Traces

Postcolonial Responsibility

“The Agreement Is an Insult.”

The German and Namibian government negotiated a reconciliation agreement regarding the genocide of Ovaherero and Nama peoples by German colonial forces in the early 20th century without involving the descendants. Ngondi Kamatuka analyses the failures of the agreement.
 

Controversial Monuments

Open Wounds

Monuments in the public space in Brazil continue to promote the image of a patriarchal and racist country characterised by white settlers in which women and Indigenous ethnic groups do not exist, states Ana Paula Orlandi.

Genocide and (Post-)Colonial Responsibility

The German-Namibian “Reconciliation Agreement”

In June 2021, the German and Namibian governments announced their declaration on coming to terms with the colonial crimes in present-day Namibia. However, it only speaks of genocide “from today's perspective”. Is the German government trying to evade responsibility by interpreting the law in a specific way, ask Karina Theurer and Sarah Imani.

Coming to Terms with the Past

Confronting the Dark Chapter

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.

Anton Wilhelm Amo

A Transnational Memory

Initiatives and researchers in Germany, the USA, the Netherlands and Ghana have joined forces to the “Anton Wilhelm Amo Legacy” to honour Anton Wilhelm Amo. Amo gained his doctorate in the 18th century as the first African philosopher in Europe, and was the first non-white professor to lecture at German universities.

German Colonial History in Togo

“We Blacks Must Stick Together” – A Rejoinder

The co-production by the Münchner Kammerspiele “Wir Schwarzen müssen zusammenhalten – Eine Erwiderung” (We Blacks Must Stick Together – A Rejoinder) turned into a journey through time. The controversial quote by Franz Josef Strauß was the prelude to the joint creation of the play with the Togolese author Elemawusi Agbédjidji. 

Pre-Colonial Knowledge Production between Africa and Europe

“They Opened Up a Part of the World to Us”

Heinrich Barth's discoveries were a slap in the face to contemporary European conceptions that pre-colonial Africa was a continent without states, literatures or history, writes Achim von Oppen.

Understanding History through Playing

On the Trails of the Past

The video game “When The Rivers Were Trails” by Elizabeth LaPensée empathically brings to life a part of North America's Indigenous history and attempts reconciliation with the past.

Canada’s Relationship with First Nations

Renaming the Past

The names of streets, squares and other places reveal a lot about how a city and its leaders want their history to be remembered. Author Christopher Curtis on Montreal’s efforts to cope with changing perspectives on the city’s heritage.

Colonial Traces in the Public Space

And the Statues Really Are Alive

What should we do with colonial monuments and traces in the public space? Ever since the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent worldwide demonstrations in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, the discussion about historic monuments has been rekindled. 

German Colonialism in China

More than Just Kiaochow Bay: A (Nearly) Forgotten Story

Iltisstrasse, Berlin-Dahlem: In German, the word “Iltis” means “polecat”, evoking that little native carnivore from the marten family after which the road must surely have been named. But actually it wasn’t at all – to this day the street name commemorates a chapter in the history of German colonialism.

Decolonial Art

Black Sugar

Fine art against forgetting: Tiago Sant’Ana keeps alive the memory of colonial architecture and artifacts in his native Brazil. He uses black and white contrasts particularly frequently.

Authorised Heritage Discourse

Interrogating the German Colonial Narrative in Namibia

The memory and heritage landscape in Namibia today visibly recalls the German colonial era, with many of its prominent monuments and buildings safeguarded by National Monument status.

For a New Kind of Memory Culture

“Let’s Have Tea and Sing Love Songs!”

In the examination of power structures that have continued in Namibia since German colonialism and apartheid, the Namibian performer, author and lecturer Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja sees an opportunity to narrate history beyond ethnocentric interpretations. 

Recollecting 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.

A Collective Outlook

Invisible Inventories

A minimum of 32,500 Kenyan artworks are since colonial times still in museums and collections in Europe and America. The artist collective The Nest analyses the story told by the collected data and also the problems associated to it.

Invisible Inventories Programme

Advantages for both sides

“Invisible Inventories”, a series of exhibitions coordinated by the Goethe-Institut, is based on a research project to record Kenyan cultural objects in museums of the Western world. George Juma Ondeng’ from the National Museums of Kenya talks about well-founded provenance research and the emotionally charged restitution debate.

Exhibition series „Invisible Inventories“

Decolonising the discourse

The exhibition series “Invisible Inventories” showcases the results of an international research project whose aim is to build a database of Kenyan art objects in museums in Europe and North America. Shortly before the digital exhibition opening, Clara Himmelheber from the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum and Frauke Gathof from the Weltkulturen Museum talk about the work on establishing an equal relationship.

Controversial Collections

“Your Own Consciousness is the Actual Judge”

Several ethnological museums in Germany are currently researching their collections from the colonial era in cooperation with the societies of origin. In Munich the interests of Cameroon are represented by Albert Gouaffo, a professor of German literature and culture.

Art from the Colonial Era

Towards Restitution in Seven-League Boots?

At the moment there is lively debate about the return of cultural artefacts from colonial contexts to the origin societies. The discussion has given rise both to plausible solutions and new, even more complex questions, according to Uta Werlich, the director of the Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich.

Colonial Loot

Controversial Collections

How are German museums supposed to cope with the large volume of artefacts from the colonial era? The debate is focused on giving them back. But actually there’s something else that’s far more important.

Invisible Traces of Colonisation

“Geography Is a Weapon for War”

For the artist José Alejandro Restrepo, the forces of colonization are visible not only in physical violence and devastation. There are also silent struggles that have focused on the world of perception and ways of representing. 

Debris as Metaphor

“We Need to Return to Spaces of Uncertainty”

The Colombian artist Liliana Sanchez called for a positioning of exhibitions in relation to the state of things on the occasion of the event “250 Years Young” at the Humboldt Forum Berlin.

