Tag Archives: Postcolonial perspectives

kassel postcolonial

In German colonialism, Kassel was an important hub for advancing colonial expansion and securing relations of domination. Traces of this can still be found in many places today: the Orangerie was the setting for a colonial exhibition, in the Witzenhausen
Colonial School, personnel were trained for the African colonies and along Untere Königstraße numerous colonial goods stores marketed products. It is important to the kassel postcolonial project to establish connections between Kassel’s role in the historical
colonialism and our everyday life today and to make visible the after-effect/continued effect of colonial traditions, perspectives and power relations.

New: The fairy tale of eye level

We are pleased to announce our new brochure: The fairy tale of eye level. Power and Solidarity in North-South Partnerships

maerchenbroschuere_title page-216x300Eye level and partnership are phrases that are often used in North-South, solidarity or ‘development cooperation’. They are meant to signal progressiveness and demonstrate equality. But do the terms extend beyond rhetoric? What are the patterns of thinking and structures in North-South partnerships? What are the perspectives of the so-called southern partners on cooperation?
In the publication “Das Märchen von der Augenhöhe” (“The Fairy Tale of Eye Level”), glokal e.V. has brought together ten activists, committed people and NGO workers from the Global South and North to shed light on different aspects of NGO structures, school partnerships, voluntary services and solidarity work. A theoretical introduction makes the historical-political framework tangible, and a reflection and practice guide supports the analysis and transformation of the reader’s own engagement.

The brochure can be
[hier]
 be ordered from us.
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The new fun EZ

brave typesWith the slogan “Brave types – extremely help” the Hamburg campaign Viva con Aqua writes out at present a journey to Uganda as price for a profit play. The tender text states:

“You will fly from Germany to Uganda accompanied by a Viva-con-Agua staff member on 18.03.2016. […] In Kampala you will meet Nobert Latim and Papa Shabani, co-founders of the crew Viva con Agua Kampala. You will accompany them in their everyday life and get to know other friends, artists and supporters of Viva con Agua in Uganda. Together you are preparing for the upcoming World Water Day on 22/03/2016: Some music and art activities and WASH workshops are planned in the Moroto project area. On 23.03.2016 you will travel back to Kampala with the Viva con Agua activists. On the two following days, workshops, music and art events, incl. Song and video shoot planned. All this will then culminate in the WELOVEYOUGANDA Music- & Artfestival #2 on Saturday, 26.03.2016. On 27.03. you will take the return flight from Kampala (Entebbe), so that you will be back in Germany on 28.03.2016.”

Actions like these are to be questioned not only under racism-critical points of view, but even development-politically very much. You could dismiss it as a barely noteworthy Twitter ad and pay no further attention to the action. However, we observe, Continue reading →

queer_postcolonial_development_critical

This week in Vienna the website of the exciting project feminIEsta went online. From their self-description:

feminIEsta gathers work results, projects and initiatives that have crossed and crossed the Institute for International Development of the University of Vienna (IE for short, hence: feminIEsta); that took one of their origins at IE, converge there, branch out and network further from IE, or even distance themselves a bit.

feminIEsta intervenes both scientifically and politically in international development (politics) and takes a stand on its dilemmas, its promises, its violence.

feminIEsta applies feminist critique to theories and practices throughout, even if it may and should be argued what this means in detail.

feminIEsta wants to arouse curiosity about strategies that have already been tried and tested and about strategies that are still unrealized and desirable for bringing together development-critical and feminist approaches.

In this sense: Stay rebel and feminIEsta!

Film tip: Concerning Violence

Yesterday the German tour of the film“Concerning Violence – Nine Scenes from the Anti-Imperialistic Self Defense” by Göran Hugo Olsson started. The film is a visual underscore of Frantz Fanon’s 1961 anti-colonial manifesto “The Damned of the Earth.” Historical footage is combined with excerpts of Fanon’s text spoken by Lauryn Hill and embedded by a foreword by Gayatri C. Spivak.

The film has been awarded the film prize “cinema fairbinds“The film has been awarded the prize. On the page of the ministry it says: “With the award, the BMZ honors films that in an outstanding way invite current dialogue on particular aspects of the North-South relationship.” With this, the BMZ underlines the importance of colonialism, racism and capitalism criticism for current debates on development cooperation.

A list of all performances in Germany can be found here.

 

 

(In)Security in postcolonial development education in Germany

Last year, two glokal members participated in a roundtable on “What Do We Teach?”. How Do We Teach It? Critical Pedagogies and World Politics” at the International Studies Association Annual Convention in San Francisco, USA. The event resulted in a collection of publications that has now been published in the journal Critical Studies on Security. Here you can find the abstract of our article “(In)Security in postcolonial development education in Germany” (unfortunately it is not freely available, but only for much, much money).

The Big Five as dangerous as ever: German development cooperation, colonial-racist imagery, and civil society’s response

In response to the various statements against the BMZ poster campaign “The Big Five”, we have written an article that is intended to present a self-critical review and to make the debate accessible to an English-speaking audience. The article has been published in the journal Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices. We hope it is helpful for the further discussion about racism and power relations in DC. The article can be downloaded here.

Arguments in the dispute over gender relations

The Heinrich Böll Foundation has recently published an e-book to provide arguments in the discussion about gender relations. The authors Regina Frey, Marc Gärtner, Manfred Köhnen, and Sebastian Scheele explore individual accusations against gender studies and present arguments on how to counter them. Discussed are e.g. the ideology accusation, the unscientific accusation as well as the application of double standards. These are also common defense mechanisms, avoidance strategies, and accusations against people who work on other power-critical issues, critiques of racism, and postcolonial theory. It’s worth taking a look at the publication!

Postcolonial Studies in Development and Global Education

For all those who are interested in looking beyond the German discussion, the new blog that Prof. Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti has started might be interesting: Postcolonial Studies in Development and Global Education. It is intended to serve as an international network of scholars and practitioners working on postcolonial perspectives on development cooperation and global learning and is open to active participation.