Regional Drift

Book excerpt: This book examines the Southern Indian Ocean corridor as a geographic, geological, and atmospheric space, taking a critical oceanic humanities approach while never losing sight of the land and water interface. Using a range of disciplinary approaches and materials, Gupta and de Araújo hydrate territorial and land-based imaginations of the Southern African region by conceptualizing its oceanicity as a fluid and more than human materiality, synthetic situation, and geopolitical nexus. With a diverse set of case studies, they explore a variety of conceptual framings and methodologies, including science-technology-society studies, tourism and heritage studies, history, and international relations (IRs) – among others. The contributors cover a complex and vast imaginative geography, cross-cutting Portuguese, German, and British colonial traces in the region, and exploring land, water, and submerged spaces, from coastal towns and bridges to islands and archipelagos. A fresh approach to thinking about Atlantic and Indian Ocean coastlines in a relational and scalar manner for scholars across a range of disciplines focussed on Southern Africa.