Derfor historie

Hvordan adskiller C.L.R. James' postkoloniale fremstilling sig fra andre mere typiske fremstillinger om revolutionen?

Den sorte marxistisk inspireret historiker C.L.R. James er fra Trinidad i Caribien og er kendt som en pioner i forhold til et post-kolonialt perspektiv i histografien. Han inddrog på et langt tidligere tidspunkt end andre postkoloniale historikere kilder fra slavegjorte og deres perspektiv. Kilden her er et uddrag fra bogen om revolutionen i Haiti med navnet De Sorte Jakobinere.

Pericles on Democracy, Paine on the Rights of Man, the Declaration of Independence, the Communist Manifesto, these are some of the political documents which, whatever the wisdom or weaknesses of their analysis, have moved men and will always move them, for the writers, some of them in spite of themselves, strike chords and awaken aspirations that sleep in the hearts of the majority in every age. But Pericles, Tom Paine, Jefferson, Marx and Engels, were men of a liberal education, formed in the traditions of ethics, philosophy and history. Toussaint was a slave, not six years out of slavery, bearing alone the unaccustomed burden of war and government, dictating his thoughts in the crude words of a broken dialect, written and rewritten by his secretaries until their devotion and his will had hammered them into adequate shape. Superficial people have read his career in terms of personal ambition. This letter is their answer. Personal ambition he had. But he accomplished what he did because, superbly gifted, he incarnated the determination of his people never, never to be slaves again.

Kilde: James, C. L. R. (1989 [1937]). The Black Jacobiens. Curtis Brown. S. 198. Reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Ltd, London, on behalf of the Estate of C.L. R. James. Copyright © C.L.R. James, 1938

Pericles on Democracy, Paine on the Rights of Man, the Declaration of Independence, the Communist Manifesto, these are some of the political documents which, whatever the wisdom or weaknesses of their analysis, have moved men and will always move them, for the writers, some of them in spite of themselves, strike chords and awaken aspirations that sleep in the hearts of the majority in every age. But Pericles, Tom Paine, Jefferson, Marx and Engels, were men of a liberal education, formed in the traditions of ethics, philosophy and history. Toussaint was a slave, not six years out of slavery, bearing alone the unaccustomed burden of war and government, dictating his thoughts in the crude words of a broken dialect, written and rewritten by his secretaries until their devotion and his will had hammered them into adequate shape. Superficial people have read his career in terms of personal ambition. This letter is their answer. Personal ambition he had. But he accomplished what he did because, superbly gifted, he incarnated the determination of his people never, never to be slaves again.

Soldier and administrator above all, yet his declaration is a masterpiece of prose excelled by no other writer of the revolution. Leader of a backward and ignorant mass, he was yet in the forefront of the great historical movement of his time. The blacks were taking their part in the destruction of European feudalism begun by the French Revolution, and liberty and equality, the slogans of the revolution, meant far more to them than to any Frenchman. That was why in the hour of danger Toussaint, uninstructed as he was, could find the language and accent of Diderot, Rousseau, and Raynal, of Mirabeau, Robespierre, and Danton. And in one respect he excelled them all. For even these masters of the spoken and written word, owing to the class complications of their society, too often had to pause, to hesitate, to qualify. Toussaint could defend the freedom of the blacks without reservation, and this gave to his declaration a strength and a single-mindedness rare in the great documents of the time. The French bourgeoisie could not understand it. Rivers of blood were to flow before they understod that elevated as was his tone Toussaint had written neither bombast nor rhetoric but the simple and sober truth.

Kilde: James, C. L. R. (1989 [1937]). The Black Jacobiens. Curtis Brown. S. 198. Reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Ltd, London, on behalf of the Estate of C.L. R. James. Copyright © C.L.R. James, 1938

OPSKRIFT TIL, HVORDAN MAN ANALYSERER NETOP DENNE TYPE KILDE (KLIK)