Race, the World and Time: Haiti, Liberia and Ethiopia (1914–1945)
| Author | Musab Younis |
| Published date | 01 June 2018 |
| Date | 01 June 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0305829818773088 |
| Subject Matter | Conference Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0305829818773088
Millennium: Journal of
International Studies
2018, Vol. 46(3) 352 –370
© The Author(s) 2018
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0305829818773088
journals.sagepub.com/home/mil
Race, the World and Time:
Haiti, Liberia and Ethiopia
(1914–1945)
Musab Younis
Cardiff University, Wales, UK
Abstract
This article explores the role played by time in the maintenance of global racial difference with
reference to the precarious sovereignties of Haiti, Liberia and Ethiopia during the interwar
period. It suggests that the experiences of these states, understood through the discourses which
sought to both support and undermine them, point to a shift away from juridical division in global
order and towards a hierarchy framed in terms of racialised temporalities. While postcolonial
scholarship can help us to understand this shift, it has not fully comprehended the interpenetration
of multiple forms of temporality in the service of colonial and racial ordering. For interwar
intellectuals and activists committed to pan-African liberation, the desire for a new world order
free from racialised stratification meant an engagement with sites of black sovereignty that was,
by necessity, ambivalent and strategic in its approach to the politics of time.
Keywords
race, time, postcolonial
Résumé
Cet article explore le rôle que joue le temps dans le maintien de la différence raciale dans le
monde, en se positionnant dans le cadre des souverainetés précaires d’Haïti, du Liberia et de
l’Éthiopie dans l‘entre-deux-guerres. Il suggère que les expériences de ces états, comprises par le
biais des discours qui ont visé à la fois à les légitimer et à les discréditer, révèlent le passage d’une
division juridique de l’ordre mondial à une hiérarchie établie en termes de temporalités racialisées.
Bien que la recherche postcoloniale puisse nous aider à comprendre cette évolution, elle n’a pas
suffi à saisir pleinement l’interpénétration de multiples formes de temporalité au service d’un
ordre colonial et racial. Pour les intellectuels et les activistes de l‘entre-deux-guerres dévoués à
la libération panafricaine, le désir d’un nouvel ordre mondial libéré de la stratification racialisée
signifiait un engagement dans les chantiers de la souveraineté noire qui était nécessairement
ambivalent et stratégique dans son approche de la politique du temps.
Corresponding author:
Musab Younis, School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University, Museum Ave, Cardiff, CF10 3AX, Wales, UK.
Email: YounisM@Cardiff.ac.uk
773088MIL0010.1177/0305829818773088Millennium: Journal of International StudiesYounis
research-article2018
Conference Article
Younis 353
1. Egypt joined the League in 1937 after the signing of the Anglo-Egyptian treaty.
2. There are significant literatures on each country, but the only substantive academic accounts
which examine them together in relation to interwar black politics are Aric Putnam, The
Insistent Call: Rhetorical Moments in Black Anticolonialism, 1929–1937 (Amherst: University
Massachusetts Press, 2012); Rodney A. Ross, ‘Black Americans and Haiti, Liberia, the Virgin
Islands, and Ethiopia, 1929-1936’ (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1975). Both are centred
on African American perspectives. In IR, a general neglect of these states is ameliorated by
Mots-clés
race, temps, postcolonial
Resumen
El presente artículo explora el papel que juega el tiempo en el mantenimiento de las diferencias
raciales mundiales en relación con las precarias soberanías de Haití, Liberia y Etiopía durante el
período de entreguerras. Se sugiere que las experiencias de estos estados, entendidas a través
de los discursos que buscaron tanto apoyarlas como debilitarlas, muestran un alejamiento de la
división jurídica en el orden mundial y un acercamiento hacia una jerarquía enmarcada en términos
de temporalidades racializadas. Mientras que los estudios poscoloniales pueden contribuir a
la comprensión de este cambio, aún no se ha esclarecido totalmente la interpenetración de
múltiples formas de temporalidad que favorecen órdenes raciales y coloniales. Según los
especialistas dedicados al periodo de entreguerras y los activistas interesados en la liberación
panafricana, el anhelo de un nuevo orden mundial libre de estratificaciones racializadas significaba
un compromiso con los sitios de soberanía negra que era, necesariamente, ambivalente y
estratégico en su planteamiento de la política del tiempo.
Palabras clave
raza, tiempo, poscolonial
Introduction
Haiti, Liberia and Ethiopia existed precariously, between the world wars, on the edges of
an international order dominated by Europe. The only independent states at the League
of Nations governed by people of African descent,1 each faced an incursion that effec-
tively vitiated its legal sovereignty. Haiti was occupied by the United States from 1915
to 1934. Ethiopia was occupied by Italy from 1936 to 1941. Liberia was placed under
financial receivership, formally investigated by the League and threatened with occupa-
tion between 1929 and 1936. Peripheral to the international society which sought to
extinguish them, they became central to global, and especially pan-African, anticolonial-
ism. Many participants in anticolonial movements across Africa and the Caribbean after
1945 had been deeply affected by a political and theoretical engagement with the inter-
war experiences of these states. The outcomes of interwar political developments in
Haiti, Liberia and Ethiopia were widely seen, by both their supporters and detractors, to
have major ramifications for the colonised world, especially the African continent and
diaspora. It is surprising, then, that comparative studies of these states have been so rare
in modern scholarship.2
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting