Decolonization in Action

In part 1 of the inaugural episode, we invited Dr. Noa Ha and Prof. Dr. Tahani Nadim to discuss the relationship between German colonial history and Berlin—the metropole of that colonial past. We focus on Berlin’s street names and the Natural History Museum as spaces of remembrance and resistance. In this episode we ask ourselves, in what ways does colonialism continue to shape Berlin institutions and the city of Berlin itself?

In Part 2, we continue the conversation on coloniality in Berlin with Dr. Noa Ha and Prof. Dr. Tahani Nadim to interrogate how decolonization is currently being understood within Berlin institutions.  We also discuss our guests’ own positionalities  within academia, museums, and political organizations, as well as the decolonial and anti-colonial methodologies they employ in their work and activism.

In this episode, edna bonhomme interviewed Dr. Luiza Prado: artist, researcher, and writer. They discussed her artwork, Brazil, decoloniality, and futures.

In this episode, edna bonhomme and Wendi Muse discuss the long history of leftists of color. Creator and co-host of the podcast Left POCket Project, Wendi explains how she uses the medium of podcasting to make the many histories of leftists of color from around the world accessible

In this episode, Kristyna Comer is in conversation with Kiel Ramos Suarez, a PhD candidate in history at Linnaeus University. Kiel discusses her current research on the medicalization of homosexuality and the ongoing impact of Spanish and US colonial rule.

In this episode, Dr. Duane Jethro discusses the ways that heritage sites are constructed and re-imagined through the senses with special emphasis on post-apartheid South Africa and Germany.

In this episode, Berlin-based comedian, Kate Cheka discusses the Enlightenment, (post)coloniality, and the power of protest. In addition to talking about her work in comedy and the radical potential of joy and community building comedy can create, Kate also shares her scholarly research from her master’s thesis which centered around decolonial critiques of the Enlightenment. After studying in New Delhi and Buenos Aires, Kate also talks about how traveling to formerly colonized cities gave her an expanded understanding of ongoing forms of coloniality as well as the ways in which the classroom continues to be a colonial space.

This episode presents a chronological sweep of field recordings and interviews taken in Madrid during COP25, December 2019, by our guest host Dr. Sumugan Sivanesan. It begins with the December 6 Manifestacíon in which around 500,000 people marched in the streets of Madrid, before tracing discussions at the Social Summit for the Climate (Cumbre Social por el Clima) at Complutense University and at other actions around the city. In front of the US embassy, this episode focuses on a demonstration led by Indigenous women who sang the Women’s Warrior Song, a song written by Martina Pierre from the Lil’wat First Nation that honors missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Indigenous women face the highest rates of murder and sexual assault in North America, and in Madrid the song connected these crimes to extractivist fossil fuel industries operating on unceded Indigenous lands. The montage culminates five days later with a casserolado noise demonstration outside the COP, in support of Indigenous delegates, Fridays For Future, and other civil society groups staging a demonstration inside the COP against the removal of references to Human Rights in the negotiations and widespread reports of bullying and inaction.

In this episode, edna bonhomme and Kristyna Comer, the hosts of the Decolonization in Action Podcast, present an overview of Season 1 and provides excerpts of some of the ways that guests have put decoloniality in their work by interrogating science, museums, memory, the arts, and climate justice. We will resume with Season 2 of the podcast in mid-March 2020.

As we find ourselves working through the current mass media frenzy, we turn to the not so recent past. Season 2 of this podcast begins with a conversation between edna bonhomme and Sara Salem, where they discuss the emergence of British imperialism in Egypt and how it led to the Egyptian revolution in 1952. They ask: What do Arab and Black Marxists have to say about colonialism and what influence did the African independence struggles of the 1950s and 1960s have on the Black Radical tradition? edna and Sara try to answer these questions by meditating on the afterlives of anti-colonialism. They start with the nineteenth century and slowly move to the Arab uprisings of 2010-2011. What they find is that these histories are not neat. There are periods of betrayal, exploitation, and loss. In light of former Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak’s resignation in 2011 and his death in 2020, they try to think about the ways that we create our own histories everyday.

