Neo-Maroon Narratives and Legacies of (Non)Sovereignty

摘要

Neo-slave narratives elucidate the false discourse of freedom and the need for an ongoing project of abolition. Dionne Brand's At the full and change of the moon fits into this tradition, but reflects on the legacies of specific slaves: the Maroons. By analyzing the development of Terre Bouillante, the novel's fictional Maroon settlement, we can see how its legacy can be detrimental if seclusion is privileged. Yet, for some of this settlement's twentieth-century descendants, neo-marronage becomes useful to express forms offugitivity and (non)sovereignty. I suggest that neo-marronage, and its liminal positionality between slavery and freedom, citizenship and non-sovereignty, presents itself as a possible solution to current forms of neo-slavery. That is, neo-marronage represents a decolonial tactic that provides a way to reflect on forms of sovereignty that are not overdetermined by notions of absolute freedom.