Extant studies on African slaves in the New World often claimed they lost their own language and cultures after the horrors of the Middle Passage and labour exploitations in the Americas. In this important and meticulous study, University of Leeds historian Manuel Barcia demonstrates that an African cultural ethos was retained and manifested in the resistance movements in the slave societies of the New World. Thus, this study revisited a contentious and ongoing debate on the presence of cultural links between Africa and the Americas. The central argument is that the African led-plots and armed insurrection in western Cuba and Bahia between 1807 and 1844 were the outcomes or a continuation of events that occurred in Yorubaland and Hausaland in the same period. West Africans demonstrated a determination to rise against their new social condition as soon as they landed in Bahia and Cuba. In Barcia’s explanation, there is the need for interrogation of West African affairs to make sense of the historical events that took place in Brazil and Cuba.
An outstanding feature of the book lies with its skilful use of sources, which demonstrates the author’s grasp with the historiographical debates on the subject matter in West Africa and Latin America. To accomplish his set goals, Barcia compiled a rich repository of highly important books, journals, and archival materials. Barcia adopted a comparative perspective by relying on a micro-historical approach to the interpretation of court records widely deployed in the book. The book is divided into five chapters in addition to introduction and conclusion. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 provides the historical background and the life experiences of African men, women, and children who experienced enslavement and warfare. Chapters 4 and 5 examine the transplantation of West African warfare to the Americas by interrogating military uprisings led by West African men and women in Bahia and Cuba. He made judicious use of maps, charts, and figures for proper illustration. The book provides a stimulating synthesis of the literature on slavery and warfare in the Americas and West Africa.
The soldier slaves examined in the book were victims of warfare and slave raiding around the Gold Coast and the Slave Coast in the south to the limits of the Sahara in the north. They were identified as Hausa speakers, Bariba, Nupe and Kanuri, Yoruba speakers who were enslaved during the Sokoto Jihad the Owu wars in the late 1810s and early 1820s, during the looting and pillaging of the new settlements in Egbado and Egbaland in the 1820s and early 1830s, and during the wars that led to the collapse of Old Oyo empire in the mid-1830s and the final defeat of the Fulani invaders from Ilorin at the battle of Osogbo in 1838. The slave solders were well acquainted with wars that occurred during the time of their enslavement. Some of them were Muslims, while others were adherents of traditional religions. The slave rebellions took place in Bahia in the northeast of Brazil, and in the plantation area around the cities of Havana, Matanzas, and Cardenas in the western part of the island of Cuba.
On page 5, he explained the shared cultural features were taken across the Atlantic and reproduced and developed in the New World societies. The behaviour they exhibited in West Africa was also displayed in Bahia and western Cuba. From the 1820s, there was Nagoization and Lucumization of the slave rebellion in Bahia and Cuba. Barcia stressed the central role of the Yoruba speakers (Nago and Lucumi) and some of their closest neighbours. Many of the insurrections were organised and led by newly arrived African men and women, who were identified as bozales or negros novo (new negroes).
African warfare was the ‘ultimate source’ of much of the population in these two slave societies. On page 7, he paid attention to the role that identity, memory, news, ideas, ideologies, ethics, old and new alliances played in the slave resistance movements. He discussed the links and continuities between the Yoruba and Hausa speaking peoples and other West African groups in Bahia and Cuba on one side, and the Bight of Benin and its interior on the other. On page 95, Barcia painted a romantic picture of the New World. The notions of known world and continuity are unduly exaggerated.
On page 103, Barcia concluded that by using terms such as ‘slave revolt’ or ‘slave insurrection’ we continue to underestimate the real military character of these movements. For him, it would make more sense to consider using more appropriate terms such as ‘slave military revolt or ‘African military uprising’ to clarify the martial character of the movements’. This argument makes the war in the slave societies different from warfare in West Africa. In West Africa, the slaves could not resist their captivity in the hinterland areas and tortuous journey of the Middle Passage. They only did while experiencing labour exploitation and racism in the slave societies of the Americas.
Historical evidence shows that many of slave resistance movements were well planned, and their leaders had clear strategies and goals, which were pursued. African-born slaves fought gallantly, expertly using weapons as diverse as guns, machetes or cutlasses, spears, and horses. They also marched to the terrifying rhythm of their Lucumi war drums and songs. They used umbrellas, shields, spears, war songs, war drums associated with war in West Africa. Barcia on page 109, suggested were all quite acquitted with war.
In suppressing the revolts, European or American masters in the New World relied on state-of-the-art weapons and experienced army officers to lead the troops. On the other hand, Africans used human capital they were left with after the Middle Passage. They used war paraphernalia, including drums, charms, amulets, standards, and flags. Swords and knives formed part of the arsenal of the African insurgents in Bahia and Cuba. Similarly, they used guerrilla warfare related to slave raids in West Africa. They produced new weapons. They relied on their West African knowledge, traditions, and beliefs.
In this book, Barcia accounted for the cultural transfers associated with warfare in terms of organisation, leadership, strategy, weaponry and war paraphernalia in the two slave societies. Of significance is the fact that the African slaves contributed to their own liberation and freedom.
Attempts by Barcia to provide concrete evidence in terms of names and religious identities of the slaves registered by the Mixed Commission Court of Havana, 1824-1835 were characterised by pitfalls due to misinterpretation and misrepresentation. Some of the names presented in table 2.5 were not entirely Muslim, Hausa and Fulani. Some of the names and identities were interpreted wrongly for justifying Hausa and Fulani identities in the study. For example, Adisa a proper Yoruba (male) name could not have been Hadisa (Hadiza-Hausa female name) as presented. The assumption that Adisa was Muslim is quite doubtful. Similarly, Alado and Allado, Dada and Suleye (Soleye) but interpreted as Suleyman are proper Yoruba names. In the same way, Aquilulu and Aquiolu interpreted as Akil could mean the Yoruba names, Akinlolu and Akinolu. On page 82, Kaza Maiyaya, Hausa words are used as Yoruba. On a final note, the comparative approach of the author in choosing Bahia (capital city of Salvador, north-eastern Brazil) and Cuba in the title is not comprehensive enough. Like in Brazil, the study is not entirely focused on Cuba. It focuses on the plantation areas around the cities of Havana, Matanzas, and Cardenas in the western part of Cuba. As such, the title appears lopsided. The title could have read: West African Warfare in Brazil and Cuba. Students and scholars will surely find this book very useful for teaching, research and unending historiographical debates.
