On Cartography - Mapping identities that reside beyond borders
August 2023
Abstract only
Cartography is not passive; it is not merely a visual observation of the world. It is active. It has the power to shape the world too. Whether an instrument to conquest or politics, maps transform cultures as much as culture transform maps. We have been taught to understand countries as if they were fixed, unchanging and eternal, and so we have been taught to define ourselves in the same manner. But, countries had disappeared – Yugoslavia; appeared -- South Sudan; appeared and then disappeared - United Arab Republic ; Some are even younger than I am - Somalia. Countries appear hardly the right way of mapping the human being. The inherent lexicon to situate our identity based within countries prescribes a limiting fiction, the singular colonial lines, over reality: the plurality of human experience. The question it leaves us with is, is there a cartography system that maps geography based on human experience too? Referencing alternative ways of cartography with particular reference to African Cartographers, I outline the results of four examples of cartography - 1. Mapping with connections; 2. mapping with a direction; 3. mapping through a collective lexicon and; 4. mapping based on time (not distance) - that together construct a framework where we can depict the experiences and positions of the mapmaker. And, I address four tools that hold the power to make human experience a valuable unit of measurement and the amalgamation of these tools offer a cartography system equipped to map identities not so bounded by colonial borders.
August 2023
Abstract only
Cartography is not passive; it is not merely a visual observation of the world. It is active. It has the power to shape the world too. Whether an instrument to conquest or politics, maps transform cultures as much as culture transform maps. We have been taught to understand countries as if they were fixed, unchanging and eternal, and so we have been taught to define ourselves in the same manner. But, countries had disappeared – Yugoslavia; appeared -- South Sudan; appeared and then disappeared - United Arab Republic ; Some are even younger than I am - Somalia. Countries appear hardly the right way of mapping the human being. The inherent lexicon to situate our identity based within countries prescribes a limiting fiction, the singular colonial lines, over reality: the plurality of human experience. The question it leaves us with is, is there a cartography system that maps geography based on human experience too? Referencing alternative ways of cartography with particular reference to African Cartographers, I outline the results of four examples of cartography - 1. Mapping with connections; 2. mapping with a direction; 3. mapping through a collective lexicon and; 4. mapping based on time (not distance) - that together construct a framework where we can depict the experiences and positions of the mapmaker. And, I address four tools that hold the power to make human experience a valuable unit of measurement and the amalgamation of these tools offer a cartography system equipped to map identities not so bounded by colonial borders.