DOI: 10.18848/2327-008x/cgp/a229 ISSN: 2327-2554

“Asmaimee Enda Heard Their Whispers”

Erragab Eljanhaoui
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<p class="ql-align-justify">The <em>Ḥassāniyya</em> folktale, <em>Asmaimee Enda</em>, carries a rich archive of nomadic ethics, desert epistemologies, and an early posthuman thought that invites posthuman analysis. The Saharan West, extending from Oued Noun to the Senegal River and from the Atlantic Ocean to Mali, has been subjected to academic neglect, particularly with respect to studies of its oral tradition. The nomads of this region relied heavily on oral transmission of culture through folktales, poetry, proverbs, and idioms, which preserved various aspects of life in the Sahara before 1884, when colonial presence began reshaping the region through the societal transformation from tents to cities in the twentieth century. This shift necessitates a revisit of the precolonial era in search of glimpses of the nomadic life. Hence, this study examines this context to inspect the nomads’ ability to curate stories that highlight their ontological sensibility toward nonhuman entities, one that resonates with specific stands of posthuman theory. <em>Asmaimee Enda</em>, I argue, embeds a complex and profound Saharan epistemology that exhibits structural resonance with cyborg hybridity, (im)material agency, “<em>zoe</em>-centered embodied subject”, and “transcorporeality.” This article situates the <em>Ḥassāniyya</em> folktale in conversation with the international serpent-husband tale types (<em>Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index 425M</em>), highlighting how <em>Asmaimee Enda</em> provides a rich archive of desert ecological ethics in which hybridity is essential to endurance. In doing so, it challenges the assumption that non-anthropocentric thought is exclusive to late modernity or Western theoretical traditions.</p>

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