tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/decolonisation-17372/articlesDecolonisation – The Conversation2024-03-18T23:20:44Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2257802024-03-18T23:20:44Z2024-03-18T23:20:44Z‘Care is in everything we do and everything we are’: the work of Indigenous women needs to be valued<p>It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group.</p>
<p>Working with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner’s office, we worked with <a href="https://caepr.cass.anu.edu.au/research/publications/caring-about-care">more than 100 Indigenous women across</a> Australia to talk about their interpretations and experiences of care. </p>
<p>“Mainstream” definitions and measures of care do not include the vast and complex ways care is defined by First Nations women. This includes care not only for people, but for communities, Country and culture. </p>
<p>It means important work goes unrecognised, uncompensated or misunderstood, leading to the marginalisation of this crucial work and the women who do it.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/definitions-are-often-very-western-this-excludes-us-our-research-shows-how-to-boost-indigenous-participation-in-stem-223465">'Definitions are often very western. This excludes us.' Our research shows how to boost Indigenous participation in STEM</a>
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<h2>Redefining the concept</h2>
<p>The Australian Human Rights Commission’s <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/publications/wiyi-yani-u-thangani">Wiyi Yani U Thangani</a> report illuminates the crucial importance of the care provided by First Nations women. Our work follows and builds on this report.</p>
<p>An Indigenous woman from the East Kimberley told us:</p>
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<p>Well, care for me, as an Indigenous person, is not just caring for your family, it’s caring for your Country.</p>
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<p>Another woman from the ACT told us care is a disposition, and a means of respecting culture and heritage: </p>
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<p>[Care is] enveloped in everything we do and everything we are and everything about where we are going and paying homage again to our ancestors and who’s come before us. That’s what care is.</p>
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<p>This notion of care as a strength is an important insight from the women in this study. However, unpaid care is often unrecognised and undervalued in Australian policy, which while prioritising getting women into employment, has neglected funding and supporting the existing unpaid care work that women do. </p>
<p>What is evident from our study is that Indigenous women want more support for the care work they do, as well as better care services largely within Aboriginal community-controlled organisations to assist them in doing it.</p>
<h2>Care has consequences</h2>
<p>Women frequently linked their demanding care loads to ongoing colonisation, which continues to create damage to the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. A woman from greater Sydney said:</p>
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<p>It’s colonial […] It’s just not being able to do things in the way we should be doing them […] because of the colonial structure and things like that. </p>
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<p>This includes the impacts of colonisation on gender roles, child removals, incarceration rates, poor health, poverty, racism and more. </p>
<p>It also includes the impacts of state institutions set up to “care”, but which are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/sep/01/coalition-hails-success-of-cashless-welfare-card-and-says-kalgoorlie-will-be-next-site">often uncaring</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/first-nations-children-are-still-being-removed-at-disproportionate-rates-cultural-assumptions-about-parenting-need-to-change-169090">may be violent and harmful</a>.</p>
<p>Ultimately, this requires Indigenous people’s care to heal, adding extra demands on existing care loads. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/first-nations-women-dont-always-access-health-care-after-head-injuries-from-family-violence-heres-why-206084">First Nations women don't always access health care after head injuries from family violence. Here's why</a>
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<p>Many of the women interviewed in this study were also tired, and often carers needed care too. Some were in, or had been through, periods of utter exhaustion and illness due to trying to carry their stressful care load. A Central Australian woman told us:</p>
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<p>It’s hard. It’s draining. Every day just exhausted. Sometimes there’s days when I just can’t keep up with it. And I don’t want to listen, just go away. But those are days when they really need help. So yeah, it’s very exhausting.</p>
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<h2>Time is money, but no one gets paid</h2>
<p>Our research also included a time-use survey, which showed that all unpaid care activities accounted for, on average, 62% of our participant women’s time on a usual weekday (about 14.8 hours per day on average), with 48% of their time (around 11.5 hours) spent caring for others and/or caring for Country and culture specifically. </p>
<p>Because (lost) remuneration for this work was raised as a crucial point by Indigenous women during our interviews, we also calculated the approximate market value of this unpaid care work through using hourly award rates for corresponding care activities (sometimes called the replacement method, which understands the cost of this work in the paid market). </p>
<p>The estimated economic value of this work ranged between $223.01 and $457.39 per day (representing an estimated annual salary of between $81,175.64 and $118,921.40). This estimation is conservative as it does not include the multitasking of more than one care activity at the one time.</p>
