Deborah A Thomas

“The Ocean’s Restless Spleen” based on a decade-long conversation between anthropologists of/in Jamaica and South Africa, is designed to link two anthropology classrooms on either side of the Atlantic to bring lesser-known middle passage histories and writing into view to think more complexly about diasporic movement, dispossession, and repair. Cape Town’s history as the center of slavery in South Africa, a port city and hub of the Dutch East India Company, recalls Kingston’s harbor and Jamaica’s position as the center of the slave trade within the British Caribbean. The contemporary dilemmas of Cape Town and Kingston overlap, linked by forms of world-building in and beyond 19th century British imperial circuits. One nodal point that connects these spaces is St. Helena island, historically a holding ground for Africans whose conscription and travel to the new world was intercepted by British ships between 1807 and 1834. There, we will convene with members of the St. Helena Heritage Trust, learning about their Liberated African Establishment and their efforts to develop a trans-Atlantic slave memorial. While there, we will also organize a Kumina ritual, enacting a different kind of return, and perhaps repair.