Any attempt to trace the history and evolution of Afro-diasporic music is a complex undertaking. This complexity is evident in the multi-pronged content presented in Njoroge Njoroge's book Chocolate Surrealism. Njoroge takes a multi-disciplinary approach by foregrounding historical context while also referencing the musicological concept of polyrhythm and the folk cultural notion of rootwork in order to examine the importance of Afro-diasporic music to the development of the modern world. He asserts that "the history of black music in diaspora chronicles the 'great transformation' of modernity, and registers the development of capitalism as a world system" as well as the "development and underdevelopment of Caribbean societies in late capitalism" (10). He argues that it is important to connect "the issues of historical materialism directly to culture, ideology, and the practices of everyday social life" (11). Njoroge's goal is to explore and to trace the connected patterns and contexts of Afro-diasporic musical expression in the circum-Caribbean and to further underscore the historical commodification of black music.
The book is divided into four chapters, each addressing specific historical moments in the circum-Caribbean and the ways in which black music expresses and reflects the particularities of these historical moments. Chapter 1 outlines the development of kaiso, a form of Afro-Caribbean music originating in Trinidad that later evolved into calypso music. Njoroge describes calypso's gradual transformation from subversive, underclass forms of expression to more commercialized and domesticated songs suitable for overseas consumption and, finally, to a national music. Chapter 2 discusses how the slave trade and European colonialism in Cuba led to the development of Afro-Cuban music and dance genres such as the rumba and son, both of which have had lasting influence on music worldwide. In particular, this chapter focuses on the clave rhythmic pattern which originated in African musical traditions and which is a key pattern found in various forms of Afro-diasporic music. Much like calypso music, Afro-Cuban music developed from folk expression into more commercially popular music and eventually into national music. Chapter 3 looks at black liberation politics worldwide and the development of black music during the period 1955-1965. Njoroge notes that "the slackening pace of civil rights reform at home and foreign policy failures and misadventures abroad coincided with the spread of anticolonial struggles in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and marked a decisive shift in black liberation politics" (74). Njoroge demonstrates how this shift is reflected in the music. Finally, chapter 4 examines the birth of salsa during the late 1960s in New York City as a vehicle of countercultural expression. As in chapter 2, here Njoroge discusses the clave rhythmic pattern that features in Afro-diasporic music.
While Njoroge takes great pains at the end of each chapter to make the connections among chapters clear, I think the most cohesive and certainly the most interesting description of the connections among the chapters comes in the form of a paragraph that discusses what the author calls the "specter of Haiti." In this paragraph, the author plots meaningful points in history beginning with the Haitian revolution and describes how subsequent events in the New World are all related. The author notes, for instance, how the traditions of the French planters and their Haitian slaves later developed into kaiso in Trinidad, and that Cuba and Louisiana both saw an influx of planters and slaves after the Haitian revolution. In this same paragraph, the author also highlights how, in the post-World War II period, music like early blues and jazz, calypso from Trinidad, and the Cuban rumba, which developed in the aftermath the revolution, were reinvented and, finally, how salsa benefited from Afro-Cuban musical influence.
This book reflects many familiar concepts concerning the historical contexts and sociocultural experiences that ultimately shaped Afro-diasporic music, and can be a useful tool for those interested in examining interconnectedness in the development and evolution of Afro-diasporic music in the circum-Caribbean.
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[Review length: 643 words • Review posted on March 1, 2018]