Out of Africa: India Africa and Possible Histories

About the Speaker

Dilip M Menon is the Mellon Chair in Indian Studies at the University of Witwatersrand and the Director of the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa.

Abstract

The idea of Africa-India, within an area studies paradigm compels us to think with two spaces that are the constructs and residues of an European modernity. How can we think about spaces as constituted through the circulation of material, ideas, and people, rather than given to us as always already given concrete geographies? Where does Africa begin and India end, given the connected histories over five centuries. Yet again, how do we think with the tropes of time that determine our thought, where Africa is dealt with metaphorically as living in another time: a step behind, or more recently, in the work of postcolonial theorists, showing us the future of Euro America.

This “denial of coevalness” (Fabian) has meant a non-recognition of history. It requires us to engage with the Indian Ocean as the space of the making of connections and of a history that exceeds the territorial imaginations of colonialism as much as nationalism.

Report

This is a response to the talk delivered by Professor Dilip Menon of the University of Witwatersrand on India, Africa Possible Histories. This talk dealt with the history of the Indian ocean and the links it created between India and Africa. Professor Menon raised the question of time, and how time fits differently in the context of the Indian Ocean. This talk aimed to discuss the concept of the Modern and its relationship with capitalism. It also aimed to distance history from a discrete geography and a linear time pattern.

The talk addressed three major themes, each of which I will discuss in some depth. The first theme is that of time and the concept of the Modern. Professor Menon discussed how history is studied in this linearity of the Ancient, The Medieval and The Modern; which fit well into the European context but not so much for India and Africa. This lens automatically puts India and Africa in a backfoot as Modernity only starts after there is a contact with the Western World i.e. the advent of colonial rule. Therefore these categories narrow down our imagination of these spaces. These categories only work for a temporal framework of history and not for the environment. Therefore the environment is a lens that helps break these temporal frameworks of history.

The second facet of the talk focused on Africa and the African coast. Professor Menon described it as a multilingual, multiethnic space influenced by traders and travellers from all over the world. Cities like Aden and Mombasa are a hub of trade, commerce and culture. Professor Menon described these as para-colonial spaces that existed not within but alongside the colonial world. This brings us to the imagination about Africa that it is one out of time. This means it is either raging ahead or lagging behind. This can be seen in the recent Marvel movie, Black Panther, where Wakanda is a space much ahead of time. Similarly, Tagore describes Africa as something that is finished and over. The question then is, why does Africa have to behind or ahead, why cannot it exist in the same time period as the rest of the world?

The final theme that ties up everything is the question of how Geography influences History. Our understanding of History says that all historical methodologies apply to every Geography. In this talk, Menon challenges that and brings forward the question of how geography influences historical methodology. Therefore all geographies shouldn’t be measured with the lens of ancient, medieval and modern but we should have para-colonial lens to look at it. The imagination of space and time isn’t linear, discrete and consequential for all parts of the world.

By Pratiti, Undergraduate Class of 2020