Memories and mechanisms of resistance to the Atlantic slave trade
The Ekang Saga in West Central Africa's epic tale theMvet
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2173173 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Marc Mvé Bekale (0000-0002-8760-571X, University Institute of Troyes, University of Rheims, Rheims, France, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 99-113 |
| Publication date | 2020-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of African Cultural Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1369-6815 • E-ISSN: 1469-9346 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13696815.2018.1532283 |
| OpenAlex | W2901751173 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 34 |
The exploration of African oral literature has cast new light on the history of the Atlantic slave trade. Working on diverse regions and from various sources, scholars have used folk materials for a new understanding of slave trade mechanisms. Building on the Mvet epic tale of West Central Africa, the present paper investigates the techniques of encryption of slave trade-related memories. It looks into the philosophical and moral tenets of the Mvet to argue that the tale was not only a strategy of resistance to the alienating ethics of Western capitalism, it also reads as a humanist discourse through which the Fang-Beti-Bulu people asserted their agency against the commodification of the black body. This paradigm reverberates across postcolonial societies of Gabon, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea with the appropriation of the Mvet art by a new generation of artists who have recalibrated the ancient epic to serve as instrument of resistance to Western cultural hegemony, and as a regenerative site for postcolonial identities. With its legendary superheroes and sophisticated weaponry, the mythic territory of the Mvet anticipates the Afro-futuristic universe of Wakanda in the American Marvel film Black Panther
Agency (philosophy · Appropriation · Art · Commodification · Economy · EPIC · Hegemony · Literature · Political science · Politics · Resistance (ecology · Social science · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Caribbean and African Literature and Culture · History · Law · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies
The black Atlantic
Bwiti
Gender, genre, and power in South Asian expressive traditions
African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
The Human Condition
Warfare in the Sokoto Caliphate
The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on Africa
Arab Folk Epic and Identity
Narration, connaissance et identité chez Paul Ricoeur. Paul Ricoeur, Temps et récit, Tomes 1, 2 et 3, Paris, Éditions du Seuil, 1983, 1984 et 1985
Warfare in Atlantic Africa, 1500-1800
Jihād in West Africa during the Age of Revolutions
Into the Bush of Ghosts
The Problem of Slavery in African Studies
Plantations in the Economy of the Sokoto Caliphate
Explorations in Animist Materialism
Mvett Performance
Transformations in Slavery
The Migration of the Fang into Central Gabon during the Nineteenth Century
Competing Markets for Male and Female Slaves
Proto-histoire du groupe beti-bulu-fang
Warfare in Atlantic Africa 1500-1800
Introduction to a Fang oral art genre
Memories of the Slave Trade
Afro-superheroes
Orality is my reality
Metaphor and the slave trade in West African Literature
Things that Don't Come by the Road
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |