Towing the Line: Unraveling & Reconstructing Identity Along the Zambezi River

Towing the Line reflects on systems of connection and disconnection in postcolonial southern Africa along the Zambezi River. With Namwali Serpell's novel, The Old Drift, as a catalyst, this project questions how we form and reform identities—individual, collective, shared, and national— and examines how they manifest spatially and shape our relationship with place and space through a world-building exercise. African identities are in a constant tug of war, a struggle to reclaim narratives and the right to self-determination. Externally imposed identities have historically determined the position of Africans in the world and were formed by tearing and stitching together peoples, territories, and boundaries. These ruptures and sutures cannot be reversed but must always be reckoned with. My research interrogates colonial boundaries and edges to propose alternative ways of connecting and building relationships on the continent.