Afrasian Memories in East Africa 

Transregional interactions have produced complex cosmopolitan societies across the Afrasian Sea transregion. Individuals, communities, ethnic groups and nation-states exhibit a competition of memories as to who arrived in which territory first, who suffered more during certain atrocities, who participated or did not participate in which atrocities, who influenced which culture more, who made what contribution to whose culture more, or who should respect whose memory more and how. Such difficult and sometimes divisive dialogues are to be expected in a cosmopolitan space that has existed and constantly evolved across the ages. In such entangled spaces where shared imaginaries and memories of particular groups transcend the national scale or operate at a scale below it, it becomes imperative to investigate the complexities and tensions of scale (local, national, transareal, transregional, transnational and global). At the “Africa’s Asian Options” project at Goethe University Frankfurt (AFRASO), our main focus is contemporary relations amongst African and Asian societies across emergent Afrasian spaces. The film ‘Afrasian Memories in East Africa’ has emerged from our attempt at understanding imaginaries and memories that connect Africa and Asia, how these imaginaries and memories are produced and what they are used for within the Afrasian transregion. The film focuses on connective Afrasian memories while remaining sensitive towards connective Afrabian dynamics. Through interviews with various people, it delves into themes such as: the naming of the ocean, transoceanic trade, transculturality, colonialism, railway memories, identity politics, Kiswahili language politics, Afrabian solidarity politics, slavery memories and Bombay Africans’ Memories amongst others.
This film project has emerged from a collaboration between AFRASO and Community Images. Dr. John Njenga Karugia from AFRASO at Goethe University Frankfurt collaborated with one of East Africa’s most renowned documentary film-makers, Ramadhan Khamis of Community Images, in producing this film. The filming involved extensive travel across East Africa, the Indian Ocean and India. The film was launched during an AFRASO symposium titled “Afrasian Entanglements: Current Dynamics and Future Perspectives in India-Africa Relations” at the University of Mumbai in June 2018. This film was sponsored by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Thanks to: Abdilatif Abdalla, Pheroze Nowrojee, Stambuli Abdillahi Nassir, Athman Hussein, Kuldip Sondhi, Ranjit Sondhi, Muhammad Mbwana, Mohamed Ali, Abdulrahman Bakathir, Mkuu Vae, Mbarak Abdulkadir, Hassan Mohamed, Amina Harith Swaleh, Kassim Mohamed, Dr. Kalandar Khan, Neera Kapur, Villoo Nowrojee, Siti Amina, Lorenz Herrmann, Athman Omar, Edwin Demla.
Acknowledgement: Asian African Heritage Trust, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi Railway Museum, The Reef Hotel Mombasa, Siti & The Band - Zanzibar, Gedi Ruins Museum, Rabai Museum, Swahili Hub Mombasa, University of Mumbai - India, Dhow Countries Music Academy - Zanzibar, Centre for Interdisciplinary African Studies - ZIAF, Frankfurt Memory Studies Platform - FSMP, Africa’s Asian Options (AFRASO) - Germany, Goethe University Frankfurt, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research - BMBF.
Special thanks to: Prof. Dr. Astrid Erll, Prof. Dr. Frank Schulze-Engler and Dr. John Njenga Karugia from the AFRASO Indian Ocean Imaginaries and Memories Research Project Team at Goethe University Frankfurt.