Desensitized pasts and sensational futures in Mauritius and Zanzibar

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper seeks to assert the relevance of ‘sensing’ identity in social analyses of the Southwest Indian Ocean islands. It is proposed that for some time, a broad concept of social change (specifically creolization) has been the reference point for understanding identity in the region. However, authors have tended to ignore the sensorial nature of human identity and the sensory experience of slavery and colonization. As a result, they have advanced a ‘sense’ less articulation of the islands and their inhabitants. Focusing on the senses in human identity and social experience, this article offers a sense-rich analysis of identity in the Southwest Indian Ocean region, revealing multidimensional senses of self in a diversity of social spaces. The author concludes that by fixating on historical dates, broad social processes and the interests of a largely patriarchal society, some scholars have desensitized the past, obfuscating the realities of and creativity emerging out of slavery and colonization. Sensorial analyses of identity in the Southwest Indian Ocean region open up new avenues for thinking about human/nature relations and politics, the nature of ‘culture’ and experiences of social change.