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In the Alternate History of "Blonde Roots," Africans Enslave Europeans

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SwetaKeppler
01/06/09

In reply to In the Alternate History of "Blonde Roots," Africans Enslave Europeans
I guess I must be the only person who remembers this film starring John Travolta and Harry Belafonte:

White Man's Burden (1995) More at IMDbPro »

The story takes place in alternative America where the blacks are members of social elite, and whites are inhabitants of inner city ghettos. Louis Pinnock is a white worker in a chocolate factory, loving husband and father of two children. While delivering a package for black CEO Thaddeus Thomas, he is mistaken for a voyeur and, as a result, loses his job, gets beaten by black cops and his family gets evicted from their home. Desperate Pinnock takes a gun and kidnaps Thomas, demanding justice. Written by Dragan Antulov {dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr}
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Grey_Area
01/06/09

@SwetaKeppler: to the both of you actually (heh).

I was thinking about that when I read this post, heard about that film but have never seen it, ANYWHERE. I was starting to think it was a hallucination of mine. Is it really crappy or just to controversial? Maybe SeaOrg blocked it's release?
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Alexis
01/06/09

@SwetaKeppler:

It came out and got shitty reviews or being heavy handed.

It was and Travolta sucks as an actor.
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Grey_Area
01/06/09

@Evlsushi: Well, duh.
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capnrob
01/06/09

In reply to In the Alternate History of "Blonde Roots," Africans Enslave Europeans
Waldrop does a story on this very subject, too; I'm not a fan of "Ike at the Mike", compared to some of his others, but "The Lions Are Asleep This Night" does more in three, four thousand words than most authors do in a career.

That said, the man has gotten more obscure as time passes; I'm still trying to parse some of the stories in _Going Home Again_, I admit, but anybody who can write "Save A Place In The Lifeboat For Me" deserves a few headscratchers, too.
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Grey_Area
01/06/09

@capnrob: Dang, I have got to get those recent collections of his work. I loved "Ike at the Mike" but if that's him at his weakest I really have to catch up with his "A"game. Thanks.
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capnrob
01/06/09

@Grey_Area: The stories that you can find in the same collection as "Ike at the Mike" are some of his A game; every collection has some winners, every one has some head-scratchers. "Strange Monsters from the Recent Past" from the collection of the same name, "Man-Mountain Genitan" and "Save A Place In The Lifeboat For Me" from _Howard Who?_ ... um ... "Night of the Cooters", "Fin de Cycle" and "Passing of the Western" from _Night of the Cooters_ ...

None of them are 100% winners; all have stories that are. If you're gonna hunt one of his collections down, make sure to find the edition of _Night of the Cooters_ *with* "A Dozen Tough Jobs." It's ... slight ... I suppose, in some respects, but in others, it's an amazing story, and one that I would cheerfully kill to film. (It's a story about this guy, see, who killed his family, and had to do a Dozen Tough Jobs to make up for it. You might think that sounds familiar, but *this* one is set in a Waldropian 1920's Mississippian valley. A hoot, and a comfort story that I return to again and again - it's kind of like _Bridge of Birds_ in that respect.)

I have to say, as long as I'm recommending his work; _Them Bones_ ain't worth it. Be warned. Just got it, kind of regretting it.
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Grey_Area
01/06/09

@capnrob: Thanks for the intel, Capn'! I just may pick up the recently released Waldrop collections from Old Earth Books. When you mention _Bridge of Birds_ you aren't referring to the the fantasy novel by Barry Hughart are you? Powerful fond of that my ownself but not getting the 1920's Mississippi thing. Maybe you are just mean the "comfort story" aspect of them both. Sweet.
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Grey_Area
01/06/09

In reply to In the Alternate History of "Blonde Roots," Africans Enslave Europeans
Huge fan of Alternative History here, why? Oh, I dunno, "what if there was a reality where I wasn't such a useless dork" comes to mind, but I digress constantly.

The synopsis of this novel seems intriguing but I must agree with Annalee that without even a cursory explanation of how Africans could have gotten the upper hand this all dissolves into farce.

