Fugitive, Where Are You Running?

Hunting stories often glorify hunters, but Denétem Touam Bona's book takes up the perspective of the hunted, using marronage to highlight the lives and creativity of colonized and subjugated peoples. It narrates the hidden history of fugues, such as runaway slaves, deserting soldiers, and clandestine migrants, and calls for a cosmo-poetics of refuge to reinvent marronage and recognize the maroon as a universal figure of resistance.

Format: Hardback
Length: 230 pages
Publication date: 16 December 2022
Publisher: Polity Press

Hunting stories often glorify hunters, as they are the ones who write the tales. However, in this book, Dénètem Touam Bona takes a different perspective by adopting the concept of marronage to shed light on the lives and creativity of colonized and subjugated peoples. Through a blend of travel diary, anthropological inquiry, and philosophical and literary reflection, he narrates the hidden history of fugues, encompassing those of runaway slaves, deserting soldiers, clandestine migrants, and all those who challenged norms and forms of control. Within the realm of the fugue, amidst the folds and retreats of dense and muggy woods, runaway countercultures emerged and flourished, offering alternative organizations and values that stood in stark contrast to the colonial societies.

Marronage, the art of disappearance, has become increasingly relevant in our contemporary world: it serves as a means to evade surveillance, profiling, and tracking by both the police and corporations. It enables individuals to disappear from databases and extend the shadows of forests with the mere click of a key. In our increasingly cyberconnected society, where real-time control over individuals is becoming the norm, we must reimagine marronage and recognize the maroon as a universal figure of resistance.

Beyond its critical dimension, this book proposes a cosmopoetics of refuge, aiming to revitalize the power of dreams and poetry to counteract the confinement of minds and bodies. It encourages us to embrace the transformative potential of escape and to seek solace in the depths of nature, where the boundaries between human and non-human worlds blur. By exploring the lives and experiences of maroons, this book offers a profound reflection on the complexities of resistance, resilience, and the pursuit of freedom in a world that often seeks to confine and control.

Weight: 434g
Dimension: 219 x 98 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781509551842