Anticolonial Eruptions: Racial Hubris and the Cunning of Resistance (Volume 15)

American Studies Now: Critical Histories of the Present

by Geo Maher

This incisive study reveals the fundamental, paradoxical weakness of colonialism and the enduring power of anticolonial resistance.

Resistance is everywhere, but everywhere a surprise, especially when the agents of struggle are the colonized, the enslaved, the wretched of the earth. Anticolonial revolts and slave rebellions have often been described by those in power as “eruptions”—volcanic shocks to a system that does not, cannot, see them coming. In Anticolonial Eruptions , Geo Maher diagnoses a paradoxical weakness built right into the foundations of white supremacist power, a colonial blind spot that grows as domination seems more complete.  
Anticolonial Eruptions argues that the colonizer’s weakness is rooted in dehumanization. When the oppressed and excluded rise up in explosive rebellion, with the very human demands for life and liberation, the powerful are ill-prepared. This colonial blind spot is, ironically, the more oppressive and expansive the colonial power, the lesser-than-human the colonized are believed to be, the greater the opportunity for resistance. Maher calls this paradox the cunning of decolonization, an unwitting reversal of the balance of power between the oppressor and the oppressed. Where colonial power asserts itself as unshakable, total, and perpetual, a blind spot provides strategic cover for revolutionary possibility; where race or gender make the colonized invisible, they organize, unseen. Anticolonial Eruptions shows that this fundamental weakness of colonialism is not a bug, but a permanent feature of the system, providing grounds for optimism in a contemporary moment roiled by global struggles for liberation.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics

156 pages, Hardcover

First published March 29, 2022

Reviews

[Jannat · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED!! so good — one of the few writers who explains the decolonial tradition with optimism and hope for the future. maher is an amazing writer and draws some crazy parallels between resistance and nature. highly recommend. this book is one of the reasons why i’m majoring in american studies

[Lancakes]

I continue to hate academic writing. I probably learned something.

[Alex Birnel · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Too radical to be formulated in advance of their deeds.” In Anticolonial Eruptions, Geo Maher weaves together a potent theoretical explanation of the rumblings, whispers, and plottings that animate the history of slave revolts, indigenous resistance, and third world revolutions that stupefy those with no license to be surprised. In a dialectical relationship between colonialilty and rebellions to it, Maher unpacks an anxiety just behind the hubris of domination. Everywhere colonization exists and persists, a “decolonial cunning” exploits it’s overconfidence. Take the paradox of overseeing and being underseen: a system of subjugating the enslaved based on the self flattery of superiority (an overseeing) makes for a panicked mind that doesn’t dare contemplate that the inhumanity and stupidity of those subjugated is, in fact, a concocted lie. The consequence is an underseeing, the space in which “moles,” at once Maher’s metaphor critical of Hegelian teleology and a description for those in the underground, travel and await eruption in a decolonial ambush.

“The gap between what the colonial world imagines itself to be and the reality we inhabit is precisely the space of resistance.”

This carries from Haiti to Ferguson to Caracas to the tunnels of Chu Chi to the fictional slave ships and worlds of Benito Cereno, Get Out, and Parasite.

If you want a diagnosis of the present feeling of volcanic omnipresent uprising, get this book. No “zero point hubris” of grand historical narrative arcs, just people everywhere who “grasp little more than the roughest direction of time’s warp” and act on it.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

My sister recommended this to me as something to help me get through a pessimistic slump. It’s a bit of a mixed bag. I think it falls prey to some of the shortcomings that are fairly common in some leftist spaces (standpoint epistemology, extolling that which is done by virtuous groups with good intentions or at least deeply sympathetic motivations rather than that which proves to have positive effects) and that may be a criticism that derives out of a fundamental difference in ethical systems (and personal background of course). Also I can’t decide whether I had a strong reaction against the movie analysis because it feels like low intellectualism attempting to cross a boundary into serious analysis or what, or if its even fair to think less of the book on that basis but I have to admit it didn’t sit well. But Maher also produces a lot of valuable and interesting historical tidbits and each time I found myself wishing I were reading more thorough accounts instead of slightly context-deficient snippets employed for arguments I was often dubious of. But I found the last essay “Moles” to be really compelling. Highly recommend that section if not the entire book.

[Xavier · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enthralling synthesis of decolonial thought that proves to be a useful thought partner on the future of resistance. At the same time, Maher offers somewhat surface level engagement with certain veins of thought (e.g. Afro-pessimism) in that those who are unfamiliar with authors like Wilderson and Hartman will tacitly agree with his diagnosis and move towards dismissing it; terms like non-being are also wrapped up by an assumption that you will know what Maher means.

For people approaching this book for the first time, you may be lost amid the jargon and organized parade of thinkers in what is otherwise an incredibly short book. Take your time. Despite the length, this is a dense text.

[Jackson Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterpiece of accessible, but profound, anticolonial theory and strategy. Maher explores the metaphor of volcano in the history of the black radical tradition and beyond, as well as its import to thinking about models of social transformation and interpreting revolutions. I was able to consistently connect what Maher was illustrating to ideas or authors I have interacted with throughout black/afro-diasporic studies, as well as see persistent value of the metaphor.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best lines in this book comes in the acknowledgements. "All love to the comrades, nothing but scorn for the legions of cowards in academia and beyond, for whom only the inimitable words of Otto René Castillo will suffice:
One day
the apolitical intellectuals
of our land
will be interrogated
by the poorest of people...
you will have nothing to say.
A vulture of silence
will eat your guts.