Western art museums rarely exhibit contemporary, indigenous art. Ethnologist Mona Suhrbier believes that the art world has to rethink how it approaches the unfamiliar.

Wasteful use of the earth’s resources is a leading cause of environmental disasters, and the wealthy industrialized countries are benefiting from the exploitation of developing countries.

The new edition of “das goethe” with the theme “Digital Civil Society” will be issued on 16 January. On The Latest at Goethe, journalist Ina Holev explains how colonisation continues in the digital space.

An interview with Nanjira Sambuli: The digital equality advocate spells out the steps necessary for bridging the knowledge gap in the digital age.

How can museums work together with local communities to redefine and reshape their role in those communities? Mandy Sanger, the Head of Education at the District Six Museum in Cape Town, sheds light on a participatory pedagogical approach.

At the end of November 2019, the launch of the exhibition project "Invisible Inventories", which is supported by the Goethe-Institut, took place in Kenya. At the "Object Movement Dialogue #4" in the Nairobi National Museum, the role of local communities within the restitution debate was discussed. The Kenyan journalist Abigail Arunga was on site for "Goethe aktuell".

How African artists see German colonial history became clear during the cultural week “The Burden of Memory” organised by the Goethe-Instituts of the Sub-Saharan African region, held in the Cameroon capital city of Yaoundé.

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. 

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.

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.

The appointed curator of the Berlin Biennale 2018, Gabi Ngcobo, speaks about postcolonialism and the importance of revisiting history.

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.