The Turkana Residency: Disrupting the Nature Narrative

An Intersection of poetry, science, and ancestral memory

Poetry equals art, or perhaps, it’s the other way around. But what of science? What could poetry and science possibly share? Plenty, it turns out. Ancient rocks from the heart of the Turkana Basin, or better yet, the actual term, Geology, telling stories of the land. Fossils of our shared ancestry being studied not just by scientists, but by poets, too. When nature becomes both subject and storyteller, the lines between disciplines blur and inspiration kicks in.

This was the guiding spirit of Disrupting the Nature Narrative Residency at the Turkana Basin Institute (TBI), a partnership between the Scottish Poetry Library, Kenyan and Scottish literary networks, and the Macondo Literary Festival. Four poets, Michelle Angwenyi, Eloise Birtwhistle, Ngartia Ngatia, and Genevieve Carver set out into the cradle of mankind, carrying with them questions, notebooks, and a hunger to explore the world through science, nature and metaphor.

 A Convergence of Disciplines

Each poet brought with them expectations shaped by deep, diverse practices. For Michelle Angwenyi, whose writing is rooted in zoology and molecular biology, the Turkana Basin offered a rare convergence of science and story. She had long believed that poetry could speak to what science can’t quite reach: the unnamed, the intuitive, the spiritual. She came seeking to explore “the poetry of the as-yet undescribed natural world”,to document what the limits of scientific language cannot, and to reimagine how spaces like museums might center African voices through artful reinterpretation.

Eloise Birtwhistle, a Scottish eco-poet known for weaving natural phenomena into human narratives, saw the residency as a chance to break free from the digital world and immerse herself in a living archive. She expected to encounter the stories locked inside sediment, the metaphors embedded in paleontology. She hoped to connect ancient environments to our contemporary lives and to discover new kinships across continents and ecosystems.

For Ngartia Mũrũthi, the residency was something more elemental: a return. Born under the shadow of Mount Kenya, raised in the wilds of Laikipia, Ngartia understood land as identity. He came with the concept of Ntoror—a ProtoMaa word for contested pasturelands, a metaphor for the complexities of human coexistence. Turkana, to him, was not just research ground. It was origin ground. He came to listen, to be still, to feel the echo of home in a place where time stretches back to the beginning of us all.

Genevieve Carver, a poet and performer from Scotland’s northeast, arrived with a history of collaboration between art and science. Having studied seabirds and dolphins alongside marine biologists, she had learned to write with, and not just about the natural world. In Turkana, she expected to be guided by researchers, by local people, by the land itself. She came with a will of unknowing, for the quiet observations that precede language. For her, poetry would follow the rhythms of fossil beds, wind patterns, and ancient bones.

Together, these poets came from different parts of the world, each bringing their own unique voice. Their expectations were about immersion into science and community.

Discovering Turkana’s Stories

The week was packed with discovery. Viewing fossils in the TBI labs, soaking in the open landscapes, and taking in everything the natural world had to offer. One of the notable area visits was Lothagam, a geological site on the western edge of Lake Turkana defined by its rust red ridges and sedimentary layers. The scale of Lothagam is both overwhelming and humbling. Easily one of the most beautiful places on the west side of the lake offering more than visual inspiration. For a poet, it sparks questions, reflections, and a sense of connection to the land’s history.

The group also made their way to Central Island, right in the middle of Lake Turkana. This volcanic island offered a different kind of experience. Known for its active craters, steaming vents, and crater lakes, it’s home to crocodiles, flamingoes, and landscapes that feel almost surreal. They took long walks across the rocky terrain, getting up close with the the dynamic geological forces still shaping the region. A reminder of Turkana’s natural diversity.

The Turkana Residency became a space where poetry wasn’t just a retreat from the world, but a method of deeper inquiry. Fossils were not just specimens, but unearthed stories. And where the questions about origin, identity and nature were best explored at the intersection of disciplines.

The land spoke, the poets listened and their poems are forming.