Verflochtene Gedichte. Materialität oraler Literatur und heutige Verantwortung

The rhythmic movement of skillful hands reveals an ancient craft: decorated and calligraphed mats from Lamu, an island on the East African Swahili coast in present-day Kenya, are called mikeka.

Since the end of the 19th century, the Ethnological Museum in Dahlem has kept a collection of twelve mikeka from the Lamu archipelago. These mats are special, not least because eight of them have poems in Kiswahili woven into them in Arabic script.

The mikeka tell more than just a story: they carry messages and bear witness to social relationships. They are closely interwoven with German colonial interests and presence in the Lamu Archipelago and the Witu region on the opposite mainland at the end of the 19th century. The reproduction of the Bwana Kisitavu mat kept in the collections exemplifies how the mats interweave past and present.

As archives of oral literature, the calligraphed mats from the East African Swahili coast are the starting point for the discussion between philosopher Prof. Dr. Anne Eusterschulte (Freie Universität Berlin/EXC 2020) and researchers from the Talking Mats group on aesthetic practices, the social functions of "material" communication and the need to enter into an inter-epistemic dialog.

Online registration recommended.