CARAM LECTURE 21.03.2024 16:00-18:00
PROF. GEERT CASTRYCK (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
Discussant: Prof. Koen Stroeken (UGent)
Venue: Room 3.30, Camelot, campus Boekentoren, Blandijnberg 2, Ghent University
To attend online, contact: Carmen.Dhondt@UGent.be
Abstract
‘Both Argos and Athens’
Writing a history of Kigoma-Ujiji between globalization and liminality
In his Appunti per un’Orestiade Africana (1970/75) Pier Paolo Pasolini characterizes the town of Kigoma, at Lake Tanganyika in present-day Tanzania, as “the centre of Africa” and as “both Argos and Athens”. In his problematic – albeit self-critical – documentary, the filmmaker presents Kigoma as both “traditional” and “modern”, as self-perpetuating periphery as well as progress, development, and democracy. Rather than reproducing these stereotypical dichotomies, I want to make sense of the transformations and uncertainties Pasolini rightly noticed half a century ago.
The paper adopts three vantage points: (1) since the mid-nineteenth century successive global transformations pose challenges to the people who make the town of Kigoma-Ujiji, (2) the uncertainties accompanying these challenges are, again and again, met with problem-solving creativity and resilience, and (3) the urban area of Kigoma and Ujiji has been noticed, represented, and symbolized on global stages for 170 years already.
Using the analytical lenses “portal of globalization” and “liminal space” I propose a reading of the history of Kigoma-Ujiji as a characteristic site of spatial-temporal transformations, which merits its global attention.