Re/entangling Irish and Nigerian diasporas: Colonial amnesias,decolonial aesthetics and archive-assemblage praxis

Abstract

This article discusses the practice of ‘genealogical re/entanglement’ developed in the context of a project about the ways colonial amnesias obscure the connections between the histories of Anglo-European colonialities and the crises of contemporary migrations. This methodology appropriates archival and assemblage art making practices to make visible and ‘familialise’ the prior encounters of Irish and Nigerian diasporans that remain unknown in Ireland, towards reshaping the grounds of present and future relations. The centrality of embodied knowledges in decolonial scholarship creates an imperative of not only grounding theoretical work in the materialities of lived experiences but also confronting the colonial inheritances that underpin the methods employed to engage them. As such, in the contexts of this project, the development of the methodology became a project in itself. In this article, I reflect on the decolonial interrogations and method(il)logical transfigurations of the Western art and research traditions that intersected with and co-constructed the substantive analysis of Irish and Nigerian diasporic entanglements. An interactive account of how the method operates provides an opportunity to explore the ways the interconnectedness of the aesthesic, epistemological and pedagogical projects underpinning decolonial work combine to constitute a dynamic praxis.