Of Poetics, Politics, and Fragments: Mamadou Diouf and the Burden of History
Cary Fraser
This is a very interesting conversation about the politics of knowledge, and the construction of alternative universes of meaning in the shaping of African historiographies and the communities that they serve. It is especially intriguing in the contemporary historical context since we are entering a phase of global history where the Asia-Pacific region is becoming the epicenter of the global political economy. Africa’s relationships in this emerging context will be determined by its historical orientation towards the Atlantic World - into which it became deeply enmeshed as a result of the rise of Europe and its satellites in the Atlantic World over the past five centuries, and the gravitational pull exerted by a newly reinvigorated Asia to integrate Africa into the Asia-Pacific-Indian Ocean Region. Africa, as a continent, finds itself caught between the Atlantic and the Pacific, and its history will weigh upon the choices made by contemporary African regions, states, and communities in forging the future in the new historical context. As Africa’s history confronts its future, the search for the meaning and relevance of African history in this conversation led me to the reflections that I am about to share.
I was struck by the way in which Mamadou’s identity as a son of the soil in Rufisque shaped both his trajectory as a citizen of Senegal, and as a citizen in the Atlantic World and its scholarly incarnations. His trajectory through the world of scholarship that took him to France, the USA, and back to Senegal suggest the ways in which the Atlantic World has been the cradle of multiple diaspora formations - for both Europeans and Africans. The convergence between personal identity and professional trajectory raises an interesting question about the ways in which African history can be re-imagined within the context of the Atlantic World. Is it possible that the comparative study of colonialism can become a vehicle for rewriting the history of Europe – not just of Africa? What are the consequences of rewriting the history of Europe by way of its engagement with Africa? For example, in what ways was European Christianity reshaped by the encounter, and continuing engagement, with Africa?
Further, his observation about the syncretism that informs the relationship between Islam and traditional religious beliefs raises the issue of the ways in which this syncretism should be studied in comparative context in the Atlantic World. How does one explain the syncretism that informs Santeria (Cuba), Vaudou (Haiti and New Orleans), and Candomble (Brazil) in the predominantly Catholic societies of the Americas? How do we explain the widespread practice of religious syncretism in both Islam and Christianity and its ecumenical importance in the lives of African and African-descent communities in the Atlantic World?
It is also quite interesting that Mamadou mentions the formative influence of “the reality of a decaying city and the memories of grandeur associated with the history of an Atlantic enclave” as part of his youth. In what ways, does this experience replicate the experience of Africans and their descendants throughout the Atlantic World as they reflect upon the ways in which commerce and capitalism reshaped the contours of life and regions in the Atlantic World? In what ways does the experience of St. Domingue - as the fabled trophy of the French pre-Revolutionary colonial enterprise and its transition to its current status as the site of enduring poverty and ecological devastation - both anticipate and echo the experience of other European projects in the Black Atlantic? For example, the Niger Delta today, and the role of Anglo-Dutch Shell in the politics of ecological devastation and economic impoverishment that has overtaken the region, suggests the need to think about ways in which the colonial and post-colonial represent levels of continuity that should inform scholarly analyses.