20121030_Berlin_Pasch_Zukunftswerkstatt_FotoBernhardLudewig_Tag4_Tag1__4825 © Goethe-Institut

Decolonisation

Decolonisation is a hotly contested topic in South Africa and beyond. How does colonialism still shape our society and daily lives? And how are these discussions reflected in the arts and culture?

Di Dikadika tsa Dinaledi by Lerato Shadi Di Dikadika tsa Dinaledi by Lerato Shadi © Herman Verwey

GoetheonMain
A history of violence - Lerato Shadi's work asks: Are we really a 'post' colony?

Her new exhibition is a visceral and complex display of knowing oneself and one’s lineage in the absence of, and despite, history and memory.  [more …]
Ausstellung im Deutschen Historischen Museum Ausstellung im Deutschen Historischen Museum © Marcel Runge

Colonial History
A Journey through Postcolonial Berlin

This project initiated by the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg aimed for participants from different African countries and Germany to face their common history. Here is what three participants experienced on their journey. [more …]
Gabi Ngcobo, curator 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art Photo: Masimba Sasa

Gabi Ngcobo
“We are all postcolonial“

The appointed curator of the Berlin Biennale 2018, Gabi Ngcobo, speaks about postcolonialism and the importance of revisiting history. [more …]
Humboldt Forum Workshop Johannesburg, Februar 2016 Photo: Goethe-Institut / Benjamin Keuffel

Humboldt Forum
A Key to the World

Three years until the opening of Berlin’s Humboldt Forum: at a Goethe-Institut congress in Johannesburg, Hermann Parzinger, Neil McGregor and others discussed how it will not just be a museum, but can be a place where we can come to terms with the history of oppression in Africa. [more …]
Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha, who was responsible for the Herero massacre, with his unit in the then colony of German South-West Africa in 1904; Photo (detail): © Bundesarchiv

Re-examining Colonialism
The Past Is Never Dead

Germany’s colonial past entails a considerable burden of responsibility that continues to this day. This is evident in debates about ethnological collections, the renaming of streets – and in the question of how to deal with guilt. [more …]