Biography of the Indian Ocean

Jacky Kosgei is Junior Professor of Global Epistemologies at University of Tübingen in Germany. Her research interests in Indian Ocean Studies are located at the intersection of literary, cultural, historical and anthropological studies. She is the co-editor of the recently published Proximity as Method (2024).

• Introduction - Refiguring Indian Ocean Epistemological Cartographies Critical Ocean StudiesOral SourcesChapter OutlinesChapter 1 - Historical Sources and the Writing of Fiction in Valerie Cuthbert's The Great Siege of Fort JesusHistory and Fiction; History as NarrativePortuguese Historiography of the Indian Ocean WorldPortuguese-Oriented Histories of the Kenyan Coast: Cuthbert's SourcesReproduction of the Colonial Archive: Imported biases in Cuthbert's novelChapter 2 - Subverting Eurocentric Histories of the Swahili Coast in the 19th CenturyDistanced Affinities and Proximate Tensions: Oral and biographical reflections on RebmannHumanizing the Demonized: Subverting Eurocentric histories of the Swahili coastChapter 3 - Re-figuring the Colonial Archive: Oral Historiographies of Fort Jesus in MombasaFort Jesus, a Portuguese Fortress: The official oral history of Fort JesusNgomeni, not Fort Jesus: A Digo home, not a Portuguese fortressOf Disruptions and Erasures: A comparative reading of the oral histories of Fort JesusChapter 4 - From Surface to Depth: Material and Multidimensional Perspectives of the Indian OceanLateral Connections and the Economic Dimension of the SeaUnderwater Perspectives and the Spiritual Dimension of the SeaChapter 5 - A Dead and Dying Sea: The Ecological Dimension of the Indian Ocean on the Kenyan CoastSummoning Local Art Forms: Ecological functions of Swahili oral poetryGeneration Eyewitnesses: Fishers' articulation of a dead and dying seaChapter 6 - A Biography of the Indian Ocean: Tracing alternative sea maps in Yvonne Owuor's The Dragonfly SeaSensuous Maps of the Indian OceanOwuor's Ecocritical and Political Project in The DragonflyConclusion - Notes on Expaning Epistemic TerritoriesReferences