Super Fly: François Makandal’s colonial semiotics

Abstract

In this article I collate vernacular and elite academic stories about François Makandal, focusing particularly on his production of fetishes, which I (following his usage) call macandal. I show that the codes at work in macandal artifacts involve a materialism and semiotics that together constitute a critical methodology. I then use the methodology at work in macandal artifacts to read one key piece of the archive pertaining to Makandal: his judge and executioner Sébastien-Jacques Courtin’s Mémoire.