What is a river? A transnational meditation on the colonial city, abolition ecologies and the future of geography

ABSTRACT

This short essay, flowing through Nairobi and Toronto, represents a transnational conversation on what the contemporary status of urban rivers can tell us about the endurance of coloniality in these two spaces. Against the hegemonic bids for their “revitalization,” we attend to these two rivers, both of which helped propel the growth of their respective urban agglomerations, as symbols of people-centered struggles for abolition ecologies. We aim to provoke the incorporation of more plural understandings and narrations within the discipline of geography, and have been struck by the similarities across different post- and settler-colonial contexts, and, as well, the limited lenses that attend to these environments in academic scholarship. Accordingly, we also highlight the possibilities that emerge in thinking jointly with urban spaces across the “North” and “South” divide, in order to demonstrate the connected and pervasive nature of empire, and the variegated practices that resist coloniality in cities.

KEYWORDS:

• Abolition ecologies
• Nairobi
• Toronto
• rivers
• colonial city

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The sole reference to Indigenous life reads as follows: “References to aboriginal history and topographical nomenclature should be included” in interpretive signage that tells “a story about the valley, informing users about its natural and historic features, as well as the status of ongoing initiatives“ (City of Toronto & Toronto Region Conservation Authority, 2013, p. 53).