Becoming Indigenous: Haiti’s Revolutionary Rebirth

In this episode Dr. Amanda T.

Perry discusses her research on how early nineteenth-century Haiti used the language of indigeneity to define nationhood after the revolution. The conversation explores how formerly enslaved Africans, Taíno memory, and political claims to territory shaped the new state's identity and citizenship.

Topics include the Declaration of Independence, racial and social divisions, exclusions of French colonists, later debates about Taíno presence, and the long-term implications for Caribbean ideas of belonging and nationhood. Bio: Amanda T.

Perry is a writer, scholar, educator, and literary critic based in Montréal, Québec. She teaches at both Champlain College Saint-Lambert and Concordia University, specializing in Caribbean literature, cultural studies, and postcolonial history.

She earned her PhD in Comparative Literature from New York University, where her research focused on Caribbean literature in English, French, and Spanish. Her scholarship explores Caribbean identity, race, migration, sovereignty, and historical memory.

She has published in leading journals, including Small Axe, The Global South, and the Journal of Early Modern Cultural Studies, and her research examines topics ranging from Haitian indigenism and abolition debates to the cultural impact of the Cuban Revolution across the Caribbean. Professor Perry is the author of the influential article Becoming Indigenous in Haiti: From Dessalines to La Revue Indigène, which explores how Haitians have used the concept of indigeneity to define national identity, sovereignty, and belonging from the Haitian Revolution through the twentieth century.

Her work challenges conventional understandings of Caribbean identity by examining the intersections of African ancestry, Indigenous memory, and postcolonial nation-building. Beyond academia, Perry is a contributing editor with the Literary Review of Canada and has written for publications including The Walrus and The Globe and Mail.

Her work is distinguished by its multilingual and interdisciplinary approach, bringing together history, literature, culture, and politics to deepen our understanding of the Caribbean and its diasporas. History Podcasts For Historians Follow: Instagram: Morning Journal Link: Genealogy Workbook: Prayer Journal: Devotional Journal: Support The Podcast https://ko-fi.com/disafimihistory/tip Great Research Resource Clothes Reservations for Barbados Opus Clip: Cultural Roots: This episode was recorded at Waterfront Studio Link: Instagram: Facebook: Recorded Music Theme Music "Africa" is modern ethnic track with fresh chords, African vocal, orchestra.

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