written by Tim Conitz on January 29th of 2020
Perspectives differ with their lenses and laughter
Or rise questions, meaning to silence oneself to listen-with
Space, it takes place, in and with social interaction
Though a territory is not rendered by stability solely ubecause
Knowledge is constituting the hegemonic logic of language
Otherwise this manifestation could not establish dependencies
Looking for essential purity in the politics of translation,
Ordering stereotypical seeing and comprehending the gazes
Naming the unnamable, translating the untranslatable, above
Incompleteness.
Africa, whatever it might be, affords our ontological allegiance
Life is hybrid and forged in action
Included in political power presentation,
Theory, from what or whom, shaped by multiple temporalities
Ä/Equivalent to the scholar listening in the faculties,
Tuning up the words from absent persons with their own voice.
Global citizenship still requires ID and legitimacy,
Invisible entanglement still is a changeable sphere of relationships whereas
Violence harms presently, albeit reluctantly it refers to unity and identity.
Ideas, in-translatable uttered loudly in a deaf room
Niches to escape the dominance and machinery
Guest(s) in a mind of complex biography
Visibility is realized, although authoritatively coloured,
Occasionally performing intimate pieces of poetry
Incapable to grasp, but to perceive
Community, from immediacy immersing yourself in
Elegant complicity.
Comment by the author:
This poem is inspired by the winter school 2020 “Recalibrating Afrikanistik” which took place in Leipzig from 21th to 30th Janurary. It was created during the final days in order to present a contribution of ideas and thoughts which have been initiated by the divers agenda. I started by gathering the key notes and words I documented every day. Mainly inspired by a task from a creative writing class that I take in parallel, where we were supposed to write an acrostic poem, then I began to write down the word “Postkolonialität” since it was the main framework underlying the winter school debates in conjunction with language. Additionally I added two stanzas with the essential motto, “giving voice (to)”, that I condensed to highlight the central theme for me. I want to mention that I consequently combined buzzwords and lyrical style. I found it hard to compose some lines, which makes them even more interesting and divers in their logical alignment, and therefore enable discussions about their meaning and implications. I think of the poem as partially self-critique and cynical, because of the many conversations
we had, and having us sometimes forgetting to listen or simply to be unselfish, then solely become a temporal vocal agent of/for other, marginalized authors. So the last line (elegant complicity) might and ought to be there just to remind me (and you) about how we are/or want/can be part of the discourse and how the criticism voiced by us, probably reproduces and nourishes the problem itself.