An Unformed Map: Geographies of Belonging Between Africa and the Caribbean examines how and why Caribbean administrators such as Lebert Veitch, Danderson Crowther, and Felix Eboue, among others, joined British and French colonial administration in Africa. Philip Janzen traces what motivated these Caribbean administrators, their attitudes toward Africans, their ideas and intellectual trajectories, and most importantly, their survival in Africa during the first half of the twentieth century. In reconstructing the transatlantic experiences of Caribbean administrators in colonial Africa, Janzen departs from the linear conventions of historical writing. This is most evident in his sources and style of narration. Meanwhile, the book’s argument centers on how Caribbean administrators formed new geographies of belonging in Africa and how they rethought their positions as British and French colonial workers.
Janzen organizes the stories of these Caribbean administrators into seven chapters, with each chapter revealing distinct historical themes, including citizenship, empire, race, decolonization, dislocation, and the concept of intimate geography. A common theme across the chapters is how the Caribbean administrators created connections between Africa and the Caribbean. However, Chapters Three and Seven offer a detailed analysis of the methods and processes that shaped Janzen’s reconstruction of the Caribbean’s transatlantic experiences and survival. Specifically, Chapter One discusses the reasons why the Caribbean administrators joined the British and French colonial administration in Africa. These reasons were not limited to economic and ideological factors, as Caribbean administrators sought better opportunities and were equally motivated by a sense of paternalistic connections with Africa (24). The Caribbean administrators were, however, recruited as a source of cheap labor to expand the British and French colonial authority in West and Central Africa. The chapter further reveals the complexities of the Caribbean administrators’ racial identities. The Caribbean administrators saw themselves as British and French citizens and denigrated Africans. However, they were alienated by their European counterparts and were unwelcome by Africans (32).
Chapters Two through Seven reveal different ways Caribbean administrators survived in colonial Africa. Chapter Two examines the lives and experiences of two Caribbean administrators, Maran and Hoyte, to demonstrate how Caribbean administrators actively challenged colonial categories. Maran, for example, manipulated colonial racial categories. The Caribbean administrators equally utilized petitions to challenge colonial subjugation. The argument of Chapter Two focuses on the shifting ideas of empire and belonging among the Caribbean administrators. Rather than seeing themselves as British and French citizens, they formed Caribbean identities while in Africa.
Still on the theme of survival, Chapter Three narrates how the Caribbean administrators navigated their feelings of alienation and formed geographies of belonging as they capitalized on their migration experiences. Beyond this, the chapter focuses extensively on the challenges of archival fragments, as well as the incoherence and disjuncture that shaped the writing of Caribbean experiences. This chapter thus embodies the methods and approaches deployed in the book (65–69).
Chapter Four reveals another significant survival strategy of the Caribbean administrators. Motivated by career advancement and financial gains, some Caribbean administrators took African language classes, including Twi and Fante. Chapter Five specifically focuses on the life of Felix Eboue to show how Caribbean administrators created transatlantic networks through their intellectual trajectories. Eboue’s intimate relationships with Africans were instrumental to his ethnographic and linguistic research on Africa. These Africans transcribed folktales while Eboue organized and documented them. This process of intellectual exchange, as the chapter shows, raises questions about knowledge production in African colonial history. As Janzen asserts, “African interpreters refracted their ideas and experiences through transcriptions and interpretations” (118). Eboue’s five-language dictionary served as an alternative source that reveals the Caribbean administrators’ perception and knowledge of empire. Janzen contends that Eboue’s ethnography made him rethink his position in the French empire and the nature of empire itself.
Chapter Six explores the theme of intimate geography through the lives and impact of three Caribbean teachers: Edith Goring, Joseph Britton, and Lebert Josiah. These Caribbeans challenged racial stereotypes against Africans by instilling a sense of racial pride in their students (134). Moreover, Britton’s formation of the Gold Coast’s first football club demonstrates another significant impact of Caribbean administrators in Africa.
The impacts of Henri Louise, especially his Pan-Africanist messages as discussed in Chapter Seven, reveal more ways that Caribbean administrators formed intimate geographies in Africa. Louise’s poetic exposition captured his political vision for Africa and ideas of decolonization to the extent that he was viewed as an anti-colonialist by French colonial officials (160). Louise’s sense of paternalistic connections with Africa, among other factors, shaped his ideas of African decolonization during the 1950s.
Janzen’s methodological approach is well detailed. Janzen extensively explains how he grappled with archival fragments and incoherence while uncovering the activities and experiences of Caribbean administrators in colonial Africa. The use of varied sources, including colonial reports from different archives, newspapers and periodicals, political pamphlets, private correspondence, and ethnographic notes, enriches the book’s narratives. Other sources, including notebooks, novels, handwritten dictionaries, and poetic narratives, captured the experiences of Caribbean administrators that could have otherwise been obscured in colonial documents. Janzen’s incorporation of personal letters and poems, as seen in Chapters Three and Seven, demonstrates the richness of his primary sources. However, the extensive use of these materials occasionally interrupts the narrative flow. Also, the book does not clearly explain why Janzen focuses on particular individuals or reveal how many Caribbeans worked in Africa during the first half of the twentieth century. Despite this limitation, the book makes valuable historiographical contributions through its arguments, sources, and narratives. It is especially useful for scholars and graduate students interested in transatlantic and African colonial history, particularly those seeking creative ways to address archival gaps and fragmented colonial records.