<p>The estimation raises important questions as to what is owed to Indigenous women, not just because the economy free-rides on unpaid care, but also because much of this care work mops up the mess of colonisation. </p>
<p>Many of the women we spoke to also talked about how unpaid care and paid employment interact. </p>
<p>In addition to their unpaid care roles, most women in paid employment in this study had roles in the community sector which put them at the frontline of caring for community. They saw this work as part of their broader commitment to supporting their families, communities and advancing Indigenous peoples. It is therefore hard to draw a line for these women between paid and unpaid work, meaning it is rare to be able to “switch off”. </p>
<p>Often, employers didn’t realise the amount of unpaid care of this type women do in <a href="https://theconversation.com/during-naidoc-week-many-indigenous-women-are-assigned-unpaid-work-new-research-shows-how-prevalent-this-is-in-the-workplace-208454">their paid work roles</a>, even though this actually makes their paid employment successful. Women are also not paid adequately for these valuable skills.</p>
<h2>A new approach is needed</h2>
<p>Our research follows generations of Indigenous women who have long shown the strength of care, but also looks at how settler society makes this work harder. </p>
<p>This research underlines the importance of a new approach to supporting Indigenous women, in which their voices, ideas and needs are central, and where care is placed at the heart. This is different to just “fitting” Indigenous care into various settler models, policies and measures already in circulation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225780/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elise Klein receives funding from the Gender Institute at the Australian National University. She is a member of the Anti-Poverty Centre, the Accountable Income Management Network and a Co-Director of the Australian Basic Income Lab.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chay Brown receives funding from the Office of Gender Equity and Diversity at the Northern Territory Government. She is affiliated with ANU, Tangentyere Council, and Her Story Mparntwe. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kayla Glynn-Braun is a First Nation Wiradjuri Women whom is a project coordinator at The Equality Institute and Co-Foundered Her Story Consulting and lead on U Right Sis? project, Indigenous Knowledge</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janet Hunt and Zoe Staines do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>To First Nations women, ‘care’ is more broad and all-encompassing than traditional definitions. We need a new approach to capturing, and appreciating, their work, paid and unpaid.Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National UniversityChay Brown, Managing Director, Her Story Consulting & Postdoctoral fellow, Australian National UniversityJanet Hunt, Honorary Associate Professor, CAEPR, Australian National UniversityKayla Glynn-Braun, Director of Her Story, project coordinator at The Equality Institute, lead on U Right Sis? project, Indigenous KnowledgeZoe Staines, Senior Lecturer, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2239842024-02-29T14:40:07Z2024-02-29T14:40:07ZSouth Africa’s business students want their own industry superheroes and success stories in the syllabus – study<p>In the past few years there’s been much discussion globally about the need to <a href="https://globalchallenges.ch/issue/10/decolonising-education/">decolonise education</a>. Decolonisation is the process of undoing the impact of colonial thinking and its influence in the present. </p>
<p>Scholars have <a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-cant-decolonise-the-curriculum-without-defining-it-first-63948">differing opinions</a> about <a href="https://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/sajhe/article/view/4875">the best way to achieve this</a>, or whether it’s even necessary or desirable. </p>
<p>In South Africa, the issue of decolonisation was spotlighted by students during 2016’s <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/trending/141333/feesmustfall-leaders-explain-what-decolonised-education-means/#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9CFees%20Must%20Fall%20is%20an%20intersectional%20movement%20within,imperialist%2C%20colonial%2C%20capitalist%20patriarchal%20culture%2C%E2%80%9D%20the%20statement%20said">#FeesMustFall protests</a>. Eight years on, I was interested in finding out what the current cohort of students thought decolonisation could look like in their classrooms. So I asked final-year students in the management and commerce faculty at a rural campus in the country’s Eastern Cape province to take part in <a href="https://sajournalofeducation.co.za/index.php/saje/article/view/1637/1288%205">a study</a> that would centre their voices and opinions.</p>
<p>Students expressed a desire for decolonisation to embrace two important activities, especially in commerce education. First, students needed their curriculum to feature more business and industry leaders (framed in my study as “superheroes”) from South Africa and the continent more broadly. Second, students advocated for more localised stories and case studies in the courses taught in higher education. </p>
<p>The main issue and thread uniting the two findings? Relatability. These findings offer insight into how a decolonised curriculum can be created by striving for the infusion of <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/relatable">relatable</a> “superheroes” and stories. </p>
<h2>The status quo</h2>
<p>Much of management and commerce teaching globally can be described using the acronym “<a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100630132850.htm">WEIRD</a>”: it’s dominated by western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic countries. This reality was flagged by many of the participants in my research. </p>
