here, we raise the question, “where is west africa in the archive?” which is easily followed by “what/whose archive?” and “what/whose west africa?” 

we grapple with the double-bind of the archive—including public (colonial) records, private collections and oral repositories—its sheer terror and possibility, the grave potential for ethical indeterminacy, the inextricable co-mingling of violence and the soft ripples of care. 

without taking the archive, or history, by definition or relevance, for granted, we pose another problem: “what might the littoral have to do with any of this?”