Provenance Research

The Long Arm of Colonialism

The Humboldt Forum with its collection of objects of non-European origin was conceived as a space of cultural encounter and understanding. But serious questions have arisen about how German and European cultural institutions are responding to critical questions about the restitution of artefacts brought in by colonialism.

From Willingness to Restitution

The Returning of the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

The German government expressed its “willingness in principle to make substantial returns of Benin Bronzes”, but the road to restitution is not easy. Cultural historian, art and heritage specialist Dr. Oluwatoyin Zainab Sogbesan on issues of ownership and the importance of the Benin Bronzes to the Nigerian identity.

Cultural Heritage Repatriation in Greenland

From a Tupilak’s Point of View

The restitution of material objects to its land of origin is a sensitive topic between European countries and its former colonies. In the case of Denmark and Greenland, thousands of objects have been repatriated. And yet, is the physical return of an object all that restitution implies, asks Magdalena Zolkos. 

Controversial Collections

African Heritage Held in Captivity

Freda Nkirote from the British Institute in Eastern Africa takes a critical look at the laborious back and forth on the restitution of cultural objects from Africa and calls for a paradigm shift in the debate.

A Very Bizarre Dialogue

“How Do You Think Your Ancestors Got These?”

The demands for restitution of illegally acquired objects from colonial contexts back to the communities of origin are getting louder. George Gachara suggests there may be other alternatives to the seemingly endless negotiations.

Everything Passes, Except the Past

Right There in the Corpus Delicti

An exhibition and online festival in the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut round off a cycle of events on the handling of colonial artefacts in European museums and archives. An article by Chistina Pawlata.

Museum Cooperation

From the Vision to the Practice of Restitution

The discrepancy between the restitution debate and the actual implementation of resolutions passed - from the perspective of Flower Manase, curator at the Tanzanian National Museum.

Repatriation Debate

The Restitution of Colonial Artefacts Is Going Slowly

Where do they belong? Ownership claims to cultural assets from the colonial period are often controversial and negotiating possible restitution is frequently a fraught and drawn-out process. Germany is taking some initial steps towards a resolution.

Cultural Heritage Management

Who Cares?

What is the role of conservation in a postcolonial museum? Does it allow cultural dialogue or perpetuate colonial violence? Reflections by Noémie Etienne on traces, threads and fragility.

Art Institutions

Curating is Power

Important positions in Brazilian art institutions are often occupied according to a fixed scheme: male, upper class, white. This affects the collections and programmes; Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous positions are underrepresented. But an opening to more diversity is emerging, Anna Azevedo observes.

Provenance Research

Searching for Traces Collaboratively

The Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich has embarked on a collaborative venture with scientists and communities of origin in Cameroon to research its collection from colonial times.

Decolonising Research and Knowledge Production

New Ethics for Museums

The return of both human remains and cultural objects held in Western museums back to the communities of origin must be on the same agenda, says history professor Ciraj Rassool. He spoke to “Latitude” on new ethics for museums.
 

Collaboration, Digitization and Sociomuseology

Exploring New Terrain

The concept of the museum increasingly coming into sharp focus globally. At the same time, faced critical questions about their contribution to the reappraisal of the colonial past. Winani Thebele, Chief Curator of the Botswana National Museum, explains which path Africa is taking.

Collaborative Museology

Exploring New Paths

Cooperative ventures between museums in the Global North and those in the Global South are likely to be structured quite differently in future, explains Barbara Plankensteiner, Director of the Museum am Rothenbaum World Cultures and Arts (MARKK) in Hamburg

Participation and Social Inclusion

Sustainable Cultural Heritage Tourism

Tourism contributes significantly to the conservation of cultural heritage. Noel Lwoga, Director-General of National Museum of Tanzania, highlights the importance of the close partnership between the museum and the local communities.

Museums in Namibia

Unity in Diversity

Ethnographic museums in Germany are in possession of large collections of cultural objects that were taken from Namibia in colonial contexts. The Namibian curator Golda Ha-Eiros explains how the museums in her country compensate for the loss of heritage.

Nigeria's Museum Landscape

Public Attraction Even Without Art Treasures

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.
 

Constructive Dialogue on Equal Terms

Who Safeguards the Intangible Cultural Heritage?

What opportunities and challenges arise with regard to the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in the global South? Who bears responsibility for safeguarding knowledge? An interview with Tiago de Oliveira Pinto.

Breaking Museum Stereotypes

Out of the Glass Box into the Open

“So that people can tell their own story”: Chief planner Jon Weinberg on designing the new National Museum of Lesotho, which opens in 2021, with local communities in mind.

On Participation and Collaboration in Museums

Don’t Do It For Me Without Me!

How museums in Africa with their urgently needed reorientation can at the same time take into account the traditions and expectations of their audience, explains George Abungu, archaeologist and former director of the National Museum of Kenya.

Participatory Museology

The District Six Museum

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.

Museum Cooperation

Rethinking the Colonial Legacy

Returning artefacts and cultural assets from the colonial era to their countries of origin in Africa has been a subject of New approaches to working with museums debate in various forums for a long time. However it increasingly appears that these discussions are not leading to a specific outcome.

Museums in South Africa

Laboratories of Social Transformation

Which transformations were necessary to free museums from the shackles of colonialism? Ciraj Rassool highlights the developments in South African museums since the mid-nineties.

Coding da Vinci

The Digitalisation of Culture

Visitors to museums and archives usually interact with exhibits locked in display cases in darkened rooms. Yet modern technology has given us ways to more directly experience art and cultural artefacts. Coding da Vinci is an open, cultural data hackathon that digitally brings museum pieces to life.