The Black Atlantic's Triple Burden: Slavery, Colonialism, and Reparations - Paperback

by Adekeye Adebajo (Author)

Longlisted for the CANEX Prize for Publishing in Africa 2025

This volume demonstrates the continuities of five centuries of European slavery and colonialism in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas, examining calls for reparations in all three regions for crimes against humanity. Authored by eminent scholars largely based in these areas, it contributes to transforming educational curricula globally. This collection is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary and enables cross-regional comparisons to be drawn, ensuring that important global events are read from diverse perspectives. The volume is aimed at subject area experts, as well as students in diverse areas of the humanities and beyond who seek a sound introductory reference book to these important historical subjects to which they are often not exposed. The authors thus represent a multi-disciplinary group encompassing diverse fields such as history, international relations, politics, economics, sociology, anthropology, literature, and languages. The book introduces readers to foreign-language historical sources -- often inaccessible to an English-speaking audience -- on these pivotal topics.

Back Jacket

"Sweeping across continents and centuries, this volume offers a deeply important collection of essays on the experiences and impacts of slavery and colonialism, as well as the possibilities and challenges of reparative justice. With its roster of some of the world's finest and most distinguished scholars addressing these topics, The Black Atlantic's triple burden should be required reading for academics and a general audience alike."
Caroline Elkins, author of Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire

"Beginning with Adekeye Adebajo's magisterial introduction, this volume canvasses the successive calamities for Africa of slavery and colonialism, their contemporary legacies, and the reparations movement's efforts to interrupt their future transmission. This extraordinary collection is essential reading for anybody seeking to engage with the world-leading scholarship on these critical themes."
Thula Simpson, author of History of South Africa: From 1902 to the Present

This book demonstrates the continuities of five centuries of European-led slavery and colonialism in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas, examining calls for reparations in all three regions for what many now regard to have constituted crimes against humanity. The Atlantic world economy emerged from the interactions of this triangular slave trade involving human chattel, textiles, arms, wine, sugar, coffee, tobacco, and other goods. This is thus the story of the birth of the modern capitalist system and a Black Atlantic that has shaped global trade, finance, consumer tastes, lifestyles, and fashion for over five centuries. The volume is authored by a multi-disciplinary, pan-continental group encompassing diverse subjects. This collection is concise and comprehensive, enabling cross-regional comparisons to be drawn, and ensuring that some of the most important global events of the past five centuries are read from diverse perspectives.

Author Biography

Adekeye Adebajo is Senior Research Fellow and Professor at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria.