Colonization & Independence

This book sets out the case for decolonisation by illuminating - through anecdotal, real life examples - what decolonisation might look and feel like.

The Haitian revolution began in the French colony of Saint-Domingue with a slave revolt in November 1791, and culminated a dozen years later in the proclamation of the world's first independent black republic. Touissant Louverture did more than any other to shape the course of th...is revolution- after the abolition of slavery in 1793, he became the leader of the colony's 500,000 blacks, commander of its republican army and eventually its governor. Treacherously captured by Napoleon's invading army a year later and imprisoned, he ended his days as the revolution's most eminent martyr. Louverture confronted the mighty forces of his age - slavery, settler colonialism, imperial domination, racial hierarchy and European cultural supremacy - and bent them to his implacable will. He was the world's first black superhero. Sudhir Hazareesingh draws on a wealth of archival material, much of it overlooked by previous biographers, to follow every step in Louverture's singular career, to capture his voice and the force of his personality. To a greater extent than any previous biography, Black Spartacus situates Louverture's vision and leadership not solely in the context of events in Europe and imported Enlightenment ideals, but in a world of hybrid slave culture and African and Caribbean influences.
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The compelling [and] vivid (The New York Times Book Review) true story of a man who claimed to be a survivor of a 1919 British massacre in India, his elaborate twenty-year plan for revenge, and the mix of truth and legend that made him a hero to hundreds of millions. When Sir Mic...hael O'Dwyer, the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, ordered Brigadier General Reginald Dyer to Amritsar, he wanted Dyer to bring the troublesome city to heel. Sir Michael had become increasingly alarmed at the effect Gandhi was having on his province, as well as recent demonstrations, strikes, and shows of Hindu-Muslim unity. All these things, to Sir Michael, were a precursor to a second Indian revolt. What happened next shocked the world. An unauthorized gathering in the Jallianwallah Bagh in Amritsar in April 1919 became the focal point for Sir Michael's law enforcers. Dyer marched his soldiers into the walled public park, blocking the only exit. Then, without issuing any order to disperse, he instructed his men to open fire, turning their guns on the crowd, which numbered in the thousands and included women and children. The soldiers continued firing for ten minutes, stopping only when they ran out of ammunition. According to legend, nineteen-year-old Sikh orphan Udham Singh was injured in the attack, and remained surrounded by the dead and dying until he was able to move the next morning. Then, he supposedly picked up a handful of blood-soaked earth, smeared it across his forehead, and vowed to kill the men responsible. The truth, as the author has discovered, is more complex--but no less dramatic. Award-winning journalist Anita Anand traced Singh's journey through Africa, the United States, and across Europe until, in March 1940, the young man finally arrived in front of O'Dwyer himself in a London hall ready to shoot him down. The Patient Assassin mixes Tom Ripley's con-man-for-all-seasons versatility with Edmond Dantes's persistence (The Wall Street Journal) and reveals the incredible bu
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The classic text on Indigenous histories, with contemporary updates.

"After sixty-five years under New Zealand control, the Cook Islands adopted the United Nations push for self-government which it achieved in 1965, led by the enigmatic Albert Henry. But the early promise was left unfulfilled as Henry, attempting to build a self-serving empire, ma...nipulated the political system and used Government funds to stay in power. This led to a major court battle where for the first time a government was overturned by a court decision. It ushered in another enigmatic leader, Sir Tom Davis, who had spent many years in the US with the NASA space programme. Davis changed the direction of the Cook Islands to a liberal, free market, open economy. Decades of political seesawing followed as the Cook Islands tried to right its political and economic boat in the turbulent winds of a tiny democracy. Too often its mishaps and false starts resulted from so much enthusiasm but little knowledge and experience of running a modern democracy. This book is an attempt to record many of the events and people that contributed to this enthralling, difficult and politically turbulent period in the short life of a tiny island democracy."--Publisher information.
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