In the early seventeenth century, Kisama emerged as a new identity and place for communities of fugitives fleeing the expansion of West Central African states and the violence of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Through a rigorous examination of identity formation, Jessica A. Krug unravels the social, political, and intellectual foundations of Kisama in present-day Angola and the idea of Kisama in South America, most notably in the Portuguese and Spanish colonies of Brazil and New Granada (present-day Colombia). Krug's premise, which she calls ‘the Kisama meme’, reflects how these fugitives established an identity based on a common language, warrior identities, the slave trade, and a refusal to organize their society around centralized authority. By following the idea of Kisama across the Atlantic, Krug is able to examine the underpinnings of maroon communities in the Americas.
Chapter One interrogates the central role that the local leader, Kafuxi Ambari, played in the emergence of Kisama identity despite the violent conflicts of the era. Krug argues that Kafuxi's victory in 1594 over an alliance of Portuguese, Ndongo, and Matamba forces attracted thousands of refugees into the geographic region associated with Kisama. The next chapter examines how violence and socio-political ruptures shaped how political constituencies formed and operated in these maroon communities in geographical Kisama in the early seventeenth century. Chapter Three details martial practices, political ideologies, the environment, and individual experiences in geographical Kisama during a war between 1655 and 1658 in order to reveal how fugitives shaped the political fabric of Kisama, while rejecting warrior identities for more ‘distinct gender ideologies’ (26). The fourth chapter moves across the Atlantic to New Granada, where Kisama-identified men inserted themselves into a century-old maroon community. Through an examination of trial records from Cartagena in 1634, Krug explicitly demonstrates ‘the plurality of fugitive political repertoires’, such as Kisama, that maroon communities accessed in the seventeenth century (27). The following chapter recreates the lived experiences of maroons in the famous quilombo called Palmares. Likewise, Krug traces West Central African political ideologies in this runaway slave community, especially those ‘informed by Kisama's reputation’ (27). After setting up the transference of African ideas across the Atlantic and their incorporation into maroon societies, Chapter Seven examines the process whereby the ideologies of a revolutionary Kisama do not generally appear in Angolan and diasporic histories because their history did not revolve around central authority. Her conclusion, which centers on the concept of ‘fugitive modernities’, questions and discusses political forms and racism across Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean in the age of neoliberalism.
This intellectual history of Kisama is impressive in its breadth of research where Krug follows an anti-authoritarian ideology through multiple languages in Africa and the Americas. Her book will enable scholars to re-conceptualize how Africans influenced the Black Atlantic socially, politically, and intellectually. Of particular interest is her re-orientation of historical maps, which deliberately do not face north or center the Atlantic. Her departure from the conventions of diasporic studies will resonate with scholars interested in understanding the long-lasting intellectual influences of fugitives in both Africa and the Americas.
