Marronnons / Let’s Maroon: Sylvia Wynter’s “Black Metamorphosis” as a Species of Maroonage

This essay reads Sylvia Wynter’s “Black Metamorphosis” as a text that both examines and embodies maroonage, significantly, in various ways and on various levels. It takes off from Aimé Césaire’s underacknowledged imperative, “Marronnons-nous,” recognizing and demonstrating the import of Césaire’s work for Wynter’s own work over time. The argument is that “Black Metamorphosis” makes a contribution to the study of maroonage narrowly construed, while also transcending the ironically narrow conception of maroonage as a bound empirical reference. The manuscript speaks of “species of maroonage” and represents one such species itself as an epic political project of African/diasporic resistance anchored all across the Americas.