Kalama: Oceanian Countercurrents of US Imperialism

This article presents the history of an atoll named Kalama, situated in a vast and interconnected Oceania. Writing against dominant historical narratives that call the atoll Johnston and label it as minuscule, isolated, and easy to sacrifice in the name of US empire, we pursue a resistance history for Kalama relying on what we call Oceanian countercurrents: an ocean-focused spatial and political perspective that taps into often overlooked human and nonhuman resistance to US renderings and uses of the atoll, and a focus on Kalama's history as destructive and toxic fumbling rather than a teleological unfolding of an empire in control. In providing this history of and for Kalama, we aim to unsettle the discursive and material ways Kalama has been claimed as a critical node in US empire and to take an ocean-based voyager's perspective to pry open potential alternative futures for the atoll and for Oceania.