I would urge interested readers to hunt down Robert Silverberg's beautifully written short story "Lion Time in Timbuctoo". It has a 20th Century CE dominated by Muslim Turks, Africans, Incas, Aztecs, and various Asian powers due to the Black Plague killing three-quarters of the European population rather than the 1/4 or 1/3 that died in reality.

Greater Timbuktoo during the 14th and 16th Centuries CE was an very sophisticated culture with some kickass metallurgy that attracted trade and savants from all over the nascent Islamic world while Europe was stuck in a plague-ridden feudal Hell. I mean c'mon, during the Dark Ages the best they came up with was the windmill and a really cool new horse collar. Okay, there was Francis Bacon, John Jay and a coupla other sharp cats. The Renaissance could have gone a completely different way by a few missed shipments or different whispers in various courtly ears.

Anyone interested in Silverberg's "Lion Time in Timbuctoo" can find it and other wonderful Alternative History stories in Martin Greenburg's The Way It Wasn't: Great Science Fiction Stories of Alternative History 1996, Citadel Twilight (screw Amazon, go to abebooks.com). Out of print I'm sure, but really worth worth hunting down. It has several wonderful stories from such greats as Howard Waldrop's "Ike at the Mike", Fritz Leiber, Gregor Benford, Pamela Sargent, and Barry M. Malzberg. Also included is "The Winterberry" by Nicholas A. Dichardo about a reality where JFK survived that horrible day in Dallas. If you can read that without shedding a tear check yourself into the nearest mausoleum; 'cuz sibling, you have no soul. Just lay down and stop breathing.

By the bye, that Silverberg story is also available in Tor Books Beyond the Gates of the Worlds 1991.
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DaynaRT
01/06/09

@Grey_Area: "screw Amazon, go to abebooks.com"

Amazon owns AbeBooks.
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crashedpc - Haifisch
01/06/09

@Grey_Area: If it takes that much typing to make a featured comment, I better get my finger weights ready.
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Grey_Area
01/06/09

@DaynaRT: Oh crap. Really? I thought I was supporting independent booksellers. Stoopid me.
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Grey_Area
01/06/09

@crashedpc: Compared to the recent Moff vs Whatispickle debate? [io9.com] is way more smartified thanI. Yo, he's met Marshall McLuhan!
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corpore-metal
01/06/09

@Grey_Area: Speaking to your points (As opposed to just metacommenting on the new "featured comment" function.), I think to portray a convincing allohistory wher non-Eurasian powers rise global dominance first an author doesn't merely have to figure out ways to thwart or remove Eurasian technological development, one also has to direct address the hurdles that slow technological development in other cultures.

That's why I thought Guns, Germs and Steel was so interesting and useful. It's one of the first books I've read that laid out exhaustively what those disadvantages and advantages are and why they matter. I think GGS should be required reading for any alternate history author that wants to go in the direct you state.
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Grey_Area
01/07/09

@corpore-metal: I will definitely be looking up Guns, Germs and Steel. Thanks.
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elysdir
01/07/09

@Grey_Area: "Lion Time in Timbuctoo" is one of my favorite alternate history stories. Though I confess that that's partly for an extratextual reason: it may have been the first AH story I ever saw that didn't include the annoying obligatory two or three paragraphs of explanation of the Many Worlds Interpretation and exposition revealing what the point of historical change was.
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Grey_Area
01/07/09

@elysdir: So true. The expository infodump is a hallmark of lazy writing. It is very challenging to reveal all the changes and world-building through ordinary dialouge and scene setting but I think most readers find it much more rewarding.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
01/07/09

@Grey_Area: "The Winterberry"! That's the title. Oh, man, it is wonderous and heartbreaking and so human.

I will not congratulate you till you've read "Guns, Germs, and Steel". Bad boy, no glowy rock.
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Grey_Area
01/07/09

@Evil Tortie's Mom: Right on it, milady. Until then I will be content with regular rocks, I already have tons of string.

Anyhoo, Speaking of Allohistory novels, any of you folks read by S.M. Stirling? It has a bit too much Military SF Gung-Ho White Man's Burden than I'm usually comfortable with but I still quite enjoyed it. Ripping good yarn.
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Nebris
01/08/09

@Grey_Area: I just ordered The Way It Wasn't from my local library. I'm a great consumer of Alt-History, from Bring the Jubilee to work of the prolific Prof. Turtledove and the wonderfully unhinged SM Stirling.

I'm actually trying my hand at process right now, and, being a anal obsessive, I'm earlobe deep in research and so on, things like renaming 'diesel' and 'volts' because, while such items exist, there are invented or discovered by other individuals.

It is both crazy making and great fun.
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Grey_Area
01/09/09

@Nebris: Good luck. I have ideas of an allohistory myself but am SOO LAZY about hitting the books for the research.

Good call on renaming stuff but look out, you could end up needing a huge glossary for all the "new" term. All so you'll kick yourself when you left in a word like "hooker".
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aixelsyd
01/06/09

In reply to In the Alternate History of "Blonde Roots," Africans Enslave Europeans
I recall reading Doomsday book by Connie Willis, transpiring during the plague years and it motivated me to research the real events, and boy were those mortuary statistics scary- 99% death rate in many villages...
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Grey_Area
01/06/09

@aixelsyd: Some isolated places in Scotland and the Alps were totally untouched. But yes, it was horrifying. Survivors would flee to the next village thinking themselves spared by God to find refuge amongst the charitable. The next day the horrid black swellings would appear on the armpits and groin and the fatal cycle would continue.
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JennaW
01/06/09

@aixelsyd: That is one of the most fantastic books, ever. I love the "modern" sections of the book even more, and her description of the woods during the medieval parts still makes me shiver.

I love the details that she didn't see coming around the bend in the real future that would have changed the story completely if she'd known (the prevalence and ease of cellphones, the ubiquity of the internet).
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corpore-metal
01/06/09

In reply to In the Alternate History of "Blonde Roots," Africans Enslave Europeans
As social commentary and satire it might be compelling but as allohistory it needs work.

I'd argue that plague in the Middle Ages are insufficient to change the course of history that powerfully. Let's not forget how bad these epidemics were. They killed over a third of Europe's population and still this wasn't enough to stem the tide.

I think to have an African dominated global civilization we'd have to change history much earlier and then reverse events several times again later on. I think the inflection point would actually be the defeat of Twenty-Fifth Egyptian Dynasty at the Battle of Sile by the Assyrians.

This is a period I've done a little research on and I think it's an interesting starting point for an allohistory that avoids the usual cliches.
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Annalee Newitz
01/06/09

@corpore-metal: Honestly, I would have been satisfied if she'd just made the claim that Africans developed gunpowder and rifles long before Europeans had them. That might have been enough to turn the tides of history.
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Grey_Area
01/06/09

@Annalee Newitz: Hmmm... Zheng He of the Ming Dynasty took the the famous Star Raft fleet to visit Eastern Africa around 1420 CE. They did a lot of trade and diplomacy but I suppose gunpowder would be a state secret. No wait, I'm cornfused. I'm pretty sure Arab traders must have already brought rifles to the region before that.

Anyone?
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corpore-metal
01/06/09

@Annalee Newitz: Africa is really weird place climatologically, biologically and geologically. You only have to look at the river Niger, a river that almost folds back on itself, to realize that.

Because of this, there are several major hurdles ambitious African civilizations have to overcome before cranking out guns and ocean going sailing vessels.

1) In the moist, insect rich tropical middle of the continent it's hard to maintain paper documents and wooden housing without constant effort or modern technology.

2) A huge portion of West Africa lacks decent stone for monument building. This is one of the reasons why the Great Mosque at Djenne, Mali is composed of adobe and has to be extensively repaired every year.

3) The Tse-tse fly prevents the spread of calvary composed of either camels or horses from north Africa to central or south Africa. This puts a real crimp in using animal labor for farming as well.

