Toussaint Louverture by Aime Cesaire

Toussaint Louverture by Aime Cesaire

This book is the long-overdue publication in English of Aimé Césaire’s account of Toussaint Louverture, the legendary leader of the revolution in Saint-Domingue – a slave revolt against French colonial rule that led to the founding of the independent republic of Haiti.  Saint-Domingue was the first country in modern times to confront the colonial question in practice and in all its complexity.  When Toussaint Louverture burst onto the historical stage, various political movements already existed for political autonomy,  free trade and social equality.  But the French Revolution established a compelling understanding of universal liberty: the Declaration of Human Rights opened up the possibility of claims to liberty and equality by wealthy free Black men in the colony, claims which, when they could not be realized, led to the armed uprising of enslaved Blacks.  A battle for the liberation of one class in colonial society resulted in a revolution to achieve equal rights for all men. And for universal emancipation to be possible, Saint-Domingue itself had to become independent. 

Toussaint Louverture put the Declaration into practice unreservedly, demonstrating that there could be no pariah race. He inherited bands of fighters and united them as an army, turning a peasant revolt into a full-scale revolution, a population into a people and a colony into an independent nation-state. 

Aimé Césaire’s historical and analytical gifts are magnificently displayed in this highly original analysis of the context and actions of the famous revolutionary leader. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of critical and cultural theory and of Latin American history as well as anyone concerned with the nature and impact of colonialism and race.

"At work here is the pedagogy of Black revolutionary confraternity in an imperial frameCésaire, poet and politician, gives us Louverture, precursor to anti-colonial history. Toussaint, unflinching champion of universal freedom, gives us Césaire, author of the origin story of anti-colonial struggle."
Antoinette Burton, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Aimé Césaire (1913-2008) was born in Basse-Pointe, Martinique, and was an anticolonial theorist, activist, writer and poet.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781509559381
ISBN 10	1509559388
Title	Toussaint Louverture
Author	Aime Cesaire
Series	Critical South
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Year published	2024-12-06
Number of pages	336
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.