Book Review for Space-Time Collapse 1
A Call to Create New Realities with Space-Time Collapse I: From the Congo to the Carolinas
Lochard, A., Ayewa, C., Stanley, T., KMT, J., Womack, Y., Matti, F., Paijmans, T., & Smith, A. (2016). Space-Time Collapse I: From the Congo to the Carolinas . (R. Phillips & D. Matti, Eds.). The Afrofuturist Affair/House of Future Sciences Books.
Introduction
Space-Time Collapse I: From the Congo to the Carolinas is an anthology filled with “bold perspectives” that “call us to divest from acts and institutions that make regular occurrence of suffering” (Lochard 7). This collection of work embodies the interdisciplinary reality of African spirituality by archiving the thoughts of academics, professors, poets, activists, and authors. Each essay meditates on the history of temporal perception. This work infuses science, poetry, and historical analysis to provide an understanding of African spiritual theories of space and time.
African conceptions of space, time, and spirituality is an emerging field of study. For centuries, Western academics have denied African people of their own systems of thought, so literature and research is often lacking nuisance and limited in specificity. Nonetheless, scholars have studied and discussed African notions of time and space. While this conception has become generalized, it is important to note that different cultures, tribes, and spiritual traditions hold varying notions of space and time. Existing research in this area consists of an understanding that Africans perceive time as a social cultural reality that is impacted by nature and spiritual traditions. Most researchers reference the cosmology of the Dagara and Yoruba people to explain the African sociocultural understanding of time and space. Many writings discuss the African conception of time in relation to perceptions of death. Overall, the general belief is that African spiritual realities understand time as a cyclical process, as opposed to the Western linearization of time. This conception of time leads to a reality in which the past, present, and future interact within each person, moment, and community. Yet, Space-Time Collapse I: From the Congo to the Carolinas extends the conversation of space and time beyond its generalities. In particular, this anthology embodies the multifaceted nature of African spirituality in form and function. Throughout this collection, some contributors create short stories that mirror the oral storytelling necessary for the survival of African spiritual tradition. Others provide research on specific cultural perceptions of time in relation to current perceptions of time. Most notably, this work grapples with the discordant nature of African American history in a way that asks the reader to uplift the power that can come from the hybridization of African spiritual traditions.
There were eleven contributing authors to this anthology. In this book review, the works of three contributors will be highlighted for their exemplary connection to the professed thesis of this anthology. Rasheedah Phillips is a practicing attorney and author from Philadelphia. She began her research into African time cosmology for a speculative fiction book, Recurrence Plot (and Other Time Travel Tales). Thomas Stanley is an assistant professor at George Mason University where he is a research faculty with Virginia Serious Game Institute. Stanley teaches sound art practice and consciousness studies. Joy KMT is a published Black, queer, femme poet.
Content
In the foreword, editor Alicia Lochard states that Space-Time Collapse I: From the Congo to the Carolinas is “a gathering of insurgent refusals of imposed order, imperatives to think and rethink renderings of present/future/past, and against the logistical compression of black time orientations forged before and through the darkness of dungeon and hold, but no longer trapped there” (Lochard, 7). She goes on to proclaim that this anthology is “an elegy to the ancestors left on the ocean floor” (Lochard, 7). In summary, this work aims to help reframe the “present/future/past” of Black people by considering African conceptions of time.
Rasheedah Phillips’ “Dismantling the Master’s Clockwork Universe” discusses the differences in Western and African conceptions of time and space. Phillips states, “Natural time has been overthrown by Western linear time… Western time consciousness stresses fixed events along a forward moving timeline, while events are seen as irreversible” (Phillips 16). She discusses the the history of Western time as unidirectional, which she accredits to religion and technology. In her explanation, Western notions of time began with “a belief in Biblical apocalyptic visions of the end being near,” which meant time needed to be tightly regulated. Later, Western time became a useful tool for calculating longitude, which helped to advance navigation and other technologies. By contrast, Indigenous African notions of time in many traditions “often made no sharp distinction between the past, present, and the future (yesterday, today, and tomorrow” (Phillips 21). More explicitly, she writes, “Future events are situated in a potential time, until experienced…Those events do not depend on some specific clock time…Instead, time depends on the quality of the event and the person experiencing it. Once the future event is experienced, it instantaneously moves backward into the present and past dimensions” (Phillips 22). Time is experienced partly in one’s own individual life and partly through the generations and communities before them. Phillips leaves us with guiding questions on ways that we can heal the internalized linear time construct.