<p>They saw it, for instance, in which theorists’ and experts’ voices were used versus whose were not. Take US economics scholar Michael Porter: in 1979, in an article for the Harvard Business Review, Porter outlined what have come to be known as “<a href="https://www.isc.hbs.edu/strategy/business-strategy/Pages/the-five-forces.aspx">the five forces</a>”. His framework is useful in understanding the factors that drive competition in industries. </p>
<p>Students extolled the value of this work and did not suggest that it be removed from the curriculum. Instead, they suggested that more African examples be included – for instance, the work of the late Zimbabwean scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/lovemore-mbigi-will-be-remembered-for-his-teaching-on-ubuntu-in-business-leadership-209260">Lovemore Mbigi</a>, who contributed enormously to research on ubuntu (a concept that emphasises the importance of including everyone and building a strong community) in business leadership.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lovemore-mbigi-will-be-remembered-for-his-teaching-on-ubuntu-in-business-leadership-209260">Lovemore Mbigi will be remembered for his teaching on ubuntu in business leadership</a>
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<p>To the participants, decolonisation meant giving voice to scholars like Mbigi and increasing the volume of their contribution in classrooms. This would require lecturers to be more intentional in spotlighting what they called “superheroes”: African researchers and experts whose work was relatable to the students’ own context.</p>
<p>There have been efforts in South Africa to encourage case-based teaching similar to what my study advocates for. For instance, the Gordon Institute of Business Science at the University of Pretoria has a dedicated portal that <a href="https://www.gibs.co.za/about-us/faculty/pages/case-study-hub.aspx">houses and offers resources on case-based teaching</a>. Many of these case studies are from South Africa or elsewhere on the continent.</p>
<h2>Context and relatability</h2>
<p>One participant said:</p>
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<p>In our (focus) group there appears to be consensus of the need for a change. The type of change that places importance on the role of giving more South African and even African business leaders a chance to be heard. This for us was what decolonisation was all about.</p>
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<p>The students suggested that management and commerce teaching lent itself to decolonisation by the very nature of the discipline, which focuses on problem solving and case studies.</p>
<p>One participant reported how their focus group saw decolonised teaching having resonance when it came to business protagonists (that is, leaders in their fields):</p>
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<p>At the core of strategic management instruction is a protagonist, the one that is faced with a dilemma. There needs to be more effort in seeing case examples and the lives of protagonists we can relate with.</p>
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<p>Another group reported:</p>
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<p>(We) made important links with the entrepreneurship space. There is (a) need to bring in the experiences of entrepreneurs from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/township-South-Africa">township</a> and even rural community to the classroom. (This) would edify the teaching experience.</p>
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<p>And another said:</p>
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<p>Some great stories from South African business leaders fail to see the light of day in making it to the classroom. The challenge could be that researchers are not being active in making sure these stories make it to the classroom.</p>
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<p>The students said some lecturers did introduce such examples in class and praised them for creating a pathway for African stories into the curriculum. </p>
<h2>So what happens next?</h2>
<p>I propose three points of consideration, especially for those working in higher education. </p>
<p>First, lecturers should be aware of the context in which they teach, including the material conditions around the students in their classroom. </p>
<p>Second, lecturers need to look for “superheroes” their students can relate to. Such examples are everywhere and their experiences are potentially rich learning fodder for the classroom.</p>
<p>Third, lecturers should be deliberate about making content more relatable. The process could be to train students in case-based writing or investigation skills. Students, through partnering with their lecturers, can help get local cases into the classroom.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223984/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Willie Tafadzwa Chinyamurindi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Students want more relatable examples, both of business leaders and of industry case studies.Willie Tafadzwa Chinyamurindi, Professor, University of Fort HareLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2185942024-01-25T20:45:52Z2024-01-25T20:45:52ZCommunity-controlled schools create better education outcomes for First Nations students<p>In Australia, more than a dozen independent, community-controlled First Nations schools were set up in the 1970s and ‘80s. These schools, some still in operation, offered culturally and linguistically relevant education to First Nations students reflecting Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. </p>
