James Cantres

“Going Home” follows Trinidadian Michael de Freitas (1933-1975), who left the Caribbean and made a name for himself as a London hustler and nationally-known Black Power spokesman only to return to his homeland under dubious circumstances to explore how by Black people engaged the chaos and instability of decolonization in unprecedented ways. Radicals—extralegal coteries, labor activists, Black Power syndicates, and the radical professoriate—endeavored to create Black worlds (autonomous spaces organized according to principles and motivations, whether progressive, revolutionary, communitarian, or criminal) originating from and controlled by Black people. This research illuminates how de Freitas and fellow non-belongers across the decolonizing African Atlantic, many returnees, created belongings in their own Black worlds.