New Books Network Philip Janzen, "An Unformed Map: Geographies of Belonging Between Africa and the Caribbean" (Duke UP, 2025)
Dec 6, 2025
Philip Janzen, an assistant professor of history at the University of Florida, discusses his book exploring Caribbean administrators in Africa from 1890 to 1930. He highlights their double marginalization, caught between European disdain and African distrust, which shaped their identities. Janzen also examines how these individuals redefined their views through language and relationships with African intellectuals. He emphasizes the importance of unconventional sources, like poetry, in understanding their fragmented experiences and the broader implications for diaspora studies.
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Research Can Grow From A Single Seminar
- Caribbean administrators often began research from a seminar curiosity and expanded it into major projects over years.
- Philip Janzen traced his book from a first-semester paper into an MA thesis and eventually a book.
Mixed Motives For Caribbean Migration To Africa
- Caribbean migrants to Africa combined economic motives with an ideological attraction to an imagined homeland.
- Colonial authorities recruited them thinking they were 'acclimatized' and thus useful administrators.
The Double Marginalization Of Caribbean Officials
- Caribbean officials felt ambivalent: educated as British or French but racially marginalized by white colonials.
- Africans often viewed them as turncoats, producing layered marginalization in colonial settings.
