Today, we use the term in the sense of expectation or looking forward, but anticipation has an element of preparation or forestallment that should prevent it from simply being used as a synonym for expectation as representation or assumption of a future act or development as if presently existing or accomplished.
This makes me think of how you speak of the physical environments that you create as tools that you construct in order to create spaces of encounter. This might seem instrumental, but on the other hand there will always be something that escapes the design.
Christian Nyampeta: Perhaps anticipation is related to a promise? I amuse myself by thinking that, day-to-day, encounters are organized following spoken and unspeakable promises. When an agreement is put into words or made visible in some way, we speak of a contract. Maybe then, once such arrangements are reached intuitively and left unannounced, we may call them expectations. An agreement then is the structuring of contingencies into stabilized codes, and here resides the tension.
At stake in these hosting structures is the idea of a reserve of a doing, a reserve of encounters. I visited Nzeyimana last year, and we talked about the meaning of rest and its role in the shaping of our subjects. In our conversation, Nzeyimana mentioned the notion of umwaku.
Nzeyimana calls this a malevolent wish. Suppose, Nzeyimana says, early in the morning you are up for some task, and you meet someone who makes a stirring comment to you. The person may tell you that your shirt is dirty, or the person may find that you are not looking good in this or that way. As the day advances, this comment grows on you to become agitating, and your disturbed mind prevents you from working restfully.
