by C. L. R. James, adapted by Nic Watts and Sakina Karimjee
Verso Press
10/10/2023, paperback
SKU: 9781788737906
The end of slavery started in what was then San Domingo. In 1791, the enslaved people of the most prized French sugar plantation colony revolted against their masters. For over twelve years, against a backdrop of the French Revolution, they fought an epic black liberation struggle for control of the island. Theirs was the first and only successful slave revolution. It was the creation of Haiti as a nation, the first independent black republic outside of Africa, and an international inspiration to the persecuted and enslaved. This is the impassioned and beautifully drawn story of the Haitian Revolution and its incredible leader: Toussaint Louverture.
The text of this graphic novel is a play by C. L. R. James that opened in London in 1936 with PaulRobeson in the title role. For the first time, black actors appeared on the British stage in a work by a black playwright. The script had been lost for almost seventy years when a draft copy was discovered among James's archives. Now this extraordinary drama has been reimagined by artists Nic Watts and Sakina Karimjee.
Reviews:
"The drawings are fantastic and the energy palpable on every page." -- Joe Sacco, journalist and comic book artist, author of Palestine
"An epic work of graphic history - a compelling, dramatic, detailed, delicate, and human rendition of this incredible tale of resistance" -- Kate Evans, author of Red Rosa: The Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg
"The inspiring spirit of the men, women and children who made the Haitian Revolution has been beautifully and vividly brought to life as never before. This extraordinary work is a wonderful tribute to not only C. L. R. James but also to the greatest ever movement to demand Black Lives Matter." -- Christian Høgsbjerg, co-author of Toussaint Louverture: A Black Jacobin in the Age of Revolutions
About the Contributors:
C. L. R. James, the polymath intellectual and Trinidadian revolutionary, is perhaps best known as the author of the seminal history of the Haitian Revolution, The Black Jacobins, published in 1938.
Nic Watts and Sakina Karimjee are artists based in the UK.