Fugitive Modernities: Kisama and the Politics of Freedom

Jessica A. Krug traces the history and meaning of Kisama—a seventeenth-century fugitive slave community located in present-day Angola—by showing how it operated as a inspirational global symbol of resistance for fugitives on both sides of the Atlantic.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 280 pages
Publication date: 26 December 2018
Publisher: Duke University Press

In the early seventeenth century, Kisama emerged in West Central Africa, present-day Angola, as a refuge for individuals fleeing expanding states and the violence of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Despite lacking centralized authority or a common language, these fugitives mounted effective resistance to European colonialism. In her book "Fugitive Modernities," Jessica A. Krug delves into the intellectual, political, and social histories of Kisama, spanning continents and centuries. The Kisama communities forged a transnational reputation for resistance by rejecting warrior identities and creating viable social and political lives beyond the confines of states and the ruthless market economy of slavery. Krug extends the concept of Kisama to the Americas, where fugitives in the New Kingdom of Grenada (present-day Colombia) and Brazil utilized it to articulate politics within fugitive slave communities. By tracing the movement of African ideas rather than African bodies, Krug models innovative methods for grappling with politics and the past, while demonstrating how the history of Kisama and its legacy as a global symbol of resistance that has evaded state capture offers valuable lessons for those seeking to build new and just societies.

Weight: 408g
Dimension: 152 x 229 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478001546