Angela Merkel declared that up to 70% of Germany could be infected by COVID-19, leading to nationwide public health measures and the closure of the borders. For migrants living in Berlin, COVID-19 is raising questions about the health conditions of loved ones living abroad, as well as the rise of draconian measures that are linked with increased surveillance internationally. During this episode, edna bonhomme speaks with two anticolonial migrants based in Berlin. First, she talks with Mugo Muna, a Kenyan American data analyst and organiser with Berlin’s inaugural Anti-Colonial month, who discusses the impact on the virus in Kenya, the United States, and Berlin. Then, she spoke with Jennifer Kamau, a Kenyan co-founder of International Womxn* Space, about the ways refugees are navigating through the pandemic in Germany and the importance of solidarity.

In this episode of the Decolonization in Action Podcast, edna bonhomme and Dr. Christienna Fryar discuss the history of Britain and the Caribbean and what it means to be teaching 500 years of Black British history. Recognizing that Black British history has only recently starting to gain institutional support in the British academy, Dr. Fryar puts institutional practices in context, discussing how history departments have for so long separated the colonial history of the British Empire from British domestic history as well as marginalized histories of migration within the UK and intellectual contributions of Black Britons. Sharing her work on Jamaica post-emancipation and Britain after the abolition of slavery in 1834, Dr. Fryar refutes and carefully unpacks the implications of the national myth of humanitarian Britain after abolition and exposes ongoing racism and imperial expansion after the end of slavery. Linking this myth and the division between the British imperial and domestic histories with the present-day realities in the Caribbean and for Black Britons, especially in reference to the recent Windrush crisis, Dr. Fryar addresses what is at stake when the colonial past and its aftermath are not fully accounted for.

In this episode, edna bonhomme interviewed Lee Richards and Camille Barton, two queer decolonial activists and researchers living in Berlin about their practice of somatic healing. We also discussed how they are coping with COVID-19, what is happening in their communities abroad, and how we can help marginalized communities navigate through this current crisis. We spoke about the intersections of wellness, care, and social justice.

In this episode, edna bonhomme interviewed Will Fredo Furtado about the development and continuation of colonialism in art museums and art biennale, as well as the controversies surrounding an Afrofuturist exhibition in Berlin that failed to feature a Black artist and Will’s  efforts to democratize writing in Latin America and the African continent. 

In this episode, edna bonhomme and Skye Tinevimbo Chirape discuss Decolonising Forensic Psychology, migration, and decolonial research practices especially as it relates to the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

In this episode, edna bonhomme interviews Mihir about the Black Lives Matter movement, climate justice, the history of resistance in the Global South, the German left, and the power of internationalism.

In this episode, edna bonhomme interviews Hiba Ali and they discuss COVID-19, multimedia performance art, surveillance, global shipping, Amazon, and modes of healing.

In this episode edna bonhomme speaks to four Black diasporic women and ask them about the current wave of Black Lives Matter protests and how they are shedding light on the racial strife happening in the United States and globally.

In this episode, edna bonhomme speaks with Dr. Thuc Linh Nguyen Vu about migration, cultural history, Vietnamese Polish relations, Black feminism, and African/Asian diasporas.

In this episode edna bonhomme speaks with Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor about Florida, Black communities in the American South, dreams, decolonizing the arts, writing, and joy.

In this episode, edna bonhomme speaks with Dr. Natasha A. Kelly about Afrofuturism, Black feminism, German colonialism, and the word "Rasse" in the German language.

In this episode, guest host Laurence Meyer asks Afro/Black French people about racism and police brutality in France, in discussion with Marie-Julie Chalu, Mame-Fatou Niang, Maliga, Olivia Mabounga, Assa Traoré, and the Mwasi Collectif, a French Afrofeminist collective.

In this episode, edna bonhomme spoke with Natasha Marin, curator of Black Imagination: Black Voices on Black Futures (2020, McSweeney’s).

In this episode, edna bonhomme interviews Dr. Tiffany N. Florvil on her forthcoming book Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement (University of Illinois Press), Black-led social movements in Germany, the history of German colonialism, and transforming academic institutions.
 

This episode opens with spoken word poetess Savannah Sipho reading May Ayim’s poem titled “blues in Schwarzweiß” during a recent critical walking tour in Berlin called "Dekoloniales Flanieren." In conversation with Kristyna Comer, Savannah Sipho shares more about her reading of May Ayim’s poem as well as more about her creative process. The episode ends with poetry including a poem by Decolonization in Action host edna bonhomme titled "Foremothers."