Like the mythic lost nation chronicled in the title and opening
chapter, this book offers much in the way of promise. It, after all,
was writ ten by one of the foremost critical legal scholars and
academic activists of this era, New York-cum-Harvard University’s
Derrick Bell.
Yet, in much the same way that the nirvanic island “Afrolantica”
eludes the African American expatriates who pursue it, Afrolantica
Legacies sinks heavily, anchored by the weight of heavy dogma. After a
few intriguing segments, the book plunges headlong into the depths of
an all-too-familiar diatribe — ebbing and falling not on its intent,
which is admirable, but on its tendency to rehash.
Although Afrolantica Legacies is classic Derrick Bell, it is not
until the very end of the book — indeed, in the “Acknowledgments”
following the endnotes and index — that readers realize the
not-so-awful truth: this book is not a new birth; rather, it is a
rebirthing. Bell reverberates foundational progressive doctrines to the
point (almost) of ennui. The book thus emerges not as a phoenix-like
revelation, but as a vulturization of previously presented themes and
theories.
There is still much to be heralded here, but perhaps only by novice
readers. For more knowledgeable readers, little is novel about
Afrolantica Legacies despite Bell’s frequent attempts to mix fiction
with fact and the real with the surreal. The result is a strange
oil-and-vinegar blend of quasi- and authentic legal and social
criticism that is often less than profound or valuable to those who
already “get it.”
This book is lost on those who are already aware of the phenomenal
losses Bell describes that have accompanied the equally phenomenal
gains African Americans and other people of color have made since the
1950s. It is lost as well on those who, like Bell, steadfastly-maintain
and do not need a degree in rocket science to conclude that racism may
well be a permanent part of the American scene. In short, nothing is
new under the sun in Afrolantica.
Readers are reintroduced to Geneva Crenshaw, Bell’s Black
feminist/womanist alter ego, whose superhuman powers of intuition and
intellect include (wow!) the ability to put words in the mouth of an
American president (whose name I won’t reveal but whose initials are
“Bill Clinton”).
He also recapitulates yet another — and because of that, perhaps
less than provocative — parable of race relations featuring the
colored, domineering inhabitants of the Citadel and their ivory-hued
Lowlander serfs. This conflict originated in Bell’s 1994 Confronting
Authority: Reflections of an Ardent Protestor.
