In this presentation, Long-Term Fellow Monique Allewaert will discuss the African-born slave-turned-maroon Francois Makandal as well as the mythologies that have swirled around him from the eighteenth century until today, particularly the mythology that he became a fly to avoid capture by colonial authorities. Monique will focus on how this mythology of becoming an insect links up to the practice of fetishism for which he was executed. The main problem she will discuss is how critics can develop modes of reading adequate to interpreting Atlantic fetishes.
Event—Public Programming
Super Fly: Francois Makandal, Atlantic Fetishes, and How We Read
