Owed to Humana
Soundtrack (chronological order):
Hannah C. Jones (in collaboration with Evan Ifekoya) -
H.E.L.P. Healing Meditation for Limitless Potential
Solange - Weary
Dave - Black
Lord Kitchener - London is the Place for Me
Julius Eastman - Gay Guerrilla
Alice Coltrane - Andromeda's Suffering
[Tran]script:
I’m Tired…
We’re Tired…
Sarah Amy Jones
Angela Davis
Grace Bokomoso Bell
Evan Ifekoya
Audre Lorde
bell hooks
Grace Jones
Alice Coltrane
Octavia Butler
Ain Bailey
Gail Lewis
Rosalind Jones
Jacob V Joyce
Christopher Kirubi
Omar Jordan Phillips
Umi Lovecraft Baden Powell
Angelina Lovecraft
Sylvia Wynter
Jenn Nkiru
Jasmine Rai
Teju Adelaye
Zakia Sewell
Chooc Ly Tan
Billie Holiday
Mattie Loyce
Laura Minet
Nina Simone
Shawanda Corbett
Arlene Jones
June Tyson
Heidi Mirza
Millie Brown
Kemoy Jemott
Libita Clayton
Ifeyani
Seble
Texta Queen
Buki
Camille Barton
Phills
Aditi Jaganathan
Lakuti
Carista
Rabz
Imani
Chloe
Barby
Nanello
Jyoti
Amal
Rudy
Tia
Lerato
Naim
Lorraine
Jazzo
Massello
Juicy Doubles
Mollemo
Vuyisiwe
Xana
Sandra
Enye
Richele
Rihanna
Olivia
Nicole
Vision
Keekz
Chi-chi
Shenece
Rafia
Tobi
Gabi
Sarah
Anu
Serena
Tiffany
Jenny
Rachel
Sofie
Charlie
Munroe
Brandy
Jessica
Raju
Jenn
Demelza...
We, queer diasporic Others, still exist as outsiders of the dominating global community: an interlocking worldwide web of the imperialist capitalist white-supremacist patriarchies:
Functioning on hierarchies of:
supremacy and oppression,
theory over practice,
science over experience...
The virus amplifies all inequalities...
We, the queer diasporic Others, carve out our own spaces, on the margins - far out, alienated, tokens, Others…
Often consumed by the white gaze...
Decolonisation is a praxis.
Where did colonisation begin?
We must look backwards to help us find the knowledge to go forwards:
Sankofa.
Time passes - we’ve been here before...
What time is it...?
What day is it...?
Monday, from the Old English ‘Monandæg’, a combination of 'mona', meaning ‘moon’, and ‘dæg’, meaning ‘day’. Most Roman languages use the Latin for ‘moon’ – ‘luna’ – as in the French ‘lundi’ and Spanish ‘lunes’.
Tuesday, from the Old English ‘Tiwesdæg’, meaning ‘Tyr’s (or Tiw’s/Tew’s ) Day’, named after the god of war of Norse mythology. Naming the second day of the week after a war god stems from the Romans’ use of Mars for the same day, leading to, among others, the French ‘mardi; and Spanish ‘martes’.
Wednesday, from the Old English ‘Wodnesdæg’, or ‘Woden’s (Odin’s) Day’, named after an important Germanic and Scandinavian god. The name of this day, too, is borrowed from the Romans, who used the god Mercury for Wednesday. The French is ‘mercredi’ and the Spanish is ‘miércoles’.
Thursday, from the Old English ‘Þurresdæg’, meaning ‘Thor’s Day’ after the Norse god of thunder. The Latin equivalent is named after Jupiter, as in the French ‘jeudi’ and Spanish ‘jueves’.
Friday, from the Old English ‘Frigedæg’, named after the Anglo-Saxon goddess Frigg. It is based on the Roman goddess Venus, and used in French as ‘vendredi’ and in Spanish as ‘viernes’.
Saturday, from the Old English ‘Sæterdæg’, or ‘Saturn’s Day’, this is the only day to have retained its Latin origins from the god of agriculture. In French it is ‘samedi’ and in Spanish, ‘sábado’.
Sunday, from the Old English ‘Sunnandæg’, - ‘the day of the sun’. Most Romance languages have used the Latin for ‘Lord’s Day’, as in the French ‘dimanche’ and Spanish ‘domingo’.
Our visible celestial neighbours have been
named, claimed, assigned a time-code...
Our maps of time are rooted in the deep foundations of inherited Eurocentric constructed meaning upon meaning upon meaning...
There is no such thing as neutral.
Even Eritrean Andromeda suffers whitewashing...
They would rather our neighbours be white, even if they are 2.5 million light years away...
The infinite layers of the cyclical monolith are not arbitrary.
All explored avenues of time uphold the western dominance, the colonial claiming and privileged naming of bodies, real bodies, imagined bodies, black bodies, celestial bodies, alien bodies...
How can we escape categorisation that privileges western European monoculture?
How can we escape from it?
The psychosis of the construct of whiteness:
The centre of the universe.
Craving our rhythm but not our blues…
When they’re not silencing us, they tell our stories, they teach our histories, they appropriate our cultures, often born out of surviving oppression under their supremacy...
The layers of our foundations extend deep below and far above.
We are Immeasurable...
But the white gaze remains on the event horizon,
never wanting to acknowledge:
whole black subjects.
The unruly celestial outsider we have been introduced to as Pluto and its five natural satellites, all named in accordance with the Eurocentric trajectory:
Charon,
Nix,
Styx,
Kerberos,
Hydra,
are unique within the solar system.
Pluto and Charon share a centre of gravity unlike any other celestial union.
This barycentric relation performs a coexistence; a harmonious relation, non-dominant in anything other than scientific mass.
Nix, Styx, Kerberos and Hydra, orbit and rotate Pluto and Charon as unfamiliar ovums of dancing joy.
These celestial bodies resist, refuse classification in the Eurocentric methodology as any one dominant over the other, therefore, all have been categorised as outsiders.
How can this unique celestial community help us think through the ongoing outside-ness of the global diasporic community here on Earth?
Instead of the “supreme-oppressed” [“planet-moon”] binary, we can move towards a harmonious democratic polyphonic heteroglossia, - many sounds and many voices - with differing realities, experiences - coexisting peacefully, in equilibrium...
The Adinkra symbols suggest themselves through the form of the animation:
the orbit paths tell us that with perspective,
Greatness is possible, already present...
What are the names, signifiers, icons, meanings we would want to project onto the potential understanding of these rhythmic bodies of matter?
Community (“Pluto”)
Cooperation (“Charon”)
Democracy (“Nix”)
Ingenuity (“Styx”)
Hope (“Kerberos”)
Unity (“Hydra”)
Is it possible to join Sonya Dyer’s Diasporic mythological methodological community?
Andromeda, our intergalactic neighbour, is restored to her origins as a black woman, now liberated.
Henrietta Lacks is transported through her cells, travelling ever nearer to her long-lost ancestor: Andromeda.
The marginalised celestial community of greatness, cooperation democracy, ingenuity, hope, unity, continue their rhythmic syzygy...
We need new myths.
There are other worlds they have not told you of.
We have to believe that time changes...
The only constant is change.
How can we imagine ourselves into a better diasporic present?
By searching farther, we could be getting closer...
Perhaps we are owed this.
— Hannah Catherine Jones (2020)
