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Latitude - Rethinking Power Relations Photo (Detail): © Getty Images, Logo: Tobias Schrank

Rethinking power relations
Latitude

The Goethe-Institut invites experts and creatives worldwide to exchange ideas on colonial power relations, their consequences and, above all, how to dismantle them: in discourses, interviews, opinion articles and art projects. For a decolonized and non-racial world.

Latitude Festival © EL BOUM

For a Decolonised and Non-Racial World!
 Digital Latitude-Festival

The digital festival Latitude presented a programme of artistic contributions and debates, exploring the question of how colonial structures impact the present and how we can overcome them. You can find most contributions in the "Media" section!

Restitution Debate Surrounding the Benin Bronzes The Wish to Return Objects, Forbidden by Law

Restitution – Close-ups of the Benin plaques exhibit Photo (detail): David Cliff © picture alliance / ZUMAPRESS.com Benin Bronzes are exhibited in museums around the world, but the largest collection can be found in the British Museum. Barnaby Phillips analyses how much the government impacts British museums’ ability to return the objects.

Coming to Terms with the Past Confronting the Dark Chapter

Two people in front of a commemorative plaque in Berlin for the Congo Conference. Photo (detail): Paul Zinken © picture alliance / dpa / dpa-Zentralbild Between 1904 and 1908 the colonial forces of the German Reich murdered tens of thousands of Ovaherero and Nama people in what is now Namibia. After more than five years of negotiations, Germany recognised this as genocide. Henning Melber discusses the shortcomings of these negotiations, as well as the process of colonial powers coming to terms with the past.

From Willingness to Restitution The Returning of the Benin Bronzes

Restitution – Three Benin bronzes were exhibited in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg. Photo (detail): Daniel Bockwoldt © picture alliance / dpa The German government expressed its “willingness in principle to make substantial returns of Benin Bronzes”, but the road to restitution is not easy. Oluwatoyin Zainab Sogbesan on issues of ownership and the importance of the Benin Bronzes to the Nigerian identity.

Portraying Diversity in Children's Books Changing the Narrative

A young Nigerian woman takes a book from a bookshelf in a library. Photo (detail): Kyodo/MAXPPP © picture alliance / dpa Minority groups are far too infrequently represented in children's literature produced in Europe and North America. Unfortunately, these are the books available in most schools and home libraries in Africa. Enajite Efemuaye from Kachifo, a Nigerian publishing house, is telling new narratives that reflect the diversity in the society. 

Digital Divide Decolonise the Internet

Everyday life in Zimbabwe: Crowds in one of the few public places with free WLAN. People in Mutare, about 270 kilometers east of the capital Harare, 23 November 2019. According to a recent independent report, Zimbabwe has one of the most expensive mobile data sources in the world. The high data costs are mainly attributed to the fact that the country has relatively few mobile internet providers and that it is a landlocked country. Photo (detail): Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi © picture alliance / AP Photo The internet is characterised by power structures. Digital colonialism shows how established hierarchies can also become entrenched on the world wide web. But activists and artists are growing increasingly resistant, says Ina Holev.

Colonial Heritage in the Performing Arts Reversing the Colonial Gaze

Ensemble from “Die Kränkungen der Menschheit”. Photo (detail): © Gabriela Neeb There has been an ongoing conversation on post-colonialism and the racism associated with it. Anta Helena Recke’s production “Die Kränkungen der Menschheit” (The Mortifications of Humanity) at the Munich Kammerspiele is an example of how theatres can address this topic.

Equality in the Global Economy Interrogate Globalisation

Felwine Sarr Photo (detail): Thilo Rückeis TSP © picture alliance What role can Africa play in the globalized economy? And how can the continent remain true to itself and at the same time reinvent itself?The Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr in a video interview.

Abubakar Adam Ibrahim Dreams and Assorted Nightmares

Everyday life 2017: Family cooking in Maiduguri (Nigeria) in front of their hut Photo (detail): Kristin Palitza © picture-alliance A man marries a second wife and pushes his first wife to the periphery. A story of superstition, vengeance, fetishes and curses in postcolonial Nigeria.

Simply Complicated Technological Solutions in the Global South

Global South: Computer technology with iHub, Kenya Photo (detail): Photoshot © picture alliance Emerging technologies present opportunities for countries in the global South to realise exponential change and growth. But just as abundant as the potential is, so are the bottlenecks. Nanjira Sambuli explains.

The First World War in the Colonies Africa Has a Past Too

Ascari faithfulness in German East Africa. (German Schutztruppen with native teams in the defense against an attack). Picture postcard after watercolour, 1918, by Fritz Grotemeyer Photo (detail): akg-images © picture alliance For Europe, 1914 was the start of that era described by Eric Hobsbawm as the “short 20th century” and “Age of Extremes”. Yet few people are aware that the First World War also caused untold damage in many different African countries, Elisabeth Wellershaus notes.

Nigeria's Museum Landscape Public Attraction Even Without Art Treasures

Ekasa Masquerades Dancers performing at the palace 2016 Photo (detail): K. J Eweka The evidence of the highly developed courtly art that flourished in the old kingdom of Benin has been preserved in European and North American collections since the British colonial period. This fact still forces Nigerian museums to preserve the cultural memory of its indigenous peoples in other ways.
 

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