The Politics of Memory, Emotion, and Representation in Abolitionist Mauritania
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Reassembling the Subject: The Politics of Memory, Emotion, and Representation in Abolitionist Mauritania Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors El Vilaly, Audra Elisabeth Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 24/09/2021 15:14:07 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/625676 REASSEMBLING THE SUBJECT: THE POLITICS OF MEMORY, EMOTION, AND REPRESENTATION IN ABOLITIONIST MAURITANIA by Audra Elisabeth El Vilaly __________________________ Copyright © Audra El Vilaly 2017 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY AND DEVELOPMENT In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WITH A MAJOR IN GEOGRAPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2017 1 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Audra El Vilaly, titled The Politics of Memory, Emotion, and Representation in Abolitionist Mauritania and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________________________________________________________________ Date: (May 10, 2017) Sallie Marston _______________________________________________________________________ Date: (May 10, 2017 John Paul Jones III _______________________________________________________________________ Date: (May 10, 2017) Diana Liverman _______________________________________________________________________ Date: (May 10, 2017) Paul Robbins Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: (May 10, 2017) Dissertation Director: Sallie Marston 2 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Audra El Vilaly 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I thank my son, Emil Mohamdy Vilaly, for permitting me to complete this project. I have barely seen you lately, but somehow, as a four-year old boy, you have exuded the patience and foresight of a fifty-year old man in my absence. May you grow to embody the nobility, mysticism, and contradictions of your heritage with the grace and wisdom of your ancestors. Enta voukarajl Mauritani, masha’Allah. To his father, Mohamed Abd salam El Vilaly, and your entire tribe in Mauritania, I honor you. Despite the scathing critiques of your compatriots, you graciously facilitated this controversial research. I am indebted to you, and apologize for whatever scandals I spawned in conducting it. Simah. I know my study is still the topic of many a gossip session in your tents and tea rooms. I hope, at the very least, that this has provided a hint of entertainment to assuage in part the distress it caused you. To my partner, Kieran Sikdar, I am humbled by your forbearance in putting up with my array of antics over the last few months. Your ability to hold steady in spite of my stress is unworldly. Thank you for keeping me sane and Emil content, and for believing in me when I did not believe in myself. To my advisor, Sallie Marston, our many mindful and heartful exchanges about politics, identity, bodies, and everyday life have inspired this dissertation. Your imagination and critical creativity continue to blow my mind upon our every interaction. I am equally in awe of your modest, steadfast service to me and the other students in your collective. Your capacity to prioritize our learning and wellbeing is without parallel. You are kind, forgiving, and as the Mauritanians would say, a woman with the virtue of a poet. 4 To the rest of my committee: Paul Robbins, I would have never undertaken this research had not been for your initial encouragement. Thank you for your infectious enthusiasm and energy, not to mention your magical ability to make sense of my and others’ nonsensical ways of knowing and representing the world - an inimitable gift you are using to the fullest. JP Jones III, your mentorship over the years has transformed not only my ways of researching the world, but also how I relate to the people and things in it. Your musings on identity, difference, and representation form much of the inspiration for this dissertation. Diana Liverman, your breadth of geographic expertise and ability to traverse multiple sub-disciplinary terrains in a single advising session - make that a single statement - energizes me