Mirene Arsanios on mother tongues

<p>Mirene Arsanios discusses her text, “E Autobiography di un Idioma,” published in <em>e-flux journal</em> #92—”on feminisms” (Summer 2018)<em>.</em> In conversation with editor-in-chief Kaye Cain-Nielsen.</p> <p>“I would have liked to come to you (abo) with something more reliable, like documents (akto), but I’m an oral language (idioma)—an Afro-Portuguese proto-creole developed on the western coast (kosta) of Africa and brought over to the Caribbean in the seventeen century. That’s one of the theories of my genesis. There are others (otronan). Dutch and Spanish tagged along at later stages, with a few Arawak words (palabranan). Initially, slave traders and slaves used me to ‘communicate’; then I was just used (merka). The only document in my possession says I was born on the island of Curaçao, north of the Venezuelan shore. Linguists struggle to match my identity to a location. Words travel and land in places (luganan) that do not match their jurisdiction (a nation (nashon)-state).”<br /> —Mirene Arsanios, “E Autobiography di un Idioma”</p> <p>Other works mentioned:<br /> —Iman Mersal, <em>الصوت في غير مكانه (The Displaced Voice);</em> trans. Lisa White (New York: Belladonna* Collaborative, chaplet #232, 2018). Excerpt read by Belladonna editor Ana Paula.<br /> —Iman Mersal, “عن الأمومة والعنف، إيمان مرسال (On Motherhood and Violence),” trans. Anna Ziajka Stanton, <em>Makhzin</em> issue #2—FEMINISMS (Daisy Atterbury, Tarek El-Ariss and Mirene Arsanios, editors)<br /> —Jamaica Kincaid, <em>The Autobiography of My Mother</em> (New York: Macmillan, 1996).</p>