Overview

The initial push for a federation among British Caribbean colonies might have originated among colonial officials and white elites, but the banner for federation was quickly picked up by Afro-Caribbean activists who saw in the possibility of a united West Indian nation a means of securing political power and more. In Building a Nation, Eric Duke moves beyond the narrow view of federation as only relevant to Caribbean and British imperial histories. By examining support for federation among many Afro-Caribbean and other black activists in and out of the West Indies, Duke convincingly expands and connects the movement's history squarely into the wider history of political and social activism in the early to mid-twentieth century black diaspora. Exploring the relationships between the pursuit of Caribbean federation and black diaspora politics, Duke convincingly posits that federation was more than a regional endeavor; it was a diasporic, black nation-building undertaking--with broad support in diaspora centers such as Harlem and London--deeply immersed in ideas of racial unity, racial uplift, and black self-determination. A volume in this series New World Diasporas, edited by Kevin A. Yelvington

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9780813064963

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Opens new perspectives on the building of a Caribbean federation in the twentieth century. . . . Connects the struggles for self-determination and self-government in the West Indies with black diaspora politics from the late nineteenth century to the onset of the independences of the Anglophone Caribbean in the 1960s. --American Historical Review Duke articulates the perspectives manifested in popular culture and provides an in-depth analysis of diasporan roles and reactions . . . in this profound, well-researched, and lucid scholarly work. --Choice An original, insightful, and well-researched book. --Journal of Caribbean History Complicat[es] our understanding of the relationships between West Indian nation building and the black diaspora's broader global context, particularly regarding various nationalisms, regionalism, and race. . . . An important contribution to black diaspora studies as well as histories of the British Empire, Caribbean, and the black freedom struggle in the United States. --Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology Adds new complexities to the analysis of the West Indian Federation by approaching it as a critical practice in the 'racialized global struggle' for black uplift. --New West Indian Guide

Author Information

Eric D. Duke is associate professor in the Department of African American Studies, Africana Women’s Studies, and History at Clark Atlanta University. He is coeditor of Extending the Diaspora: New Histories of Black People.

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