During the early
seventeenth century, Kisama emerged in West Central Africa
(present-day Angola) as communities and an identity for those fleeing
expanding states and the violence of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
The fugitives mounted effective resistance to European colonialism
despite—or because of—the absence of centralized authority or a
common language. In Fugitive Modernities Jessica A. Krug offers a
continent- and century-spanning narrative exploring Kisama's
intellectual, political, and social histories. Those who became
Kisama forged a transnational reputation for resistance, and by
refusing to organize their society around warrior identities, they
created viable social and political lives beyond the bounds of states
and the ruthless market economy of slavery. Krug follows the idea of
Kisama to the Americas, where fugitives in the New Kingdom of Grenada
(present-day Colombia) and Brazil used it as a means of articulating
politics in fugitive slave communities. By tracing the movement of
African ideas, rather than African bodies, Krug models new methods
for grappling with politics and the past, while showing how the
history of Kisama and its legacy as a global symbol of resistance
that has evaded state capture offers essential lessons for those
working to build new and just societies.