Dr. BAYO AKOMOLAFE on Coming Alive to Other Senses /300
Photo by Maria Lupan of a stone fissured with dark cracks surrounded by a scattering of composting plant parts; vibrant green moss and lichen teem the surface.
“The fugitive is the figure of the Anthropocene, a political invitation to unlearn ‘mastery,’ to fall to the Earth, to learn how to commune with soil… In a sense, the fugitive answers the question that is hidden within the words of my Elders, when they say: ‘in order to find your way, you must become lost.’”
In this week’s episode, returning guest Bayo Akomolafe guides listeners on a journey to lose oneself and leave behind the ties that bind us to world views that do not serve humanity’s wholeness. Touching on the historical roots of fugitivity from the politics of the slave ship and beyond, Bayo challenges us to lean into the “political un-project” that is fugitivity, blurring societally-imposed binaries, in order to better understand the human territory and to make more-than-human sanctuary through post activism. If justice is an action and not a static state, how can we embody it?
Twisting and turning through the contours of human consciousness and understanding, Bayo and Ayana dive into meaningful and existential questions. How do we cope with the complexity of being “imbricated with the things we are trying to escape from?” What is the shape and form of accountability? How do we commune with the unknowable? Rooted in trickster philosophy and abundant spirituality, Bayo encourages mindful and playful questions. These are times in which we must reframe our understanding of justice, of history, and of humanity. At the heart of the complex questioning in the episode, lies the vital question of our time – what does it mean to be a human in times such as this?
“I feel that the Indigenous is melting and moving and traveling and migrating; that the modern, too, is a form of Indigeneity, and it too is traveling.”
Photo of Dr. Bayo Akomolafe
Bayo Akomolafe (Ph.D.), rooted with the Yoruba people in a more-than-human world, is the father to Alethea and Kyah, the grateful life partner to Ije, son and brother. A widely celebrated international speaker, posthumanist thinker, poet, teacher, public intellectual, essayist, and author of two books, These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home (North Atlantic Books) and We Will Tell Our Own Story: The Lions of Africa Speak, Bayo Akomolafe is the Visionary Founder of The Emergence Network and host of the online postactivist course, ‘We Will Dance with Mountains’.
♫ The music featured in this episode is “Humm” and “Wild Seed” by Dzidzor and “Spiritual” by Lady Moon and the Eclipse.
Episode References
What I Mean By Postactivism • Writings – Bayo Akomolafe
Arborescence as understood by French thinkers Deleuze and Guattari
A Nose for Feelings – Jonathan Williams
Language References
Afrocene: An invitation to notice the more than human constituents of our politics today and to recognize that the world has ended many times; A recognition of the “terraforming” of African realities by the project of the Anthropocene
Post Activism: “Postactivism, the concept that informs my notion of making sanctuary, is a matter of irruptions and eruptions, breakthroughs, cracks, flashes, fissures, fault lines, discontinuities, blasts, splits, rifts, ruptures, seismic shifts, world-ending openings, miracles, strange encounters, and the yawning maw of a monster.” – What I Mean By Postactivism • Writings – Bayo Akomolafe
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For The Wild is a slow media organization dedicated to land-based protection, co-liberation, and intersectional storytelling. We are rooted in a paradigm shift away from human supremacy, endless growth, and consumerism. As we dream towards a world of grounded justice and reciprocity, our work highlights impactful stories and deeply-felt meaning making as balms for these times.