Hindu texts from thousands of years ago demonstrate acceptance of a ‘third gender.’ Today, transgender Indians, or hijras, remain visible members of society.
AP Photo/Bikas Das
Amy Bhatt, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Before colonialism, India embraced homosexuality and gender fluidity. The Supreme Court’s repeal of a 157-year-old gay sex ban partially reclaims that history, but LGBTQ Indians still face hurdles.
The World Trade Center burns after being hit by planes in New York Sept. 11, 2001.
Reuters/Sara K. Schwittek
Fanon found in Algeria that what the colonial law courts considered a failure of integration by mental patients was in fact an elemental resistance to European rule.
The third repatriation of human remains in August this year was another missed opportunity for reconciliation between Germany and Namibia.
S.T. Gill, Kangaroo Hunting, The Death, from his Australian Sketchbook (1865). Colonial hunting clubs were established across Australia in the 1830s and 1840s.
National Library of Australia
In the mid 19th century, kangaroo hunting was a sport. Colonial hunting clubs were established across Australia and everyone from Charles Darwin to Anthony Trollope tried their hand at shooting roos.
A statue in Port-au-Pirnce honors Jean-Jacques Dessalines’ legacy as a Haitian revolutionary. Now, a renamed Brooklyn street does, too.
AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
A renamed Brooklyn street celebrates Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a Haitian slave turned president. For centuries his legacy was tarnished by allegations that Haiti’s revolution led to ‘white genocide.’
The late V.S. Naipaul is a celebrated son of Trinidad and Tobago. But he is also a prodigal son.
Reuters/Ralph Orlowski
J. Vijay Maharaj, The University of the West Indies: St. Augustine Campus
Author V.S. Naipaul, who died on Aug. 11, both scorned and mirrored his Caribbean origins. At the University of the West Indies, students must reconcile this conflicted titan’s literary legacy.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has shown little tolerance for dissent.
AP/Cliff Owen
With the Trump Administration’s abandonment of support for democracy and civil rights abroad, Middle Easterners may well believe that the U.S. cares little for their well-being and their very lives.
Successive governments have seen the Great Barrier Reef not just as a scientific wonder, but as a channel to further economic development.
Superjoseph/Shutterstock.com
The $444 million awarded to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation has been criticised as a politically calculated move. But governments have been asking what the reef can do for them ever since colonial times.
Dutch Memorial Day commemorated in Amsterdam, May 4, 2014.
Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei, Jasper Juinen
As the anniversary of Indonesian independence from the Netherlands approaches, a close look reveals how Dutch policy divides people along racial lines and ignores the Indonesian dead in that war.
Some of the damage cause by Hurricane Maria, months after it hit.
Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
While the hurricanes last year dealt devastating blows to Puerto Rico, its challenges predate the storms and continue on today. They also offer new opportunities.
Brigadier-General John Nicholson was a British officer in India between 1839 and 1857.
wikipedia
America’s early dogs are all gone – save for their rather nasty cancer.
Debates over the history of colonialism have sparked controversies on university campuses in recent years, as illustrated by the removal of a statue honoring Cecil Rhodes at the University of Cape Town in 2015.
Desmond Bowles
Brumbies have a devoted following among high country locals, despite the fact that they were despised by colonial settler farmers. Their mythical status today owes a lot to cultural figures such as Banjo Paterson.
A map from 1794 shows Fuego Volcano next to Antigua and Nueva Guatemala.
British Library Board Add.MS 17650d
Research Fellow at the University of the Free State, South Africa and Assistant Professor in the History of International Relations, Utrecht University
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University