Palm Oil Diaspora (Afro-Latin America) - Softcover

Watkins, Case

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1108746233 ISBN 13: 9781108746236

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2023

Synopsis

Behind the social and environmental destruction of modern palm oil production lies a long and complex history of landscapes, cultures, and economies linking Africa and its diaspora in the Atlantic World. Case Watkins traces palm oil from its prehistoric emergence in western Africa to biodiverse groves and cultures in Northeast Brazil, and finally the plantation monocultures plundering contemporary rainforest communities. Drawing on ethnography, landscape interpretation, archives, travelers' accounts, and geospatial analysis, Watkins examines human-environmental relations too often overlooked in histories and geographies of the African diaspora, and uncovers a range of formative contributions of people and ecologies of African descent to the societies and environments of the (post)colonial Americas. Bridging literatures on Black geographies, Afro-Brazilian and Atlantic studies, political ecology, and decolonial theory and praxis, this study connects diverse concepts and disciplines to analyze and appreciate the power, complexity, and potentials of Bahia's Afro-Brazilian palm oil economy.

About this title

About the Author

Case Watkins is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Justice Studies at James Madison University. He co-authored Hispanic and Latino New Orleans (2015), winner of the John Brinckerhoff Jackson Prize in 2015.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1108746233
• ISBN 13: 9781108746236
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368