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- Convenors:
-
Daniela Waldburger
(University of Vienna)
Iain Walker (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Imagining ‘Africanness’
- Location:
- S65 (RW I)
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 1 October, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
This panel considers Africanness, identity and belonging in the islands of the Indian Ocean, whose populations were constituted by migrants from Asia and Europe as well as from Africa, and where Africanness is often regarded with ambivalence.
Long Abstract:
Africanness comes in many forms. In many respects the islands of the African periphery “belong” to Africa: Zanzibar is part of Tanzania while others, from Seychelles to Madagascar, belong to the African Union. However, islanders trace their heritage not only to Africa, but to Europe and Asia too; and despite an apparent cosmopolitanism, African heritage is often viewed with ambivalence since many Africans arrived in the islands enslaved and thus of low status. Nevertheless, in Mauritius and Réunion African origins are increasingly valorised as the trauma of slavery is confronted, processes of reconciliation are engaged and African culture celebrated. In Madagascar and the Comoros, however, invocations of slave origins are frequently silenced, even as they continue to be relevant in structuring social relations, and local hierarchies remain resilient.
This panel calls for contributions from a variety of disciplines – anthropology, history, linguistics, literary studies – that consider questions of identity and of (non)belonging in the African periphery, interrogating expressions and discourses of Africanness – and non-Africanness. How are African origins expressed or concealed, valorised or denigrated, publicly or privately? How do African origins construct and shape, explicitly or implicitly, social structures, cultural practices and political positionings? How are African identities articulated in dialogue with European, Arab or South Asian identities in islands where all are ultimately of immigrant origin? What sorts of interactions play out between the periphery and the continent, socially, culturally and politically, and how do continental Africans view their islander neighbours?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 1 October, 2024, -Paper short abstract:
This paper looks into the complex identities of members of African community living in Soqotra by analyzing the manifestations in their speech of Heritage African language, as well as multimodal identity markers, paying a specific attention at the pointing gesture.
Paper long abstract:
This focuses on the linguistic identities of the African diaspora in the Indian Ocean, specifically by focusing on people of African ancestry inhabiting the island of Soqotra, the largest of the four in the homonymous Archipelago. The territory is located 380 kilometers south of the Arabian Peninsula near major shipping routes and is politically part of the Republic of Yemen. This case-study is of specific interest because it focuses on a complex case of linguistic identities of an ethnic minority (African Soqotris) within another ethnic minority (Soqotris), while at the same time contributing to existing and emerging literature on the diverse ethnic minorities inhabiting the Arab world. To shed light on this understudied topic, I will first outline the sociolinguistic situation on the island of Soqotra and the history of African diasporas in the Indian Ocean region. I will then present the data collected during fieldwork conducted in Soqotra (April 2019), and offer my analysis based on mixed-methods (multimodal & sociolinguistics). In particular, I will pay specific attention to manifestations of the Heritage African Language (Gintsburg & Esposito 2022) and the multimodal identity markers confirming African origin, first and foremost, the pointing gesture (Gintsburg & Esposito 2022).
Paper short abstract:
Starting from ethnographic research conducted in the Comoros on the contemporary challenges of coastal zone conservation, in this paper I propose to retrace the identitarian tension of its inhabitants related to the sense of Africanness and its imaginaries.
Paper long abstract:
Starting from ethnographic research conducted in the Comoros on the contemporary challenges of coastal zone conservation, in this paper I propose to retrace the identitarian tension of its inhabitants related to the sense of Africanness and its imaginaries. Blue economy policies, which are increasingly present in the Indian Ocean and are manifesting in the Comorian archipelago through the establishment and governance of marine protected areas, intersect and collide with the life trajectories of islands communities. This new oceanic interest impacts the dual peripheral status of the archipelago, both in relation to the african continent and the island centers in the Western Indian Ocean. The attraction force exerted by the african continent has a concrete impact on the aspirations and future orientations of Comorians, as opposed to the unfulfilled expectations offered by their “cousin island” of Mayotte. In the controversial relationship with France and French culture, the institutional opportunities of being part of the African Union seem to be diluted in everyday discourse, awakening a sense of Africanness understood as an occasion to definitively emancipate oneself from a game of dependency with France. This tactically recalls the historical ties with the continent, as well as the constant interplay of stereotypes in which the expression “ici c'est l’Afrique” indicates both the essence of a quiet life, but also the daily difficulties in moving forward. In the flux of the Western Indian Ocean, the rhythmic movements of exchange between center and peripheris shapes unseen ways of thinking Africanness, propelled from its margins.
Paper short abstract:
The history of Mossuril is a mosaic of events that, over the centuries, have shaped the identity and culture of that coastal community. Among several events, slavery continues to profoundly influence the life and cultural expression of the people of Mossuril.
Paper long abstract:
The history of Mossuril is a mosaic of events that, over the centuries, have shaped the identity and culture of that coastal community. Among several events, slavery continues to profoundly influence the life and cultural expression of the people of Mossuril. This research seeks to uncover and understand the representations of slavery in the art and culture of this community, exploring the ways in which these artistic expressions are intertwined with the preservation of historical memory and the construction of local identity.
Slavery as an institution left scars that endure in collective narratives, cultural artifacts and traditions passed down through the generations. Mossuril, like many other communities, carries with it not only the painful legacy of slavery, but also the richness of its own cultural responses to that legacy. Without taking for granted the role of the Slavery, this paper relies on literature review, oral accounts and archival research to analyze the contribution of the Indian Ocean routes to the art and culture roles in this intergenerational dialog, providing not only artistic expression, but also a means of transmitting the complexity of past experience.
In this context, this research aims to uncover the multiple layers that make up representations of slavery in Mossuril by exploring paintings, sculptures, music, dance and other cultural manifestations. This analysis will also pay attention to contemporary representations, recognizing the evolving dynamics of cultural dialogue.
Keywords: Indian Ocean; Representations of Slavery, African Identities.