SEVENTY YEARS OF THE BLACK JACOBINS

A one-day conference to mark the seventieth anniversary of the publication of C.L.R. James’s classic history of the Haitian Revolution. With keynote speakers Darcus Howe, Selma James, Bill Schwarz, Marika Sherwood and Weyman Bennett.

Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, London.

Saturday 2 February 2008, 10am - 4.30pm.

Provisional Programme

9.30 – Registration

10.00-11.15 Welcome and Keynote addresses:

Chair: Christian Hogsbjerg, London Socialist Historians Group.
Selma James, writer and activist.
Bill Schwarz, editor of West Indian intellectuals in Britain.

11.15-11.30 Coffee

11.30-12.30 PANEL ONE: C.L.R. JAMES

Paget Henry, “The Black Jacobins and C.L.R. James’s Theory of State Capitalism”
Aldon Lynn Nielson, “‘The Wings of Atlanta’: C.L.R. James and Black Jacobins at the Institute of the Black World”

11.30-12.30 PANEL TWO: THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION

Olukoya Ogen, “The Haitian Revolution, 1791-1805: A Yoruba Cultural Legacy”
Jennifer Brittan, “Patrimony in Translation: The Rerouting of Haitian
History in the Circum-Caribbean”

12.30-1.30 Lunch

1.30-2.30 PANEL THREE: REPRESENTING TOUSSAINT

Gregory Pierrot, “‘Our Hero’: The literarization of Toussaint Louverture in British representations”
Charles Forsdick and Rachel Douglas, “Rewriting the Revolutionary: C.L.R. James’s representations of Toussaint Louverture”

1.30-2.30 PANEL FOUR: RETHINKING THE BLACK JACOBINS

Nick Nesbitt, “On the Concept of Black Jacobinism: James and the Struggle for Hegemony in St. Domingue”
Matthew Quest, “On ‘Both Sides’ of the Haitian Revolution? Rethinking Direct Democracy and National Liberation in C.L.R. James’s The Black Jacobins”

2.30-2.45 Coffee

2.45-4.00 Closing Plenary:

Chair: David Renton, author of C.L.R. James: Cricket’s Philosopher King.
Darcus Howe, columnist and activist.
Marika Sherwood, author of After Abolition; Britain and the Slave Trade Since 1807.
Weyman Bennett, Joint Secretary of Unite Against Fascism.

Organised by the London Socialist Historians Group

To register, please send your email address and phone number to London Socialist Historians Group, 3 Lavenham Court, London, SW15 2RF with a cheque made payable to 'London Socialist Historians Group' for £10 [£5 low waged/unwaged/student].

For more information, etc, please contact:
secretary@londonsocialisthistorians.org
www.londonsocialisthistorians.org