Insularchives: Connecting Afro-Asia Islanders’ Distant Cultural Heritages

Panel Convenor(s)

• AR

  Annachiara Raia

  African Studies Centre, Leiden University, Netherlands
• BA

  Ben Arps

  Leiden University, Netherlands

Panel Chair(s)

• BA

  Ben Arps

  Leiden University, Netherlands

Panel Discussant(s)

• FT

  Farouk Topan

  Aga Khan University, United Kingdom

Presenter(s)

• AR

  Annachiara Raia

  African Studies Centre, Leiden University, Netherlands
• BA

  Ben Arps

  Leiden University, Netherlands
• CV

  Clarissa Vierke

  The University of Bayreuth, Germany
• SN

  Silvia Neposteri

  Universita degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientale, Italy
• VM

  Verena Meyer

  Leiden University, Netherlands

Insularchives: connecting Afro-Asia islanders’ distant cultural heritages

The history and cultural vibes of African and Asian cosmopolitan port cities like Dakar, Lagos, Tanger, Mogadishu, Mombasa and Mumbai, Singapore, Shanghai are common knowledge. What happens in the insular peripheries off Atlantic and Indian Ocean shores is not.

Islands are by definition isolated from the continental land masses, be it Africa or Asia. In the past, exile and imprisonment was typically to islands, while with today’s ease of communication, some come to be seen as sites of “paradises lost”. An interesting research idea we will explore in the present panel is that islands seem to connect more easily over sea with neighbouring communities. We propose to study Indian Ocean islands through another axis, as they forge a “republic of letters” of their own, by sea, detaching themselves from mainland-based nation-states.

This panel wishes to shed light on insular verbal and visual archives living in islands and archipelagos of the Indian Ocean, from East Africa (e.g. the Lamu Archipelago or Madagascar) to Southeast Asia (Java, Singapore). The axis we want to examine runs between global South and global South. What art forms (handwritten, oral/aural, printed, digital) circulate in such distant “significant geographies”* surrounded by the same Ocean, and what forms do not travel? For instance, how is poetry created, preserved, and perceived in remote areas? What factors (Islam, genealogies, trade etc.) influence how these islands co-create and relate to art forms? As islands, how much of their unique character do they owe to continental Africa, Asia, or both?

We are interested in understanding and comparing how local linguistic and artistic varieties and their idioms in literature and art carve out a sense of ‘islandness’ while also shaping islanders’ cultural history transregionally, in relation to the outside world.

We invite contributions that, applying such a theoretical outlook, showcase a researcher’s approach with islanders, to island traditions (e.g. festivals), skills (‘ajamī writing, musical styles), objects (manuscripts, amulets, photographs), and stories (riddles, songs, histories) which islanders value but whose impact has remained inconspicuous, which are less studied, on the verge of disappearing, or forgotten.

* “the conceptual, imaginative, and real geographies that texts, authors, and language communities inhabit, produce, and reach, which typically extend outwards without (ever?) having a truly global reach” (Karima Laachir, Sara Marzagora, and Francesca Orsini. 2018. “Significant Geographies: In Lieu of World Literature.” Journal of World Literature 3:290–310, at 294)

Presentations:

• 14:00 - 15:45 GMT

  Back to the Narrative 'With Good Legs' Connecting Archipelagos through the Yusuf's Stories
  

  Presenter: Annachiara Raia – African Studies Centre, Leiden University
• 14:00 - 15:45 GMT

  Since When is Java an Island, and When Will It End? An Early-Modern Javanese Poetic Map in a Late 19th-Century Cosmopolis
  

  Presenter: Ben Arps – Leiden University
• 14:00 - 15:45 GMT

  The Stowaway and the Sultan: How Do Swahili Islands Narrate and Conceptualize Seascapes and Island Identities?
  

  Presenter: Clarissa Vierke – The University of Bayreuth
• 14:00 - 15:45 GMT

  Horns and Udders: Mastering Chaos through Allegories on the South-Eastern Malagasy Coast
  

  Presenter: Silvia Neposteri – Universita degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientale
• 14:00 - 15:45 GMT

  Conceptualizing the Ocean: Insularity, Separation, and Islam
  

  Presenter: Verena Meyer – Leiden University