Black Actors: Eighteenth-Century Cultures and Decolonial Fantasies

Abstract

Black Actors:Eighteenth-Century Cultures and Decolonial Fantasies Patricia Anne Simpson Beyond the scholarly sources found in specialized archives, libraries, and bookshelves (or digitized downloads), streaming services and popular series have piqued widespread interest in a Black presence in eighteenth-century European cultures. A number of binge-worthy shows—among them Shonda Rhimes Bridgerton (2021–22), Tony McNamara's The Great: An Occasionally True Story (season 1) and The Great: An Almost Entirely Untrue Story (season 2), and La cocinera de Castamar—adapted from a novel by Fernando J. Múñez by the same name, feature Black characters whose identities are comprised in unequal parts of historical fact, decolonial fantasies, and professionally progressive color-blind casting practices. Bridgerton imagines a Regency world in which Black royalty and aristocrats coexist with tradespeople and merchants. The presence of Black courtiers in the dark dramedy that unfolds in the Russia of Catherine II (The Great) raised some viewers' eyebrows, but the historical record attests to the partial reality of this "occasionally true story."1 And Múñez's novel follows the path of the protagonist, Clara Belmonte, an agoraphobic cook who catches the eye of a widowed duke in the palace Castamar, as she navigates her affliction and the marriage intrigues that surround the hero. Her character is loosely based on a composite of historical figures—the royal kitchen of Philip V was staffed by men—the person of interest is the duke's adopted brother, Gabriel de Castamar, a formerly enslaved Black man who was educated and elevated into the family. These amalgams of fact and fiction veer into controversies about historical accuracy and the inability of fantasy to right centuries of wrong. Each story indistinctly maps a topography transversed by economic, racial, and cultural politics networking Africa, Europe, and the Americas around 1800. Much is made of Catherine's Germanness, deftly delivered by Elle Fanning, in The Great—in particular, the ability to transfer Enlightenment theory into political practice. Perhaps we can imagine a popularized version of "Frederick—The Great?," but the Forschungsstand offers compelling reading with greater gravitas, for much current German studies scholarship is engaged in the project of decolonizing the long eighteenth century. The Black Lives Matter movements galvanized anti-Black-racist activism, which directly or indirectly has an impact on the work we do: this scholarship itself has a history—Black lives have always mattered.2 Of crucial significance, scholars across disciplines and regions are collaborating to make [End Page 119] hitherto unnoticed or marginalized materials widely available. One sterling example is the website Black Central Europe (https://blackcentraleurope.com/), which argues, "quite simply, that Black people have always been a part of Central European history."3 Literary and cultural studies scholars, among them Wendy Sutherland and Obenewaa Oduro-Opuni, have examined the texts and contexts of dramas and the Sklavenstücke.4 In early December 2021, the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa hosted a symposium devoted to the work of Wilhelm Anton Amo. Professor Josephat Obi Oguejiofor gave the keynote address, arguing for the central importance of Amo's influence on contemporary African philosophy. The unveiling of an Amo memorial plaque in the Department of Philosophy enhanced the solemnity of the proceedings, dedicated to the life and work of the first Black scholar to earn a degree from the University of Halle—Oguejifor noted that it would be more than two centuries before the second. Professor Oguejiofor also honored the legacy of Amo in African philosophy, lamenting that his name has yet to become widely known. Further, he affirmed the hybridity of Amo's life and work as Afro-European and Ghanaian-German and acknowledged the importance of studies by W. E. Abraham and V. Emma-Adamah as well as translations. Presenters from Ghana, Germany, Sweden, Nigeria, France, and the United States shared work on topics that included Amo's theory of impassivity (apatheia), his Tractatus, the theory of knowledge, migration policies, and the rights of Blacks in Europe, among others.5 As Oguejifor stated, "We do not need Amo and his success to tell us that slavery and racism, that these two practices are horrendous. … "It is likely that Kant knew of...