Browsing by Author "Kosgei, Jauquelyne"
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- ItemImaginaries of oceanic histories in oral and written texts from the Kenyan Coast(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-12) Kosgei, Jauquelyne; Steiner, Tina; Phalafala, Uhuru; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept of English.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation presents an analysis of selected oral and written texts from the Kenyan coast, with the view of interrogating how differently local oral sources, which have been ignored, suppressed, and omitted for centuries, imagine the Indian Ocean, its histories, and its experience at the Kenyan coast, in comparison to texts written from foreign perspectives. The main objective of this study is to explore the potential of local sources in introducing new facts and alternative perspectives that challenge the narrow view of dominant narratives and instigate us to rethink our understanding of the subject matter. To achieve this, this study pursues two issues. First, it probes the writing of history by interrogating the choices historians and writers of historical fiction make when selecting which sources to use and which ones to eliminate; which perspectives to include and which ones to exclude; which histories to tell and which ones to silence; and consequently, which people to focus on and which ones to marginalise. Following the premise that local oral sources were intentionally left out in the writing of the history of the Kenyan coast, this dissertation attempts to rewrite certain histories of the Kenyan coast using oral history. The outcome is a version of history that fills gaps in written history, provides diverging perspectives, reveals new facts, and narrates history from the perspective of the local people at the Kenyan coast. The second issue this dissertation pursues is a study of the Indian Ocean using indigenous knowledges of the sea that Kenyan coastal people possess. This places the shore folk and seafarers at the centre of oceanic studies. Through exploring embodied, experiential, and intuitive knowledges carried in local sources, this study shifts oceanic studies from surface to depth; produces multiple dimensions of the sea; and imagines a map of the sea that is local, intimate, and personal, one that dominant cartographic techniques would otherwise not capture.