Liberty and Equality in Caribbean Colombia, 1770-1835 [Paperback]

Aline Helg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 9, 2003

After Brazil and the United States, Colombia has the third-largest population of African-descended peoples in the Western hemisphere. Yet the country is commonly viewed as a nation of Andeans, whites, and mestizos (peoples of mixed Spanish and indigenous Indian ancestry). Aline Helg examines the historical roots of Colombia's treatment and neglect of its Afro-Caribbean identity within the comparative perspective of the Americas. Concentrating on the Caribbean region, she explores the role of free and enslaved peoples of full and mixed African ancestry, elite whites, and Indians in the late colonial period and in the processes of independence and early nation building.

Why did race not become an organizational category in Caribbean Colombia as it did in several other societies with significant African-descended populations? Helg argues that divisions within the lower and upper classes, silence on the issue of race, and Afro-Colombians' preference for individual, local, and transient forms of resistance resulted in particular spheres of popular autonomy but prevented the development of an Afro-Caribbean identity in the region and a cohesive challenge to Andean Colombia.

Considering cities such as Cartagena and Santa Marta, the rural communities along the Magdalena River, and the vast uncontrolled frontiers, Helg illuminates an understudied Latin American region and reintegrates Colombia into the history of the Caribbean.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A] meticulous and vigorous study."
-- American Historical Review

"An impressive study. . . . It is of interest to anyone concerned with Colombian history, Caribbean history, or the history of racial difference and political struggle in the Americas. Highly recommended."
-- Choice

From the Inside Flap

Helg examines how Colombia developed the image of a nation of Andeans, whites, and mestizos, even though it has the third largest population of African-descended peoples in the Western hemisphere.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (December 9, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807855405
• ISBN-13: 978-0807855409
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #844,183 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #94 in Books > History > Americas > South America > Colombia

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Liberty & Freedom in Caribbean Colombia, February 13, 2008

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This review is from: Liberty and Equality in Caribbean Colombia, 1770-1835 (Paperback)

The Haitian Revolution seemed to echo infinitely in the nineteenth-century white psyche. Simply the idea of black action coupled with the might of French declarations of republican fortitude kept many perpetually chasing the ghost of slave revolt in their own backyards. This was no less the case for colonial Colombia. As the University of Geneva's (Switzerland) Aline Helg persuasively argues, the Haitian specter virtually blinded local white elites. Instead, an intense racial component all but ignored the very real threat from Native Americans in the area in favor of keeping the nonwhite population immobilized. After an almost blinding turning of events beginning around 1810, a dizzying racial make-up and a pocketed social formation kept much of the colony from effectively organizing to challenge an already weakened Spanish presence.

Simon Bolivar's appearance changed the trajectory of the independence movement in Latin American. Initially thwarted by incessant infighting within a group of New Granada's elites, Bolivar wisely left the region and plotted his return. Unbeknownst to them at the time, the anti-Spanish masses squandered perhaps their best opportunity to seize independence from an absent King Ferdinand VII. Local concerns over regional and national attachments were evident almost immediately. Various enclaves, to cite one instance, simply renegotiated their alliances to suit the most pressing local needs. For Helg this is no small matter. She demonstrates, more to the point, that the infinite kinship and patronage ties at the village and city level bound a diverse grouping of people in ways that race and often class simply could not.

Helg's conclusions are as powerful as they are persuasive. Her findings add a tremendous counter-narrative, in many ways, to the oft-repeated mantra of race, class, and gender as somehow absolutely binding criteria for group identity formation. The author, it should be noted, does not argue that those categories did not matter for the black and colored majority. Instead, Helg suggests that the racial landscape was fragmented, mind numbingly diverse, and constantly redefined in the face of both internal and external factors. Drastic population reductions and broken community networks, particularly after the First Independence period, are only two such example of the new socioracial reality that groups adjusted to in countless ways.

To reconstruct the social and political landscape of colonial Colombia, Helg consulted archives on five continents. Combining a careful if daunting blend of contemporary accounts, travel narratives, royal memoranda, and elite correspondence with vast secondary works, Liberty & Equality in Caribbean Columbia is remarkable for its ambitious grasp of the transnational narrative, analysis, and attention to context. While at times the somewhat haphazard narrative pace confuses the reader--particularly regarding Bolivar's ascendance in Latin America--Helg's historical vision amply makes up for any serious defects.

The African experience in the Caribbean only once reached the height of the Haitian example. Far from Bolivar's pathetic ramblings of "pardocracia," Africans and their descendants struggled simply to survive. Whether in the urban centers or at the peripheries of empire, free and enslaved alike sought meaning for their lives in daily rituals and communal relations. Helg's account profoundly emphasizes the fact that the most remarkable of the lot did not appear in 1791 only after burning Le Cap, but instead of the countless numbers that contributed in countless ways to the diverse Colombian experience itself.