and continually reinvigorates my enthusiasm for geography. Thank you for granting me the courage to return to Tucson from West Africa. Thank you for taking a chance on me, for quietly supporting me during my transition, and for your unwavering dedication to my success and that of all your students. To the many friends, colleagues, and professors who escorted me to the end, you are too many to name. I feel gratitude for Jessica de la Ossa, Richard Johnson, Jacob Miller, and Ian Shaw, who have over the years indulged more than any others my fascination for the political problematics of everyday life. Mimi Gay-Antaki, my life coach-disguised as-friend, I have no words. Anne Ranek, du er den bedste. Marv Waterstone, Yaseen Noorani, and Andrew Comrie, who served on my previous committees, I esteem you as individuals and scholars more than you know. Jeff Banister, Sapana Doshi, and Tracey Osborne, I could write another dissertation about my appreciation for you. Muchas, muchas gracias, compañeros. Also, to my fellow advisees for reviewing my work and extending the moral and intellectual solidarity that only peers can: first, from the Paul Robbins collective - Majed Akhter, Kristina Bishop, Heidi Hausermann, Robin Lewis, Katie Meehan, Jessie Minor, and Claude 5 Peloquin; and second, from the Sallie Marston circle – Morgan Apicella, Geoff Boyce, Eric Magrane, Jen “Mac” McCormack, Rebecca Patterson-Markowitz, Joseph Patton, Jared Powell, and Jeff Wilson, merci mille fois. Finally, to Amy McCoy, Jordanna Carvalho, and Brian Anderson; Larry, Tessa, Quinn, and Arya Gatti; Sophia and Brian Sims; Arin Weiss; and especially to Sandra, Michael, and Oren Morse: here we are. And here I am, thanks to you. 6 DEDICATION For Mubarakah 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES 12 LIST OF TABLES 12 ABSTRACT 13 I. INTRODUCTION 14 A SUBJECT UNTO ITSELF 14 IDENTITY AND SUBJECTIVITY 16 THE NEO-CARTESIAN SUBJECT: I (FILL IN THE BLANK), AND THEREFORE I AM 17 IDENTITY 18 SUBJECTIVITY 21 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 23 SLAVERY AND ABOLITION IN MAURITANIA 24 SITE 24 DEMOGRAPHICS 27 SLAVERY: A SCHEMATIC 30 SLAVERY TODAY 35 THE HARATINE 37 ABOLITION 39 METHODOLOGY 46 DATA COLLECTION 46 8 DATA ANALYSIS 49 BUT WAIT, IS THAT ALL? 51 A NOTE ON CONTRADICTION 52 II. POLITICS, NATURE, AND MEMORY (OR WHY WE HAVE NEVER BEEN MODERN) 55 MEMORY AND EMOTION 58 MEMORY AND MODERNITY 61 MEMORY AS GEOGRAPHY 64 PROBLEMATIC 1: THE STATE’S ATTEMPTS TO PARTITION NATURE FROM CULTURE 66 PROBLEMATIC 2: THE STATE AS RECORDER OF HISTORY 72 PROBLEMATIC 3: THE STATE AS CODIFIER OF BODIES AND ENVIRONMENTS 75 SUMMARY 77 III. EMOTION, REPRESENTATION, AND ASSEMBLAGE 79 DIFFERENCE, ALTERITY, AND SUBJECTIVITY, OR WHY STUDY EMOTIONS IN THE FIRST PLACE? 80 EMOTION AND REPRESENTATION 83 THE POLITICS AND ETHICS OF REPRESENTATION 84 EMOTION AND NON-REPRESENTATION 86 METHODOLOGICAL ALTERNATIVES 87 EMOTION AND AFFECT 93 AFFECT AND ITS (ALLEGED) DISCONTENTS 94 ISLANDS UNTO THEMSELVES? 98 9 EMOTION, AFFECT, AND LANGUAGE 100 NEUROSCIENTIFIC SUBSTANTIATION 103 DESTINATION UNKNOWN 105 EMOTION AND ASSEMBLAGE 106 ASSEMBLAGE THEORY 107 EMOTIONAL ASSEMBLAGES 110 SUMMARY 114 IV. EMOTIONAL MEMORY 115 INTRODUCTION 116 GEOGRAPHIC MEMORY 119 AMNESIA, SELECTIVE MEMORY, AND THE ABSENCE AND PRESENCE OF SLAVERY 120 DROUGHT, DENIAL, AND THE POLITICS OF GEOGRAPHIC MEMORY 122 MAHMOUD AND MUBARAKAH 123 EMOTIONAL MEMORIES 127 ANTIPATHY 129 EMPATHY 137 IN DEFENSE OF APORIAS 145 NOSTALGIA 147 EMOTIONAL MEMORY AS BECOMING-WITH THE ENVIRONMENT 150 MEMORIES AS OBJECTS: DASEIN, TOOL-BEING, AND READINESS-AT-HAND 153 SUMMARY 155 V. MEMORIAL EMOTION 158 10 INTRODUCTION 158 METHODOLOGY AS EXPERIMENTATION 160 SENSE AND REMINISCENCE: THE STORY OF MUBARAKAH 164 QUESTIONING AND LISTENING 166 BEING AND BECOMING-SLAVE: A MEMORIAL EMOTION 167 EXPLANATION, ATTRIBUTION, AND THAT THING CALLED CULTURE 169 LANGUAGE AND ETIQUETTE 171 TIME CHANGES THINGS 172 ENFRAMING 173 LANGUAGE AS A VESSEL OF EMOTIONS AND MEMORIES 175 ANALYSIS, OR LACK THEREOF 176 SUMMARY 177 VI. CONCLUSION 179 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 180 A POLITICS OF BEING BEYOND THE SUBJECT 183 ALIENATION 184 BEING-THERE AS BEING-WITH: DASEIN AS MITSEIN 187 REPRESENTING AS FORGETTING