KESINONU - HERITAGE OF THE EARTH

Kesinonu (Heritage of the Earth) is a long-term multi-sensory research project investigating embodied knowledge systems in Tové, my maternal village in rural Togo.

The work documents daily rituals around water, fire, and earth,not as disappearing traditions requiring preservation, but as living technical practices that have sustained communities for generations and continue adapting to contemporary pressures. The title comes from Ewe: Kesi (inheritance) + Onu (mouth/earth), meaning "what earth speaks to us" or "knowledge earth holds." Through photography and field recording, the project captures practices like water procurement from wells and streams, ceramic vessel fabrication, and cooking over three-stone wood-fire hearths, each embodying sophisticated technical knowledge transmitted through observation, repetition, and sensory experience rather than formal instruction. These are not cultural artifacts but engineering solutions: ceramic vessels shaped for ergonomic head-carrying and designed for evaporative cooling, hearth configurations optimized for fuel efficiency and heat distribution, water filtration through porous clay that traps particulates and stores liquid safely for days without refrigeration.

The project refuses romantic preservation narratives and positions itself from accountability rather than distance, this is my maternal village, these are my aunts and grandmother's generation, I am documenting knowledge that sustained me as a child. Since 2024, Kesinonu has expanded beyond photography toward spatial installation combining images, multi-channel audio (field recordings of water poured into ceramic vessels, pottery struck to test firing quality, wood crackling in hearths), and potentially physical ceramic objects. The aim is creating immersive environments where knowledge operating through multiple senses, sound, touch, heat, smell, becomes experienceable, asking what embodied understanding is lost when infrastructure arrives and what technical sophistication exists in practices often dismissed as "traditional" or "pre-modern." Published in Der Greif and PhotoVogue, the project is developing toward major exhibition with potential sound collaboration with artist Emeka Ogboh, whose 2024 masterclass at Goethe-Institut directly informed the sonic research direction.