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 his new book, Anticolonial Eruptions: Racial Hubris and the Cunning of Resistance, 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. TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez interviews Maher about his book and what understanding the dynamics of anticolonial eruptions, past and present, can tell us about the historical moment we’re in and the task ahead of us.
Geo Maher is an organizer, writer, radical political theorist, co-editor of the Duke University Press series Radical Américas, and Visiting Associate Professor at Vassar College. He is the author of numerous books, including We Created Chávez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution; Building the Commune: Radical Democracy in Venezuela; Decolonizing Dialectics; A World Without Police; and Anticolonial Eruptions: Racial Hubris and the Cunning of Resistance.
Pre-Production/Studio: Dwayne Gladden
Post-Production: Adam Coley
Transcript
The transcript of this interview will be made available as soon as possible.