New Books in History Philip Janzen, "An Unformed Map: Geographies of Belonging Between Africa and the Caribbean" (Duke UP, 2025)
Dec 7, 2025
Philip Janzen, an assistant professor at the University of Florida and author of *An Unformed Map*, dives into the intriguing lives of Caribbean administrators in colonial Africa. He explores their motivations and the double marginalization they faced between European powers and African communities. Janzen discusses how their experiences reshaped their identities and fostered new geographies of belonging. He intriguingly uses poetry and language to fill archival gaps, revealing deeper insights into their journeys and contributions to anti-colonial thought.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Economic Motives Meet Imagined Homeland
- Caribbean administrators traveled to Africa for both economic opportunity and an imagined cultural return to Africa.
- Colonial states recruited them believing they were acclimatized and cheaper than European staff.
Between Empires And Communities
- Caribbean officials experienced layered marginalization: racism from European colleagues and distrust from Africans.
- That in-betweenness reshaped their identities and spurred intellectual reflection.
Title As Method And Metaphor
- 'An Unformed Map' evokes fragmentation and potential reformation drawn from Césaire's poem.
- The title signals both disintegration of imperial maps and emergent cross-Atlantic solidarities.
