The Black Diaspora – Ronald Segal

R650.00

Providing a history of black people outside Africa, this book describes the societies from which Africans were seized for slavery, their long struggle for freedom, and their experience today in different countries, from Britain and America to Jamaica, Haiti and Brazil. It sets out to show how the diaspora has enriched world culture, in music, language and literature, the visual arts, sport and religion. The author left South Africa in 1960 for political exile in Britain, where he convened the 1964 International Conference of Economic Sanctions against South Africa.
The Black Diaspora tells the enthralling story of African-descended people outside Africa, spanning more than five centuries and a dozen countries of settlement, from Britain, Canada, and the United States to Haiti, Guyana, and Brazil.
Ronald Segal’s account begins in Africa itself, with the cultures and societies flourishing there before the arrival of the Atlantic slave trade, which transported over ten million people to the Americas, after killing at least as many in their procurement and passage. He examines the extent of the profits made through the trade by merchants, manufacturers, investors, and planters, along with the racist ideology that developed as whites strove to rationalize an enormous economic dependence. Segal describes the various ways in which the system of slavery developed and provides the most comprehensive account to date of the resistance by the slaves themselves, from escape and arson to guerrilla warfare and revolution.
When emancipation finally came, the former slaves were left in the fetters of poverty and discrimination. Segal details the course of the struggle against colonial rule and the racial oppressions of self-styled democracies. In recounting his own travels through the Diaspora, he shows the continuing plight of peoples confined by the consequences of the past and the prejudices of the present: racked by violence, as in Jamaica and the ghettos of America; denied the right to assert their sense of identity, as in Cuba; acknowledged only to be repudiated, as in Brazil.
Yet this is also, Segal reveals, a Diaspora of wondrous achievement. It has immeasurably enriched world culture in music, language and literature, painting, sculpture and architecture; has done much to make sports a form of art; and has invested Western culture with the ecological reverence derived from its African source. Segal argues that the black Diaspora has a unique destiny, infused by the love of freedom that is its creative impulse.

First Edition. Hardcover. Tight, clean pages free from inscriptions, a little brown discoloring from age, but otherwise great and very acceptable. Pages 477. Dust Wrapper close to mint. Boards in black “cloth” a tight copy. See OUR OWN photograph for Quality control.

In stock

SKU: 9780571160617 Category: Title: The Black Diaspora
Author: Ronald Segal
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Year: 1995
ISBN10: 0571160611
ISBN13: 9780571160617
Condition: Very Good
Format: Hardcover
Inventory No: 979

Description

Providing a history of black people outside Africa, this book describes the societies from which Africans were seized for slavery, their long struggle for freedom, and their experience today in different countries, from Britain and America to Jamaica, Haiti and Brazil. It sets out to show how the diaspora has enriched world culture, in music, language and literature, the visual arts, sport and religion. The author left South Africa in 1960 for political exile in Britain, where he convened the 1964 International Conference of Economic Sanctions against South Africa.
The Black Diaspora tells the enthralling story of African-descended people outside Africa, spanning more than five centuries and a dozen countries of settlement, from Britain, Canada, and the United States to Haiti, Guyana, and Brazil.
Ronald Segal’s account begins in Africa itself, with the cultures and societies flourishing there before the arrival of the Atlantic slave trade, which transported over ten million people to the Americas, after killing at least as many in their procurement and passage. He examines the extent of the profits made through the trade by merchants, manufacturers, investors, and planters, along with the racist ideology that developed as whites strove to rationalize an enormous economic dependence. Segal describes the various ways in which the system of slavery developed and provides the most comprehensive account to date of the resistance by the slaves themselves, from escape and arson to guerrilla warfare and revolution.
When emancipation finally came, the former slaves were left in the fetters of poverty and discrimination. Segal details the course of the struggle against colonial rule and the racial oppressions of self-styled democracies. In recounting his own travels through the Diaspora, he shows the continuing plight of peoples confined by the consequences of the past and the prejudices of the present: racked by violence, as in Jamaica and the ghettos of America; denied the right to assert their sense of identity, as in Cuba; acknowledged only to be repudiated, as in Brazil.
Yet this is also, Segal reveals, a Diaspora of wondrous achievement. It has immeasurably enriched world culture in music, language and literature, painting, sculpture and architecture; has done much to make sports a form of art; and has invested Western culture with the ecological reverence derived from its African source. Segal argues that the black Diaspora has a unique destiny, infused by the love of freedom that is its creative impulse.

First Edition. Hardcover. Tight, clean pages free from inscriptions, a little brown discoloring from age, but otherwise great and very acceptable. Pages 477. Dust Wrapper close to mint. Boards in black “cloth” a tight copy. See OUR OWN photograph for Quality control.

Additional information

Weight 0.84 kg
Dimensions 24.1 × 16.3 × 4 cm

Reviews

There are no reviews yet.

Be the first to review “The Black Diaspora – Ronald Segal”