<p>Our research projects have explored <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17508487.2023.2249064">self-determination in Indigenous community-controlled schools in Australia</a>. We <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220620.2022.2151578">found</a> First Nations-led schools can support self-determination and improve education outcomes for Indigenous young people. </p>
<p>This is also the lesson of a new children’s book <a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781761269714/">In My Blood It Runs</a> by Arrernte and Garuwa man Dujuan Hoosan. The new book shares Dujuan’s experience of navigating an educational system not designed for him, and the benefits of First Nations-controlled education.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-is-promising-truth-telling-in-our-australian-education-system-heres-what-needs-to-happen-191420">Albanese is promising 'truth-telling' in our Australian education system. Here's what needs to happen</a>
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<h2>First Nations controlled schools</h2>
<p>Our research found many First Nations-led schools were set up in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17508487.2023.2249064">1970s and 1980s</a>, as communities began to fight for appropriate education. This emerged after a long history of insufficient government-mandated education, forced exclusion from school, or forced attendance at missionary and reserve schools.</p>
<p>These included the community-controlled <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220620.2022.2151578">Yipirinya School in Mparntwe</a>. The school was set up by families in the town camps and their European allies. The school developed curriculum in Arrernte, Pitjantjatjara, Western Arrarnte (also known as Western Aranda), Lurijta and Warlpiri, as well as in English and Aboriginal English. Classes were initially taught in the town camps. </p>
<p>Others included the <a href="https://www.mabonativetitle.com/info/historyOfBCS.htm">Black Community School</a> in Townsville. The school was set up by Torres Strait Islander land rights campaigners Eddie “Kioki” Mabo, Bonita Mabo and Woiworrung and Yorta Yorta author and activist Burnum Burnum. Another example is the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/cabaret-tells-how-loved-melbourne-school-was-saved-from-kennett-closures-20210421-p57l8x.html">Northland College</a> for Koori kids in Richmond.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjr9IOUxvyCAxUsgK8BHWKdAgYQFnoECBMQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.voced.edu.au%2Fcontent%2Fngv%253A20015&usg=AOvVaw3NAeXQ7hBhAnb7G58P8t9v&opi=89978449">Hughes Report</a>, published in 1988, became the basis of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy for the next decade. It recognised First Nations-controlled schools as an important step in overcoming a long history of educational exclusion. The report called for self-determination in education, the training of First Nations teachers, and developing suitable curricula that embedded Indigenous languages and knowledges. </p>
<p>Bilingual and multilingual schooling <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-10-2078-0">began from community-led initatives in First Nations communities</a>. They demonstrated how schools controlled by local communities provide safe and sustaining places for First Nations young people. It was <a href="https://www.towardstruth.org.au/doc1778-leanne-holt-the-development-of-aborigina">around this time</a> the numbers of First Nations people participating in education increased most dramatically. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander enrolments in universities <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED449932.pdf">increased</a> by 50% in the 1980s, and primary school enrolments increased by 40% in the 1990s.</p>
<p>However, policy began to <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/informit.200192661824553">shift away</a> from this focus in the late 1990s and onwards. Education debates began to emphasise attendance as the key issue, and measuring English-only literacy and numeracy data as a way to gauge the success of education.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unreasonable-unjust-oppressive-how-a-police-program-targeted-indigenous-kids-216627">'Unreasonable, unjust, oppressive': how a police program targeted Indigenous kids</a>
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<h2>Recent developments</h2>
<p>Released last year, Dujuan’s story In My Blood it Runs, coauthored with his grandmothers Margaret Anderson and Carol Turner, illustrates how Indigenous children balance their existence in two distinct worlds. </p>
<p>After many years of struggling at school, Dujuan left Mparntwe (Alice Springs) to attend an Indigenous-led Garuwa homeland school on his father’s country in Borroloola, about 1,200km north of Mparntwe. Here, he was able to learn on Country, from Aboriginal teachers, in a nourishing and rewarding environment. He became excited to attend school and his learning journey took off.</p>
<p>First Nations-led non-profit organisation Children’s Ground recently released a <a href="https://childrensground.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/The-MK-Turner-Report-Childrens-Ground.pdf">report</a> responding to ongoing policy failures in First Nations education. This includes the dismantling of bilingual education.</p>
<p>The report calls for a First Nations-controlled education system and the establishment of an independent governing body to oversee it. The recommendations in the report align with the <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf">United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples</a>. This includes a key focus on self-determination in education. </p>
<p>In particular, Article 14 of the Declaration recognises the right of Indigenous peoples to establish and control their own educational systems. This would ensure education is culturally and linguistically relevant to Indigenous peoples. </p>
