws' (p. 77). Peter Wade adds to our knowledge of black
music in Colombia and convincingly demonstrates the significance of this music to the
establishment of a black identity. In highlighting the continuities from Africa, Wade also seeks
to understand the power relations inherent in cultural transformations, especially in the creation
of syncretized cultural forms. On a very different theme, Michael Conniff documents the
treatment of Afro-West Indians in Panama. There to construct the Canal, Afro-West Indians
were the object of discrimination and often segregation. Darien Davis contributes a useful piece
on the struggle of organizations they developed to help promote their participation in politics.
In addition to these essays, the collection includes some absorbing documents. Estevan
Montejo's account of slavery in Cuba, taken from The Autobiography ofa Runaway Slave, is a
rich description of the material and cultural lives of slaves. The material excerpted in this book
highlights African influences, especially on the slaves' religion and medicine. Aime Cesaire's
'Discourse on Colonialism' is a well-known description of the horrors of colonialism.
Unfortunately, there are some less successful contributions as well. Norman Whitten's piece
on 'Afro-Creoles on the Frontier: Conquering the Ecuadorian Pacific Lowlands' is out-of-date
and full of jargon. Luc de Heusch provides a detailed account of voodoo in Haiti, but the piece is
dense and lacks clarity. The section in the book on Afro-Creole Social Consciousness
Movements treats important figures such as the Jamaican, Marcus Garvey, but does so with
a mini-essay by Kenneth Ramchand instead of using an example of Garvey's own writings.
Leonard Barrett's piece on the Rastafarians has relatively little information on the Rastafarians
themselves, concentrating mostly on their Jamaican background.
There are also some political harangues in this volume. Abdias do Nascimento's article on 'Afro-
Brazilian Ethnicity and International Policy' makes important points about the marginalization of
blacks in Brazil but goes on to rant about Brazil's former support for colonialism. The same is true
for a discussion of Cuban policy in Angola, which is propagandistic rather than analytical.
In general, then, there are some substantial pieces in this book and some useful contributions.
However, in a book apparently designed for university students and for the widest possible use,
some of the material selected for inclusion seems unfortunate.

Gad Hauman
University of Warwick

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