Speaking for the slave: Britain and the Cape, 1751-1838
Postcolonial studies has asked the question "Can the subaltern speak? ", but has focused less strongly on the strategies by which the subaltern is prevented from securing a hearing. The textual and social strategies used to prevent Cape slaves in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries from voicing their plight have been neglected, though both pro- and anti-slavery lobbyists were eloquent. To present the slave as one whose inferiority rendered him incapable of pleading his cause was a device of the pro-slavery group; to pretend that consultation was impossible was another, though people who offered this defence were often surrounded by slaves. Others, accepting and profiting from the inequalities of a class-stratified society, were unable to perceive any but the extreme experiences of an unfree condition as constituting injustice. Anti-slavery campaigners were rarely in favour of the slave's being consulted: they preferred to condemn their political rivals, the slave-owners. Abolition found many of them searching for arguments to maintain the inequalities of society, and especially to prevent former serfs from securing a hearing.
TWO ‘HOTTENTOTS’, SOME SCOTS AND A WEST INDIAN SLAVE: THE ORIGINS OF KAATJE KEKKELBEK
Abstract Kaatje Kekkelbek, or Life among the Hottentots, by Andrew Geddes Bain, continues to be of academic interest for three main reasons: firstly, for its peculiar linguistic composition, secondly, as one of the earliest examples of South African Settler drama, and, thirdly, for its portrayal of the life of so-called ‘Hottentots’ in the 1830s. Concerning the latter, critical opinion has been divided. This article aims to lay to rest the claims of Michael Chapman and others that Kaatje Kekkelbek is in any way sympathetic to the lot of ‘Hottentots’, as represented by the eponymous heroine, by attempting to locate the play in the historical context of its production. A further claim is then made that, owing to the form of the drama, Kaatje Kekkelbek is actually a pastiche of a slave narrative, quite possibly The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave, which was edited by Thomas Pringle in London.
The Colours and Dresses of Racism in America
The monograph argues that American racism has two colours (white and black), not one; and that each racism dresses itself not in one clothing, but in four: (1) “Minimal” negative, when one race considers another race inferior to itself in degree, but not in nature; (2) “Maximal” negative, when one race regards another as inherently inferior; (3) “Minimal” positive, when one race elevates another race to a superior status in degree, but not in nature; and (4) “Maximal” positive, when one race believes that the other race is genetically superior. The monograph maintains that the needs of capitalism created black slavery; that black slavery produced white racism as a justification for black slavery; and that black racism is a backlash of white racism. The monograph concludes that the abolition of black slavery and the civil rights movement destroyed the social and political ground for white and black racism, while the modern development of capitalism is demolishing their economic and intellectual ground.