Hydrocentric Reading of Rivers: Waterways in Wade Davis’ Magdalena: River of Dreams

The aim of this article is to analyse Wade Davis’ outlook on the Magdalena River through the lens of Mielle Chandler and Astrida Neimanis’ (2013) inclusive understanding of gestationality. In his 2021 book Magdalena: River of Dreams. A Story of Colombia, the Canadian cultural anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis describes Colombia’s complex past and present, showing how the river shaped its people socially and culturally. Davis wants to make his readers aware of water as the fundamental, intertwining and non-human planetary agent within all areas of life, and wants them to reimagine their relation to the river. In his epic story of Colombia that braids together journalism, history, travelogue and memoir, Davis describes how Colombians are inextricably formed by their relationship with the Magdalena River, how they flow together and shape each other. This article demonstrates how his treatment of the Magdalena River renders it an active agent of social change by discussing relations between human and extra-human life and by describing the Magdalena’s gestational aspect.