Modibo Kadalie's latest book is a critical reexamination of the history and historiography surrounding two sites of African maroonage in North America: The Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina; and Fort Mose in Florida.
Kadalie argues that maroon communities like these were actually ethnically diverse sites where freedom-seekers fleeing oppressive societies established communites of resistance through socially intimate forms of democracy. In these communities, directly democratic traditions carried by enslaved peoples from West Africa converged with those of indigenous North Americans as the struggle against slavery and settler colonialism grew and evolved over hundreds of years, from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.
What People Are Saying
"Acclaimed scholar, political scientist, and Pan-Africanist, Modibo Kadalie explores a neglected aspect of Black freedom fighters in eighteenth-century North America. This book is an eye-opening account for anyone who is seeking to learn from the past to understand the present." Mohamed Haji Mukhtar, Professor of African and Middle Eastern History, Savannah State University
"Dr. Kadalie's personable political style invites the reader into the revealing history of these two colonial-era communities where indigenous, African, and poor white people created social and ecological systems of survival independent of the profit-motivated European colonists. Intimate Direct Democracy gives voice to truths of American history that are not found in traditional texts." Yakini Kemp, Professor and former Chair of English and Modern Language, Florida A&M University
"Modibo Kadalie [. . .] invites us into the world of two maroon communities--the Great Dismal Swamp and Fort Mose. He humbly lets the histories of those who sought refuge from colonizers, enslavers, and nation-states speak for themselves. Yet Kadalie also brings these self-governing, multiracial, autonomous eco-communities to life, compellingly reminding us that social-ecological communal lifeways and solidarity are indeed possible, even under the worst of conditions. An inspiring must-read, when we most need it!" Cindy Milstein, editor of Deciding for Ourselves: The Promise of Direct Democracy