Radical Zambezian Reimaginings

A collectively oriented portal (or methodology) for discovery and healing for Zambezia through

information and research.

.

Reforming, digitising and documenting nuanced + radical archival narratives within the Zambezian spatialities.

A portal that leads to the creation of alternative perspectives that challenge and repair pre-existing asymmetries in history, wounds that have informed the present

Radical Zambezian Reimaginings is a methodology rooted in the belief that ancestral buTonga personhood and methodologies hold immense intristic value which are yet to be recognised and given space within post-colonial imaginations. This approach challenges the hegemonic notion that baTonga are merely subjects and appendages of Western histories, imaginations and enquiries. Existing research and archives on baTonga are mostly rooted in aysmmetrical projections and narratives that have been conceived and published within and through oppressive frameworks and institutions. I counter this through actively positioning myself as a muTonga in the field of research and archival practice as being central to constructing a counter-narrative which seeks to heal historic and present day wounds through community.

definitions

Radical Reimaginative Archiving

radical / /ˈradɪk(ə)l/
adjective
1.(especially of change or action) relating to or affecting the fundamental nature of something; far-reaching or thorough.
"a radical overhaul of the existing framework"

re​imagine / / 'rē-i-ˈma-jən 

verb

  1. (especially to form a new conception) to imagine again or anew.

    reimagined; reimagining; reimagines; reimaginative

archiving /ˈɑːkʌɪv/
verb
1. gerund or present participle: archiving
place or store (something) in an archive.

Personal Definition of Radical Reimaginative Archiving: 

  1. The act of overhauling historical and present systems of archiving in order to birth and nurture a more democratised and representative space for the storage of and thus interaction with collective histories (mainly those of marginalised groups)

Archiving/Storytelling As a Point of Power 

The stories we know of ourselves, as Zambezian people, we learn or are taught through the hegemonic power structures that engulf society. We have previously been on the [oppressed] receiving end of projected and exerted power within narrative construction which in turn has influenced our perception > positionality > representation. "...existence, preservation and availability of archives, documents and records in our society are very much determined by the distribution of wealth and power" - (Zinn, 1970)

Radical Archiving within this context would be actively attributing more value (through engagement) to community-led archives which have great power to galvanise movements and thoughts of further liberation for the Zambezian mind and psyche.

Pixel Positionality

[Pixel Positionality]
:

pixel /ˈpɪks(ə)l,ˈpɪksɛl/

  1. A pixel is the smallest unit of a digital image or graphic that can be displayed and represented on a digital display device. ... Pixels are combined to form a complete image, video, text, or any visible thing on a computer display. A pixel is also known as a picture element (pix = picture, el = element).

positionality / puh-zish-uh-nal-i-tee

1. Positionality is the social and political context that creates your identity in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability status. Positionality also describes how your identity influences, and potentially biases, your understanding of and outlook on the world.

A plethora of western Museums are custodians of Zambian history in form of objects and artefacts housed in ethnographic collections. These objects are not only taken out of physical context of origin but the context of the metadata which accompanies these objects is often incorrect. Therefore the current [mostly physical] institutional spaces (e.g museums and public archives) that exist exist to tell a story of us from an external/fictionalised/improvised perspective rather than allow us to tell our own story from the 'true' perspective and thus create or find 'true' meaning.

"...reappropriating control over the “writing of one’s own story” is to struggle for both a decolonization of the psyche and a cultural liberation. In other words, the archive is not just something that can be used for social movements, it can be a practice of social movement in and of itself." (Hall, 2005)

Pixel positionality allows for a correcting or the errors in cultural narrative construction through making use of an arguably more democratised or neutral space of creation/reiteration: The Internet.

Technoscapes or digital contexts as influencing or creating valuable spaces for the (re)orientation of meaning and identity

Within the context of my wider work, the concept of pixel positionality is centred around confronting hegemonic societal practices like archiving through counter archives centred on community based archives hosted on the internet as a way to challenge the societal biases in the framing of Zambezia often found within institutional archival frameworks.

Pixel positionality is an addressing of the representational and thus perception error with specific focus on critically assessing the framing of historical trajectories which have influenced the construction ‘The Zambian Historical Lens’ which in truth is at its core ‘The Occidental Lens of Zambian History’

Internal Restitution

External Restitution

Living History

Dead History

Restitution is memory and sentiment restored. It is the reconnection of lost threads of understanding. The return to natural or original states of being, which were impacted, mostly negatively, by external interventions. 

The standard definition of restitution, guided by the museum frameworks, is defined as ‘ the process by which cultural objects are returned to an individual or a community. In tandem with Restitution is the concept of Repatriation which is defined as “the process by which cultural objects are returned to a nation or state at the request of a government.” By definition these processes contain intrinsic asymmetries which upholds western institutions, governments and large cooperations as the agents of change; or the forces at the centre of the revolutions and paradigm shifts. This in turn sidelines and mystifies the notion of these defined ‘individuals’ and ‘communities’ being at the centre of their own revolutions and narratives. 

Within my bodies of work, I have defined a counter theory and practice, Internal Restitution, to the standard conception of restitution which I have defined as External Restitution. Internal Restitution directly disrupts and challenges the asymmetries present within the current global debate around the restitution of African objects and histories. It shifts the focus from ‘dead history’ to ‘living history’ by changing the focal points and turning reflection and action inwards. 

Dead History, in relation to objects in a museum, is defined as the narratives constructed around objects which were and are moved/dislocated through external conquest and removed from their homes/communities. The dislocation of the objects and partnered histories, by virtue of having been moved through violence, severed the true lifelines and expressions of these objects and histories. Knowledge is separated from the object when proximity from the original place of nascence is disrupted. Within this process, knowledge production mutates as the storyteller or agent of narrative construction is one grounded in foreign and often negative opposing beliefs. Objects in museums have been divorced from their indigenous or ancestral truths- in that now they are presented in clinical (metadata) and often fictionalised ways. These fragments of information, through their institutionalisation, have become the mainstream way of thinking about and around these objects and histories, even in the context of restitution in its present conception. 

In contrast, Living History is defined in relation to Internal Restitution, as it centres and examines objects and histories within the context of present day homes and communities. These remain living histories as they retain their proximity to their place of nascence and thus are closer to ancestral truths, even in their shape shifting forms in the present. Knowledge and Technique have remained the same whereas materials have changed, plant fibres have been replaced by metals and plastics. For example in some expressions of traditional fishing nets. In addition to this, objects found within Living Histories and communities of nascence morph and take on greater meaning, in that they are not merely objects but rather objects, subjects and teachers. This can be attributed to continued practice as an extension of continued lifestyles and daily flow. 

In the context of a Tonga home or community, a nongo (clay pot) would not merely be an object or artefact, as it would be in a museum, but rather a subject or point of knowledge production/sharing in that ancestral teachings and processes are centred around the nongo. Many marriage and initiation rites require the use of the nongo, either as a vessel or as a crucible. The nongo also assumes the role of a teacher, in that it would have to be moulded, decorated and fired by the student, a process which requires learning, often in continuum. 

This concept directly challenge oppressive occidental systems through the repositioning of the Indigenous Zambian person/community as sources of immense value and of immense knowledge and not merely subjects under and behind lenses of inquisition/violence.