Pearl diving without guarantees: heresy and salvage work in the black Atlantic

<p dir="ltr">This essay examines the complex relationship between black radicalism and Marxism as it developed on two sides of the black Atlantic in late 20^th century. Through a staged conversation between Stuart Hall and Cedric Robinson, it considers how black intellectuals sought to rethink Marxist theories of history, dialectics, and revolution. While there exists a tension between the drive towards salvage work (Hall) and heresy (Robinson), what emerges from this black transatlantic encounter is a form of “pearl diving” in which there are no guarantees other than the promise of liberation.</p>