The exiled encounter with absolute unknown was the founding trauma of creolized identity.

Evidence

For the AfrÏcans who lived through the experience of deportation to the Arnericas, * confronting the unknown with neither preparation nor challenge was no doubt petrifying. … Mrican languages became deterritorialized, thus contributing to creolization in the West. This is the most completely known confrontation between the powers of the written word and the impulses of orality. — Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 85

Categorization

• XREF: Confronting the unknown ‘with neither preparation nor challenge’ names the passive/subjectless pole Glissant will oppose with ‘detour, ruse, opacity’ as active practices — relevant to the essay’s mechanism question. — connects to: The middle passage’s trauma becomes a shared origin for collective identity. — Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 90; Diasporas form through trauma, choice, or creative invention without a founding origin. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3176

Broader Connections

• Diasporas form through trauma, choice, or creative invention without a founding origin. #contradicts (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3176