Description: "A lively living history of anti-colonialist movements across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Oceania is a vast sea of islands, large scale political struggles and immensely significant historical phenomena. Pasifika Black is a compelling history of understudied anti-colonial movements in this region, exploring how indigenous Oceanic activists intentionally forged international connections with the African world in their fights for liberation. Drawing from research conducted across Fiji, Australia, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Britain, and the United States, Quito Swan shows how liberation struggles in Oceania actively engaged Black internationalism in their diverse battles against colonial rule. Pasifika Black features as its protagonists Oceania's many playwrights, organizers, religious leaders, scholars, Black Power advocates, musicians, environmental justice activists, feminists, and revolutionaries who carried the banners of Black liberation across the globe."--
Brief description: Quito Swan is Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University Bloomington. He is the author of Black Power in Bermuda: The Struggle for Decolonization and Pauulu's Diaspora: Black Internationalism and Environmental Justice.
Review Quotes: "Serves as a mouthpiece to the many voices that have been silenced as a by-product of the colonialist and Eurocentric attitudes traditionally marking studies on Oceania. Having conducted research in a number of Pacific archives, the scope and depth of Swan's work is impressive. Moreover, he acknowledges the rich oral traditions of Pacific societies by interviewing key Melanesian figures. It is my hope that Pasifika Black will spark further publications on decolonization in the Pacific from the lens of the inhabitants of the Pacific."-- "The Journal of Pacific History"