A flurry of publications appeared in the early 2000s to commemorate the bicentennial of Alexander von Humboldt's visit to Cuba and other parts of the Americas. The original book took decades to appear in French and even longer to appear in English. Confederates in the United States even translated parts of the book and conveniently eliminated a key chapter that condemned the use of slavery in Cuba. All of these points are well documented in the literature, which begs the question: Do we need another translation and critical assessment with copious notes? The short answer is, well, yes.
Editors Kutzinski and Ette have translated the two-volume French version of Political Essays on the Island of Cuba in an attempt to bring a greater veracity to Humboldt's worldview, scientific rigor, and deeply held notions of humanism.
Because I have no reading or writing abilities in either French or German, I am unable to opine over the veracity of this newer translation. The editors make it plain in the twenty-six pages of the new introduction to the work, however, that their scope is to revisit key points and rethink some important translations that might have been less than accurate. This new approach to Humboldtian writings makes a cogent argument about why Simón Bolívar called the Prussian scholar the “second discoverer of Cuba,” and why the Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortíz declared him a “bold inventor” of Cuba. The alertness in Humboldt's opus americanus, according to editors, merits a rethinking of this interdisciplinary tome. In terms of translation, the editors argue that:
Because Humboldt's preferred mode of writing is impersonal, something to which French lends itself much more readily than does English, even the figure of the travelers, which is the centerpiece of typical travelogues, gradually fades away, leaving behind little more than a scanty trail of personal pronouns. (xvii)
The editors add background notes to the work as if one were reading the play notes in a program given to theatergoers. Much of it is fascinating. We learn that Humboldt and his traveling companion Bonpland stopped in the Canary Islands, which was the “first non-European island that Humboldt had ever visited” (xix). The setting serves as a sort of trial run for the authors to begin describing the dimensions that would structure their observations in Cuba: geology, geography, botany, anthropology, economics, and more. Had there not been an outbreak of “fever” on their ship, they would not then have been diverted to Venezuela but, instead, would have proceeded directly to Cuba. This South American diversion sets the stage for writings on “equinoctial regions” which would be the topic of another book. The editors argue, however, that Humboldt's “distinctive narrative voice” that consists of “unorthodox, fragmented travelogues as are his metaphoric combinations of natural and cultural imagery” had become “obscured, either unwittingly or deliberately, in earlier English translations of his writing” (viii).
Kutzinksi and Ette wish to provide rich context for the events that shaped Humboldt's life and his view of the world. The American, French, and Haitian revolutions had paramount influence on his disdain for slavery and autocratic rule, as did the unraveling of Spanish rule in the Americas when he sat down to write his Cuban travels in 1807. Had the young Humboldt not been so critical of the British Empire, it is possible that he would not have embarked on a tour of the Americas. And while writers such as Raynal, de Paw, and Buffon highlighted the decay of the Americas, Humboldt's rich description of color, light, and sounds in the natural landscapes of the Americas provided a counterbalance to such a dismal view of the New World.
Scholars engaged with this topic and the revisiting of critical translations will find numbers in the outer margins of this book that refer back to the original edition of Essai politique sur l'île de Cuba (1826). The authors of this work use square brackets to note their own editions and corrections. Ever faithful to the Prussian's writing style, this book preserves his “capricious use of capitalization and italics” while not correcting the few math errors found in some tables. Two wonderful foldout maps that Humboldt drew of Cuba grace this volume, and additional materials (beyond the copious notes) can found on the publisher's website (http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/humboldt) should scholars desire more information.
When I first read Political Essay on the Island of Cuba over a decade ago, I must admit that the writing was more turgid than this volume shows. The cross-referencing, subject and toponym indexes, editorial remarks, and copious notes provide a robust set of tools to understand one of the more seminal pieces in the study of the Americas. This new version adds value to scholarship in serious and deep ways.