4) Iron age technology spread remarkably quickly through all of Africa after 500 BCE. This revolutionized warfare, farming and tool use but, despite this, the great heat of central Africa forbade the use any type of heavy body armor.

5) Despite being a biological treasure house, only a small number of Africa's plants and animals are suitable for domestication.

I could go on but this was mostly covered in Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel.

Despite all this, I think it might be remotely possible for us to engage in allohistorical daydreaming and imagine a world in which Africa nations to global dominance before Eurasian ones but we have to think of plausible ways to get around all these hurdles before writing a decent story about it.
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Grey_Area
01/06/09

@corpore-metal: Whoosh, excellent points. At best I could concede an alternative history (Allohistory? Handy word, I may adopt that) with an Africa holding it's own against colonization with support, not dominance from the Islamic world. As a colonial power, no. Not without zombie cyborg were-hyenas.

What? It's still io9.
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tamoko
01/07/09

@corpore-metal: Corpore, your the man. It's threads like this that get my neurons firing!
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delRock
01/06/09

In reply to In the Alternate History of "Blonde Roots," Africans Enslave Europeans
Only a bit tasteless... White people were being enslaved by Vikings and Turks for hundreds of years. The word slave comes from Slav (white people, blond even).

Its also pretty much saying if Africans took over Europe they'd bring slavery into modern society. (slaves+starbucks) Kinda racist.

Other wise Doris' adventures sound entertaining.
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phoenix
01/06/09

@delRock: Agreed, wholeheartedly.

That being said, I heard a review of this on NPR last night and thought the premise of the book interesting in its own way, but not enough to really warrant picking up.

I suppose I'm really not a big "alternate history" kind of guy, I usually find the "alternates" that attract many of these novelists tend to the sensational and irritatingly short-sighted, imho.
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Alexis
01/06/09

@phoenix:

"I suppose I'm really not a big "alternate history" kind of guy, I usually find the "alternates" that attract many of these novelists tend to the sensational and irritatingly short-sighted, imho."

Agreed. My first thoughts on this was "sounds like a novel that's just itching to be controversial."

Coming from a black person, the whole white people trying to be black thing sounds cartoon-y (or satirical) at best. Like the author is trying to make a really deep point through really obvious means. "In this world white people WANT nappy hair!" SHOCKING!
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tetracycloide
01/06/09

@delRock: there's a subtle but important difference between imagining 'what would have happened if africains took over europe and brought slavery into the modern era?' and stating 'africans, had they took over europoe, would have brought slavery into the modern era.'
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The Curse of Millhaven
01/06/09

In reply to In the Alternate History of "Blonde Roots," Africans Enslave Europeans
Sadly, if she had actually included realistic elements that explained the development of Africa as the first world power rather than Europe, she would probably have been ghettoized for producing a science-fiction novel rather than a work of literature.
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Annalee Newitz
01/06/09

@The Lord Humungus: That's possible, though the counter-example would be Michael Chabon's recent alternative history The Yiddish Policeman's Union, which has definitely been hailed as literary - and which is also rich in plausible historical details.
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ShamelessSingingRennie
01/06/09

In reply to In the Alternate History of "Blonde Roots," Africans Enslave Europeans
Has anyone read Lion's Blood by Steven Barnes? It's another alternate history novel, though the main story stays in the 19th century.
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writermind
01/06/09

@ShamelessSingingRennie:

I've read it and very much enjoyed it to boot! It's interesting because as I read the review of "Blonde Roots", Lion's Blood immediately came to mind.

I'm somewhat curious to see where Evaristo takes this, but for my money few have done a better job of re-telling this particular segment of history than Stephen Barnes.

Glad to see at least a few people on this site are aware of his work.

If you haven't checked out "Lion's Blood", I highly recommend it!
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LisRiba
01/06/09

Lion's Blood immediately came to mind.

Me too, just from the above-the-fold description.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
01/06/09

@LisRiba: Me as well. Just from the headline, and then when I read the review... I'd recommend "Lion's Blood" (and the sequel, which I forget the title of) instead of this.

This sounds hacky and tasteless, whereas Barnes' work is graceful and lovely.
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