“When the Kalmyks saw me, they thought I was their black devil”: Inverting Centres and Peripheries in Colonial Travelogues Written by East Africans

Travelogues are a rich medium through which to explore observations of everyday culture and rituals, perceptions of the world order, and narrative strategies of othering. In this paper, I turn my attention to travelogues written by East Africans (coastal Swahili Muslims, diasporic Shi’i and Parsi...

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Autor principal:	Katharina Wilkens
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	CERES / KHK Bochum 2021
Materias:	Religious framing narrative travel East Africa Europe colonialism Religion (General) BL1-50
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/54760066938a4367aa4c1400b2bd76a6
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:54760066938a4367aa4c1400b2bd76a62021-11-19T14:36:03Z“When the Kalmyks saw me, they thought I was their black devil”: Inverting Centres and Peripheries in Colonial Travelogues Written by East Africans10.46586/er.12.2021.92862363-6696https://doaj.org/article/54760066938a4367aa4c1400b2bd76a62021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://er.ceres.rub.de/index.php/ER/article/view/9286https://doaj.org/toc/2363-6696 Travelogues are a rich medium through which to explore observations of everyday culture and rituals, perceptions of the world order, and narrative strategies of othering. In this paper, I turn my attention to travelogues written by East Africans (coastal Swahili Muslims, diasporic Shi’i and Parsi South Asians, and Christian Ugandans) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although the authors come from different religious groupings, cultural-linguistic backgrounds and socio-economic milieus, they travel the same routes within East Africa and, occasionally, also to Europe or even as far as Siberia. I argue that the texts (including journals, retrospectives, and ethnographies) must be read as documents of East African cosmopolitanism. Mobility enables the authors to subvert the imperial world order by re-framing it narratively according to their own religious identity. This gives rise to reflections on humanity, equality and the beauty of knowledge, but not to the exclusion of racial and religious bigotry within and between the non-European communities in East Africa. In my analysis, I tease out narrative patterns, observational styles, and literary tropes present in the texts across religious boundaries. As all the texts were either commissioned by Europeans or edited by their translators before publication they do not document naively ‘authentic’ perspectives of East Africans, but reflect the complexities of communication within strict racial hierarchies. In concluding, I discuss the potential of religion to invert colonial centres and peripheries: European metropoles become places of exotic fascination while the familiar practices of co-religionists can turn the ‘hinterland’ into centres of learning. Katharina WilkensCERES / KHK BochumarticleReligious framingnarrativetravelEast AfricaEuropecolonialismReligion (General)BL1-50ENEntangled Religions - Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Religious Contact and Transfer , Vol 12, Iss 1 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Religious framing narrative travel East Africa Europe colonialism Religion (General) BL1-50
spellingShingle	Religious framing narrative travel East Africa Europe colonialism Religion (General) BL1-50 Katharina Wilkens “When the Kalmyks saw me, they thought I was their black devil”: Inverting Centres and Peripheries in Colonial Travelogues Written by East Africans
description	Travelogues are a rich medium through which to explore observations of everyday culture and rituals, perceptions of the world order, and narrative strategies of othering. In this paper, I turn my attention to travelogues written by East Africans (coastal Swahili Muslims, diasporic Shi’i and Parsi South Asians, and Christian Ugandans) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although the authors come from different religious groupings, cultural-linguistic backgrounds and socio-economic milieus, they travel the same routes within East Africa and, occasionally, also to Europe or even as far as Siberia. I argue that the texts (including journals, retrospectives, and ethnographies) must be read as documents of East African cosmopolitanism. Mobility enables the authors to subvert the imperial world order by re-framing it narratively according to their own religious identity. This gives rise to reflections on humanity, equality and the beauty of knowledge, but not to the exclusion of racial and religious bigotry within and between the non-European communities in East Africa. In my analysis, I tease out narrative patterns, observational styles, and literary tropes present in the texts across religious boundaries. As all the texts were either commissioned by Europeans or edited by their translators before publication they do not document naively ‘authentic’ perspectives of East Africans, but reflect the complexities of communication within strict racial hierarchies. In concluding, I discuss the potential of religion to invert colonial centres and peripheries: European metropoles become places of exotic fascination while the familiar practices of co-religionists can turn the ‘hinterland’ into centres of learning.
format	article
author	Katharina Wilkens
author_facet	Katharina Wilkens
author_sort	Katharina Wilkens
title	“When the Kalmyks saw me, they thought I was their black devil”: Inverting Centres and Peripheries in Colonial Travelogues Written by East Africans
title_short	“When the Kalmyks saw me, they thought I was their black devil”: Inverting Centres and Peripheries in Colonial Travelogues Written by East Africans
title_full	“When the Kalmyks saw me, they thought I was their black devil”: Inverting Centres and Peripheries in Colonial Travelogues Written by East Africans
title_fullStr	“When the Kalmyks saw me, they thought I was their black devil”: Inverting Centres and Peripheries in Colonial Travelogues Written by East Africans
title_full_unstemmed	“When the Kalmyks saw me, they thought I was their black devil”: Inverting Centres and Peripheries in Colonial Travelogues Written by East Africans
title_sort	“when the kalmyks saw me, they thought i was their black devil”: inverting centres and peripheries in colonial travelogues written by east africans
publisher	CERES / KHK Bochum
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/54760066938a4367aa4c1400b2bd76a6
work_keys_str_mv	AT katharinawilkens whenthekalmykssawmetheythoughtiwastheirblackdevilinvertingcentresandperipheriesincolonialtravelogueswrittenbyeastafricans
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“When the Kalmyks saw me, they thought I was their black devil”: Inverting Centres and Peripheries in Colonial Travelogues Written by East Africans

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