Review Reports

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article examines the circulation of black political thought in the Atlantic world and its dimension of “epistemological rebellion” through Wedderburn's discourse addressing Afro-diasporic audiences.

The author contributes to understanding the multi-layered nature of Wedderburn's rhetoric by making intertextual references through quotations from different texts and traditions.

In the third chapter, the author presents an original and compelling synthesis on the axis of ecology-religion-politics.

The conceptual framework and findings of the article are impressive, but adding a separate methods section to the article would further enhance its scientific rigor in terms of transparency and reproducibility.

The specialized terms used in the article, such as “Afrodiasporic,” “dark sousveillance,” “archival dissensus,” etc., can be defined briefly and clearly for the general readership.

The author has succeeded in establishing continuity between Afro-diasporic ecological knowledge, traditions, and political struggles.

The conclusion section is only one paragraph. Considering the length of the article and the findings, the conclusion could be expanded.

 

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is a highly original article that engages deeply with Robert Wedderburn’s radical legacy, Afrodiasporic epistemologies, and the hermeneutics of Black ecological and spiritual resistance. Theoretically rich, it presents a strong contribution to Black Atlantic studies, radical history, and ecocritical discourse.

While generally clear and extremely well-researched, the article could benefit from some structural revision as well as rewriting to improve clarity.

The abstract could benefit from some rewriting in order to make it more accessible and clarify the argument for a more general academic audience.

Some transitions between the sections would benefit from clearer signposting. Brief introductory sentences could be added at the beginning of each section to help the reader.

The conclusion would benefit from the addition of a paragraph or two where the article’s key contributions to scholarship are emphasised and the implications for future scholarship highlighted.

While the article certainly presents compelling ideas, the central argument could be reiterated more often and more clearly.

Furthermore, the author might want to consider linking more explicitly the literary moments (such as the analysis of Walcott’s poem and Anansi folklore) to the political stakes of Wedderburn’s rhetoric.

Consider simplifying sentence structure especially in key analytical passages in order to improve readability.

Terms like “hermeneutical insurgency,” “viperine metaphysics,” and “mnemonic foliage” could benefit from brief definitions when first introduced.

Integrating some of the more critical insights from footnotes into the main body could also help enhance argumentative flow.

The use of thinkers like Simone Browne, Katherine McKittrick, and Fred Moten is strong. But the author could deepen the engagement by briefly explaining how their concepts (e.g., “dark sousveillance,” “undercommons”) shape their reading practice.

Sometimes, the formatting of quotations, italics, and citations is inconsistent.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The aim of this paper is to recover and examine "the ways Wedderburn worked against the increasingly parochial tide of English nationalism to curate spaces of Black political belonging in the heart of the English radical movement." The paper engages rhetoric in sophisticated ways. It thinks about the announced and actual audiences for Wedderburn's works (and the critical misrepresentations of these audiences). Another major payoff of this piece is a reminder of the diversity of urban and colonial spaces during this period. "Cosmopolitan" should not be a synonym for "white," this piece argues. 

The writing style isn't always straightforward, but it is always vivid. Here is an example: "The question I ponder, then, is if reading Dalton's spy report with attention to the appearance of vipers in different but interrelated Afro-diasporic traditions could heighten our sensitivity to the sorts of distinctively Afro-Caribbean revolutionary perspectives and geographic sensibilities being propogated inside and circulated throughout the radical London metropole of Wedderburn's time?" This question is more straightforward than the writing makes it seem. There is a testifying/speechifying feel to the use of rhetorical questions, and in general to the rhythm of the writing in this piece. Page 5 offers an especially exuberant (and slightly exhausting?) example. 

The paper is well sourced, with rich footnotes. It will introduce scholars to a somewhat overlooked source and to new ways of reading that source. 

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf