The Gift

Rezensionen / Stimmen

'A remarkable counternarrative told through the history of material objects troubles what we know about commodification in West and West Central Africa. The Gift brilliantly reframes the best thinking on circulation at the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In the expansive tapestry woven by Ana Lucia Araujo, readers will discern new ways of seeing and thinking about cultural objects and the elaboration of power in the Atlantic World. A rewarding and necessary book.' Herman Bennett, author of African Kings and Black Slaves: Sovereignty and Dispossession in the Early Modern Atlantic 'A brilliant fusion of social and art history, this gem of a book dazzles with scholarly depth. A testament to dual training, an exquisite narrative captivates, enlightens, and transcends conventional boundaries. A truly enriching, must-read gift.' Roquinaldo Ferreira, author of Cross-Cultural Exchange in the Atlantic World: Angola and Brazil during the Era of the Slave Trade 'Following the itinerary and many lives of a silver knife, gifted and re-gifted across the commercial, familial, and political networks linking France to west and west-central Africa in the 18th and 19th century, Araujo crafts a productively speculative account that gives new depths to our understanding of the Atlantic slave trade.' Cecile Fromont, author of Images on a Mission in Early Modern Kongo and Angola 'In tracing a ceremonial silver sword and its meanings from France to Central and West Africa and back to Europe, this creative and nuanced book sheds light on gift-giving in the Atlantic slave trade, French connections to multiple African regions, and the depredations of colonial invaders. As it reminds us, material objects have stories to tell!' Lisa Lindsay, author of Atlantic Bonds: A Nineteenth Century Odyssey from America to Africa '... Araujo's combined training as a social and art historian is evident in The Gift, which is painstakingly researched, deeply analyzed, and well written.' Mary A. Afolabi, Journal of Global Slavery '[This] is a splendid book that showcases meticulous historical research. It combines an innovative and convincing argument about the ways that a single material item embodied gift-based manipulations of social hierarchies within the evolving intercultural Atlantic slave trade of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and an earnest call for the decolonization of global museum collections.' Seth Mallios, The William and Mary Quarterly Mallios