Wanderlust

Dépaysement, a French word whose literal meaning is “to be without a country”, describes the sense of disorientation in unfamiliar places. For adventure travelers it describes that combination of nervousness and exhilaration of being in countries whose customs and language are strange and new. Artists are familiar with the feeling, as each artwork is a step into the unknown. The Surrealists and later Conceptual artists, deliberately created dépaysement or disorientation, to present familiar objects in unfamiliar contexts.

Since nomadic humans established agricultural societies and city life, a world of predictability and sameness emerged. While comforting for most, there have always been those who are restless, crave challenges and a life of adventure. Some, like travellers  Marco Polo and Ibn-e-Batutta, and the many explorers of history, thirsted for knowledge of distant lands. Others, such as the illegal migrants  making hazardous journeys, and the many young people who run away to the city, wish to escape unbearable existences. 

The British Somali writer, Warsan Shire, believes "No one leaves home unless/home is the mouth of a shark" while J.R Tolkein writes “Not all those who wander are lost.” The Silk Route and Colonialism were established for trade and acquisition of wealth, but were equally an opportunity for wanderlust. 

In 17-19 C England, the Grand Tour of Europe was an essential experience for gentlemen, and some women, to complete their education and develop their aesthetics.  A more connected world has encouraged permanent migrations.

The term, migration, emerged in the 1700s, however, people have been migrating since the establishment of human society. Large scale migrations were undertaken to escape the ice ages, wars, or religious and political persecution. Emigrants are those who leave a country, immigrants those who wish to enter a country, settlers occupy a country, establishing their own rules, and nomads have no fixed abode.

Today the West is alarmed with migration, yet, since 1500, the largest mass migrations have been by Europeans who populated the Americas, Canada, Australia and New Zealand reducing local populations to less than 3 percent. In much of Africa, and colonized nations, they dominated not by numbers, but by wresting power, so one can understand their concern.       

 A consequence of migration has been the evolution of culture, knowledge, skill and economic development. The best example would be the Greeks who migrated to Southern Europe between 8-5 BC, evolving and spreading Greek culture, not just in Europe, but further afield in the wake of Alexander’s conquests. The transnational Muslim Empires of 8-11  AD, the Age of Discovery, Colonial empires of 15 – 19 AD created opportunities for exchange of cultures and transmission of knowledge. Tragic events such as the displacement of people during the French Revolution, Nazi Rule, occupation of Palestine, the Partition of India and the many world conflicts equally played a part in dissemination of cultures. Religious mystics, such as Sufis, travelled to all corners of the world settling in lands far from their countries of birth. 

Voluntary migration is not random. Migrants seek the culture they feel closer to than their home culture they may feel disconnected with. Many of the Romantic poets, Bryon, Shelley and Keats migrated to Italy, for its history and aesthetics and more liberal society. Some artists, such as Paul Gauguin, who migrated to Tahiti, were searching for inspiration. Others such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, René Magritte or Modigliani gravitated towards the major art centres of Paris and New York.

For most ordinary people, migration grows out of a state of mind, described by the much travelled poet Robert Service,

“There's a race of men that don't fit in

A race that can't sit still

So they break the hearts of kith and kin

And they roam the world at will.”

Durriya Kazi

February 17, 2020