(Re) Commoning Through Counter-Mapping, the Case of Mida Creek Area, Kilifi County, Kenya

In many African countries, colonial legacies continue to shape spatial justice, access, and governance of commons, yet the role of maps and mapping in these dynamics is often overlooked. Conventional cartographic practices that are rooted in Cartesian epistemologies and embedded within capitalist and global frameworks, frequently reproduce colonial spatial orders, deepen inequalities, and alienate subaltern communities from their commons. This paper examines to what extent and under which conditions counter-mapping serves as a critical visual and socio-political practice for (re)commoning, using the case of Mida Creek in Kilifi County, Coastal Kenya, which is inhabited by the Giriama people of the Mijikenda community. Through re-framing historical narratives to highlight more a community perspective, the study reveals how mapping has historically facilitated enclosure and cartographic violence, while counter-mapping offers avenues to capture embedded local spatialities and reposition community claims in contested territories. Situated within ecologically sensitive commons, including the Watamu Marine Park Reserve and the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, the rapidly urbanizing Mida Creek area faces intensifying pressures from tourism, mining, and urban expansion. This paper demonstrates how counter-mapping unveils and remakes territories in a manner that fosters collective agency, strengthens place-based knowledge, and supports the restoration of commons governance amid competing development interests.