“With its geographic breadth, meticulous research, and gorgeous writing, this book is a breakthrough, a trailblazer, and a trendsetter in diverse fields including pan-African studies and the emerging field of the ‘Black Pacific.’”—Gerald Horne, author of Facing the Rising Sun: African Americans, Japan, and the Rise of Afro-Asian Solidarity
“In this excellent examination of the political experiences and development of Kamarakafego, Swan enables us to encounter key figures and moments in the international Black Power, pan-African, anti-imperialist, and environmental justice movements.”—Akinyele Omowale Umoja, author of We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement
Pauulu’s Diaspora: Black Internationalism and Environmental Justice is a sweeping story of black internationalism across the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Ocean worlds, told through the life and work of twentieth-century environmental activist Pauulu Kamarakafego. Challenging U.S.-centered views of Black Power, Quito Swan offers a radically broader perspective, showing how Kamarakafego helped connect liberation efforts of the African diaspora throughout the Global South.
Born in Bermuda and with formative experiences in Cuba, Kamarakafego was aware at an early age of the effects of colonialism and the international scope of racism and segregation. After pursuing a doctorate in ecological engineering, he traveled to Africa, where he was inspired by independence movements on the continent and contributed to sustainable development. Swan explores Kamarakafego’s remarkable fusion of political agitation and scientific expertise and traces his emergence as a central coordinator of major black internationalist conferences. Despite government surveillance, Kamarakafego built a network of black organizers that reached from Kenya to the islands of Oceania and included such figures as C. L. R. James, Queen Mother Audley Moore, Kwame Nkrumah, Sonia Sanchez, Sylvia Hill, Malcolm X, Vanessa Griffen, and Stokely Carmichael.
In a riveting narrative that runs through Caribbean sugarcane fields, Liberian rubber plantations, and Papua New Guinean rainforests, Pauulu’s Diaspora recognizes a global leader who has largely been absent from scholarship. In doing so, it brings to light little-known relationships between Black Power, pan-Africanism, and environmental justice.
Quito J. Swan, professor of Africana studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, is the author of Black Power in Bermuda: The Struggle for Decolonization.
The Florida Bookshelf 