Description
Book SynopsisBridges history and ethnography to explore stories of Malagasy ancestry and African American identity.
Trade Review“Wendy Wilson-Fall has skillfully turned intriguing memories of ancestors’ origins into a fascinating, well-researched story informed, notably, by history, anthropology, sociology, and psychology.
Memories of Madagascar and Slavery in the Black Atlantic shows us a new, exciting way of researching, interpreting and writing the complex history of enslaved people in the Atlantic world and beyond.”
“Wilson-Fall’s contribution fills a necessary void in the literature surrounding the slave trade. …[She] is a deeply thoughtful scholar who excels in drawing trans-historical linkages from the hidden recesses of slave historiography.” * International Journal of African Historical Studies *
“This innovative study marries two very divergent sources of knowledge—historical documentation from the era of the slave trade with the narratives of remembrance of ancestors from the present—to reveal a compelling story that links Madagascar with colonial North America and the struggles of the descendants of Malagasy immigrants to retain an identity that was endangered through slavery.”
“This outstanding and original book offers highly significant interventions: it connects Madagascar to the Atlantic world instead of the usual Indian Ocean trade; it broadens our knowledge on points of African originations en route to the United States; and it shows how to use non-archival sources to construct narratives about enslaved people. Combining memory with autobiography, the engaging analyses create new pathways to the understanding of the African diaspora and the survival of accumulated traditions while providing, for the first time, the uniqueness of the Malagasy experience and identity, the relevance of naming and families, the heterogeneity of the African American population, and the use of ethnic identity as a signifier of difference.”
