Conclusion. Ecotonic Selves: Survival and Indian Ocean Life Writing

Abstract

Markus P. M. Vink heralded the Indian Ocean as the “New Thalassology” in his groundbreaking 2007 article. Porousness, permeability, and connectedness imprint this new thalassology with the synergic force that defines the ecotone, a delicate ecological zone that embraces the diverse traits of two antagonistic ecological community types. The littoral essence of the Indian Ocean rim is the upshot of the ecotonic meeting of land and sea which creates a peculiar amphibian space (Samuelson 2017) in a permanent state of flux. We read Vink’s new thalassology under the lens of ecotones, that is to say, as a transitional area wherein cultural encounters, harmonious as well as conflictual, contribute to the construction of subjecthood. This Indoceanic fluctuating space is imbued with the strength and vulnerability that stems from a conglomerate of forced displacements, historical erasures, and traumatized memories. It is precisely at the crux of these forced displacements, historical erasures, and traumatized memories that we have located the distinctive self-quests deployed in the memoirs that have constituted the corpus of our present volume Mourning and Resilience in Indian Ocean Life Writing. M.G. Vassanji’s And Home Was Kariakoo, Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family, Neera Kapur-Dromson’s From Jelum to Tana, Parita Mukta’s Shards of Memory, Shailja Patel’s Migritude, Lindsey Collen’s “The Indian Ocean as a Unifying Force: A Memoir”, Dr Goonam’s Coolie Doctor. An Autobiography by Dr. Goonam, Indres Naidoo’s Island in Chains. Ten Years on Robben Island. Prisoner 885/63, and Amina Cachalia’s When Hope and History Rhyme are all testimonies of survival. Whether their survival is ingrained in their stature as professional authors—as is the case of Vassanji, Ondaatje, Collen, and Patel—or whether their survival is entwined with communal memory—as is the case of Kapur-Dromson, Mukta, Dr Goonam, Naidoo, and Cachalia—the truth is that in the act of writing their selves they have explored and exhibited new articulations of belonging. We claim that these articulations of belonging are the resultant of an ecotonic consciousness that in some cases is expressed as national belonging—Vassanji’s emotional reclamation of the East African land as his home; Kapur-Dromson and Mukta’s reassessment of their Indian-East African selves; Dr Goonam, Naidoo, and Cachalia’s nostalgic alignment with South Africa—whereas in other instances a transnational move is being delineated—Ondaatje’s cosmopolitanism, Patel’s conscientious construction of a transnational self; and Collen’s inveterate Indoceanic being in the world. Mourning and Resilience in Indian Ocean Life Writing illustrates how survival is intimately tied to belonging.