Illegible Will: Coercive Spectacles of Labor in South Africa and the Diaspora.

• Author: Nti, Kwaku
• Position: AFRICA - Book review

Young, Hershini Bhana. Illegible Will: Coercive Spectacles of Labor in South Africa and the Diaspora. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2017.

Illegible Will is of epistemological significance in the areas of African studies, African history, and African diaspora studies. It expands upon the methods, scope, and modes of interpretation across these fields. The text is mainly developed through telling the narratives of Saartjie (Sarah) Baartman, Tryntjie, Joice Heth, and victims of land mines in Angola. It also draws upon literary works about the experiences of many other vulnerable women caught up in very wide networks of bondage, suffering, and abuses. Youngs book is awash in theoretical approaches that border on radical interpretations that question the elevation, or privileging, of archival documents that undoubtedly are oblivious to the manifold shades, forms, and nuances of the human experience.

Archival sources are so deficient with regard to black people and other disadvantaged groups that Young argues for the consideration of mundane performances, gestures, postures, movements, and actions as alternative sources. These provide a varied...