A rediscovered classic, and the only known novel by Black abolitionist and political exile Louis Timagène Houat, The Maroons is a fervid account of slavery and escape on nineteenth-century Réunion Island.
Frême is a young Black man forced into slavery on Réunion, an island east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Plagued by the memory of his childhood sweetheart, a white woman named Marie, Frême seeks her out¿but when love makes them outlaws, the two paramours flee into the forest. There they meet the maroons: enslaved people and resistance fighters who have chosen freedom at the risk of their lives.
Now available in English for the first time, The Maroons highlights slavery¿s abject conditions under the French empire, and attests to the widespread phenomenon of enslaved people escaping captivity to forge a new life beyond the reach of so-called ¿civilization.¿ Banned by colonial authorities at the time of its publication in 1844, the book fell into obscurity for over a century before its rediscovery in the 1970s. Since its reissue, the novel has been recognized for its extraordinary historical significance and literary quality.
Presented here in a sensitive translation by the young star of Mauritian literature Aqiil Gopee, and with a keen introduction by journalist and author Shenaz Patel, The Maroons is a vital resource for rethinking the nineteenth-century canon, and a fascinating read on the struggle for freedom and social justice.