Black History Month — Book Review

“I was born a slave, but nature gave me the soul of a free man.” — Toussaint Louverture

Black Spartacus: A Portrait of Fire and Grace

Have you ever read a book so interesting that instead of looking forward to it finishing, you hoarded it, hoping to delay that ending? Say hello to The Black Spartacus

A man who attempted to outrun the chains of history and dared to redraw the map. Sudhir Hazareesingh bares Toussaint Louverture to us, not as a statue demobilised in place, but as a storm: brilliant, contradictory, and utterly alive. I felt his aura in every location he appeared and had a vivid image of him as I guzzled the book. But again, no spoiler alerts, so let’s tone it down.

“I have undertaken vengeance. I want liberty and equality to reign in Saint-Domingue.” — Toussaint Louverture

Louverture was born enslaved in the land originally known as Ayiti but anglicised to Haiti. By the end of a life cut short by his enslavers, he’d led the only successful slave revolt in modern history, outmanoeuvred European empires, and planted the seeds…