Meditations on the Sea and its African Subjects, and the Complexities of European Nationalism
In this presentation, I engage with the African body that lands on European beaches via the Mediterranean sea, dead by exhaustion from crossing the ocean or dead as a consequence of boarding a vessel, which has capsized because it was not equipped to carry the embodied subject identities of Africans leaving the continent to seek refuge on the European continent: the continent of the European coloniser who had usurped African land and people, kidnapped African labour starting in the fifteenth century whilst simultaneously exploiting and extracting raw materials to develop its wealth in an ailing, starving, and disease infested Europe. Barred from Europe, the African descendants of the usurped, colonised and exploited now return to their violator-cum-usurper via the Mediterranean Sea to reap some of the fruits of the stolen wealth of their ancestors that was shipped to the continent, and which in turn left the African continent depleted and stagnant. The sea passengers who undertake the sea journey with success, alive and running upon arrival, are sent back to the African continent, many a time kicking and screaming. The talk poses questions on European nationalism, the European nation, and the ways in which European nationalism is built, upheld and enforced.