(re) Interpreting Visions, (re) ConceptualizingTime: An Akamba Hermeneutic of Syokimau na wathani wake (her visions) and consequential Akamba location within the very long yùa ya mundù (Anthropocene)

Abstract

In the age of the Anthropocene, ecological crises are sewing destruction in tandem with (or perhaps by causing) social unrest, economic inequity, and political instability. One of the narratives the Akamba rely upon in the Anthropocene is that of the famous muthani (seer) Syokimau. Stories passed down from Akamba elder to Akamba younger recall how Syokimau foresaw and warned of the arrival of British colonialism and its devastating and dismantling influence and impact on the Akamba. Through this story, the Akamba share a collective memory of a time gone by, in which contemporary adversities and future uncertainty are suspended to recall a moment in time before the commencement of a prior world ending calamity. However, in straying from the consensus interpretation amongst the Akamba, this dissertation argues that Syokimau’s wathani (visions) must not be understood to speak exclusively to the crisis of 19th and 20th century British colonialism and its aftermath. Employing Jacob Ọlúpọ̀nà’s methodological theory of indigenous hermeneutics, this project embraces the non-dualism and contradiction inherent within Akamba Oral Tradition to first analyze multiple retellings of Syokimau’s life and wathani (visions); investigate 7th to 19th century Akamba inhabitants of Ukambani and their participation in the Indian Ocean/Swahili trade as elephant hunters and slave traders; demonstrate, using various factors of Akamba culture including the Akamba language Kĩkamba, Akamba conceptions of time, Akamba clan system, Akamba storytelling, and Akamba rituals, that Akamba participation in a global trade rooted in extraction and exploitation was indicative of an Akamba community violating their syĩtheo (traditions); and finally engage with Sylvia Wynter’s theory on the “invention of Man” to contribute an Akamba commentary on the role of the Akamba in anthropogenic climate catastrophe.