The brutal suppression of the uprising in Morant Bay in October 1865 under Governor Edward Eyre and the ensuing 'reign of terror' is a watershed in Jamaican history. Paul Bogle and his allies, overwhelmed by colonial firepower and betrayed by Maroons in service to the British Crown, were mercilessly cut down by the elites (local and foreign) who justified their actions based on the continued belief in the subjugation and suppression of the black race by the white race, emancipation notwithstanding. In Colour for Colour Skin for Skin, Clinton Hutton deconstructs the ideological, cultural, philosophical, economic, social and political rationale for the uprising by formerly enslaved Africans and their descendants and its violent suppression by the colonial forces, and articulates its significance in the development of a national black consciousness. This consciousness, and fight for freedom and justice, he argues, has strengthened over periods of Jamaica's short history, evidenced by the emergence of Garveyism and Rastafari, the 1938 labour riots, and articulated in Jamaican popular music and more recently, the resurgence of Revival worship. Using fascinating first-hand accounts of the uprising and its aftermath from the Report of the Royal Commission of 1866 and numerous newspaper reports among other sources, Hutton presents the 'Morant Bay Rebellion' squarely at the forefront of the continuing expression of a national complex in a post colonial society.

A cultural, military and imperial history of the Black soldiers of Britain's West India Regiments.

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 'An incredible work of scholarship' Sathnam Sanghera Through the story of his own family’s history as slave and plantation owners, Alex Renton looks at how we owe it to the present to understand the legacy of the past. When British Caribbean slavery was abolished across most of the British Empire in 1833, it was not the newly liberated who received compensation, but the tens of thousands of enslavers who were paid millions of pounds in government money. The descendants of some of those slave owners are among the wealthiest and most powerful people in Britain today. Blood Legacy explores what inheritance – political, economic, moral and spiritual – has been passed to the descendants of the slave owners and the descendants of the enslaved. He also asks, crucially, how the former – himself among them – can begin to make reparations for the past.

The Rastafari Movement: A North American and Caribbean Perspective provides a historical and ideological overview of the Rastafari movement in the context of its early beginnings in the island of Jamaica and its eventual establishment in other geographic locations. Building on previous scholarship and the author's own fieldwork, the text goes on to provide a rich comparative analysis of the Rastafari movement with other Black theological movements, specifically the Nation of Islam and the Black Hebrew Israelites in the context of the United States. The text explores the following topics: • Pan-Africanism, Black nationalism and Rastafari; • gender dynamics; • globalization; • concepts and symbols; • other Black theological movements. This text is ideal for students of religious studies, sociology, anthropology, African Diaspora studies, African American studies, and Black studies who wish to gain an understanding of the history and beliefs of the Rastafari Movement.

In this inventive and thoughtful study, renowned poet Jason Allen-Paisant provides a timely critical reappraisal of Aimé Césaire's works. The book showcases Césaire as a major Black thinker, whose writings remain deeply relevant to today's crises and debates.

Finalist, Pauli Murray Book Prize in Black Intellectual History, African American Intellectual History Society Shortlisted, 2023 Historical Nonfiction Legacy Award, Hurston / Wright Foundation One of the foremost Black writers and intellectuals of his era, Claude McKay (1889–1948) was a central figure in Caribbean literature, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Black radical tradition. McKay’s life and writing were defined by his class consciousness and anticolonialism, shaped by his experiences growing up in colonial Jamaica as well as his early career as a writer in Harlem and then London. Dedicated to confronting both racism and capitalist exploitation, he was a critical observer of the Black condition throughout the African diaspora and became a committed Bolshevik. Winston James offers a revelatory account of McKay’s political and intellectual trajectory from his upbringing in Jamaica through the early years of his literary career and radical activism. In 1912, McKay left Jamaica to study in the United States, never to return. James follows McKay’s time at the Tuskegee Institute and Kansas State University, as he discovered the harshness of American racism, and his move to Harlem, where he encountered the ferment of Black cultural and political movements and figures such as Hubert Harrison and Marcus Garvey. McKay left New York for London, where his commitment to revolutionary socialism deepened, culminating in his transformation from Fabian socialist to Bolshevik. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, James offers a rich and detailed chronicle of McKay’s life, political evolution, and the historical, political, and intellectual contexts that shaped him.