on development (reclaiming naming worlds)

That makes a certain kind of world,
Built for certain kinds of people

Possible.

What world?

A world of scarcity,
Of not enough

Lower – on a ladder
Behind – in a queue,
Slow – in movement,
Least – in value,
Failing – in progress,
In whose project?

So you become developing,

Still,

(Didn’t your mother birth you complete?)

But you don’t know, you must be taught,
You must be shown, you need help, you need experts
You need you need you need,

You can’t,

you are not.

I reject development and its miscontents, discontents, un-contents

I’m getting off that train to nowhere very fast

What names and namings did other worlds have for their dreams?
What names do other worlds have for their aspirations
Desires, presents pasts futures?

I want to use those names,

To foreground those worlds.

Keep your development, I’ll have my wiyathi,
Keep your development, I’ll have my sumak kawsay,
Keep your development, I’ll have my ujamaa,
Keep your development, I’ll have my swaraj,
Keep your development, I’ll have my whanau,
Keep your development, I’ll have my lek’il kuxlejal,
Keep your development, I’ll have my dreaming,
Keep your development, I’ll have my ubuntu,
Keep your development, I’ll have my madaraka,
Keep your development, I’ll have my yir kura,
Keep your development, I’ll have my raara to buri,

Yes, keep your development, I’ll have my living
Life.

c 2018

I wrote this in response to a class on ‘development’ in my Masters programme, and in which the majority of readings were from non-African and non-indigenous contexts – so I refused to read them. I updated the poem and included it as one of the interlude poems in my Masters dissertation on regeneration grounded in African lifeways. I remembered it because of a conversation about an alternative vision for the world and for the continent, at a conversation post film screening this weekend.

I remembered it because of my belief, desire and work towards articulating visions from the philosophies and lifeways of the people of this part of the Earth, that sometimes is seen like a blank dark gap. I was reminded today that being a story species, the things we don’t have a narrative for elude our sight. Part of imagining other worlds is seeking those names and naming ways that re-member community: human spirits, Earth spirits and unembodied spirits.