Thomas Stanley’s “Alter Destiny, Free Black Music and Temporal Culture of the Maroons,” responds to Phillips through an analysis of music’s correlation to Maroon conceptions of temporality. Stanley writes, “In the standard Garifuna creation myth, the black people escape slavery by reconciling themselves with indigenous ecology and indigenous time” (Stanley 42). In essence, his solution is for African descended people to find a way to reconcile their current reality with the truths of time presented from their ancestors. He further suggests that this can be done through music and other art forms. Stanley writes, “The stage, the concert hall, the gallery, even networked media, are all functioning as Maroon settlements for society’s creative exiles, spaces where the runaways can safely assemble in numbers to exchange goods and weapons, plot communal strategy” (Stanley 44). He suggests that African descended people should accept the hybrid nature of their existence and work to formulate new methods of living that successfully incorporate an indigenous perspective of time and space. He uplifts, “You should resist any misplaced sentimental attachment to or nostalgia for community, the unified body politic. It is dead forever. The aggregation is stronger, more flexible and adaptive, and far less prone to fascistic excess than any community forged around common ideology” (Stanley 45).
Joy KMT’s “Time Traveling Bodies” is a guided reflection that draws on the scholarly research of Phillips and Stanley by discussing the implications of space/time subjectivity. She molds the scholarly work into beautiful language. “Clay. It is the matter—the genesis—of a new reality. The Clay is the rich density from which temporary timelines bridge time-space realities. It is the collection of subjective facts from which one can build a myth strong enough to cross on” (KMT 50). Her work encourages African descended people to consider how they can build new clay or new formations of reality by paying attention to the stories and notions that go unquestioned. She finishes this with a suggested ritual for how to create new healed timelines. Joy’s work illustrates the ways in which artistic reflection bolsters the scholarly works presented in this anthology. Each essay is in direct conversation with liberation through increasing awareness of African spiritual knowledge.
how does an accepted theory of time impact culture and worldview?
Reflections
The proclaimed purpose of this anthology represents an emerging field of work in which Black thinkers are demanding adequately shared knowledge of Black history and theory that goes beyond the Transatlantic Slave Trade. While each author presents distinct ideas, they each concede to the idea that the Black community must forge a new, hybrid conception of time and spirituality, which will help to release cycles of enslavement. More succinctly, Thomas Stanley states, “Our art must reflect our historical and contemporary realities, but most critically, it must also project and energize an authentic future, a future that is more than just a reconstitution of the past or continuation of the present” (Stanley 47).
This anthology was crafted with care and precision. The form of this collection exceeds the current Western conceptions of “scholarly” work by infusing poetry, short story, and reflection with scholarly research. By validating the importance of practice-based or experienced-based knowledge, the editors simultaneously enacted the call to action that they were hoping the written works would inspire. The anthology begins with a poem that explores “speculative temporal narratives of enslaved Africans snatched from their homes, forced into the ships, and taken across the waters to other lands” (Phillips 19). Although the collection of works cautions us from beginning with the Transatlantic Slave Trade, they highlight that this isn’t the beginning, it simply represents the largest rupture in African time/space, which has caused Black people to constantly return to this moment of trauma. In fact, this is illustrated in the overall structure of the book, which begins with a poem about enslavement. Followed by an interwoven arrangement of scholarly articles and reflections that exemplifies the dynamic and interconnected nature of African spiritual thinking and theory. The anthology closes with a short story that imagines various futures while simultaneously acknowledging the past and present. The scholars have also curated an extensive and well-sourced bibliography in support of the many conversations that are evoked in their works. In particular, Phillips and Stanley provide a strong scholarly basis to support the practice-based and experienced-based reflections of the poets and creative writers who contributed to this collection.
Space-Time Collapse I:From the Congo to the Carolinas is meant to be a multidisciplinary book that presents scholarly work in many formats. This allows them to access a wide audience of readers who can be drawn into their own research and exploration of African spiritual traditions. The language of this book is utilized appropriately to engage with the thoughts and thinking of African descended people. In particular, their work caters to a growing number of young people seeking to connect with an understanding of the cosmologies that preceded slavery and Abrahamic religions. Most of the literature surrounding Black history and politic focus much of their time on detailing the atrocities of white colonizers. This extends beyond literature and is also seen in the replications of oppression present in art and lifestyle. Yet, this book stands out because it posits that the harm of white colonizers has impacted us, but it has also created a gap that can be filled by reckoning with the African knowledge that exists within the past, present, and future. It asks artists, scholars, and activists to join in on this conversation and consider the ways in which the cycles of oppression can be dismantled on an individual and communal level. Personally, Space-Time Collapse I: From Congo to the Carolinas represents a collection of works that has helped to heal and re-conceptualize the traumatic experiences that are forced onto Black people.