<p>And the recent release of a report from the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Aboriginal_and_Torres_Strait_Islander_Affairs/UNDRIP?utm_source=miragenews&utm_medium=miragenews&utm_campaign=news">Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs</a> into whether Australia should implement the UN declaration has renewed attention on self-determination.</p>
<p>Similar discussions have been had in Canada for many years. Recent treaties have included provisions to transfer control of education of First Nations students to First Nations groups. Graduation rates have been positively impacted for groups who have obtained authority over education. When First Nations group Mi'kmaq from northeastern Canada initially took control of their education system in 1998 only 30% of their students were graduating from secondary school. According to the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_AUxQnaOXJpm4BwO6ljIIUsLddsDOiw3/view">most recent annual report</a>, 83% are now graduating.</p>
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<h2>Where to from here?</h2>
<p>We can look to successful examples in Australia, such as Yipirinya School in Mparntwe, the Black Community School, and recent education reforms in Canada, as important lessons on how to support First Nations-controlled education in line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. </p>
<p>We can also look to Dujuan’s story. His book is a call to action to reform education, juvenile justice, child welfare and racist practices.</p>
<p>Dujuan’s story invites us to imagine how we can make school work for First Nations children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samara is a co-founder and director at the National Indigenous Youth Education Coalition who partnered with the In My Blood it Runs production team to launch the Learn Our Truth campaign.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Archie Thomas has provided research material to the National Indigenous Youth Education Coalition (NIYEC) and the In My Blood it Runs production team. Archie is a member of the National Tertiary Education Union.</span></em></p>Research shows the many benefits of First Nations-led education systems and schooling.Samara Hand, PhD Candidate, UNSW SydneyArchie Thomas, Chancellor's Research Fellow, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2182612023-12-08T13:03:45Z2023-12-08T13:03:45ZHumiliation and violence in Kenya’s colonial days – when old men were called ‘boy’ and Africans were publicly beaten<p>When King Charles visited Kenya in November 2023, many Kenyans <a href="https://www.citizen.digital/news/khrc-demands-reparations-for-colonial-injustices-ahead-of-king-charles-iiis-visit-n330247">renewed their demands</a> for an official apology for atrocities committed by the British government during the colonial era. The widespread human rights abuses during the <a href="https://theconversation.com/mau-mau-apology-is-a-victory-50-years-in-the-making-14981">Mau Mau rebellion</a> are the best-known of these atrocities. Yet we should not forget more mundane, everyday acts of domination.</p>
<p>I am a social historian who has studied race, violence, colonialism and white settlement in Kenya. From the start of colonialism in 1895 to the drawing down of the Union Jack on 12 December 1963, black Kenyans were constantly subjected to violence and humiliation at the hands of colonial officials, settlers and missionaries alike.</p>
<p>In one book chapter, drawing on a set of political tracts, autobiographies and novels written by Gikuyu men since 1950s, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-56930-3_10">I demonstrate</a> how humiliation and violence were central to their experience of colonialism. </p>
<p>Because the Mau Mau rebellion largely involved Gikuyu, and the education system favoured boys, Gikuyu men’s reminiscences about the era were more likely to be published than women’s or those of other Kenyans. </p>
<p>These men were well aware of the structural iniquities of British colonialism. But it was also intensely personal. </p>
<p>This drove them to respond. Some went on to join radical politics, others took up arms. </p>
<p>The individual humiliation and violence became for them a basis for collective political action and organised resistance. While we cannot downplay the impact of land alienation, mass incarceration and racial dictatorship, the personal experience played a key role in the dismantling of British rule in Kenya. </p>
<h2>Humiliating words</h2>
<p>Left-wing activist and post-independence martyr <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-31817667">J.M. Kariuki</a> <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Mau_Mau_Detainee.html?id=vjhyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">explained</a> how white people could humiliate educated Africans, elder men and Africans of socio-economic means:</p>
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<p>Many Europeans refused to talk to educated Africans in any language but their deplorably bad Swahili; old men were addressed as boys and monkeys; Africans were barred from hotels and clubs.</p>
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<p>Any status that an African man might achieve was denied respect by whites.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/180220">kipande</a> – registration papers kept in a tin canister around the neck when Africans left their “reserves” – was one common humiliation. Another was that of “a European calling a 70-year-old African ‘boy’.” (<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Child_of_Two_Worlds.html?id=Q8UJAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">Mugo Gatheru</a>). </p>
<p>The words and blows struck these Gikuyu men particularly hard because they had undergone initiation which had transformed them from boys into men who could, Gatheru wrote, “now make our own choices.” They would “walk with great confidence … and take responsibilities that are assumed only by the circumcised ones.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Land-sunshine-Scenes-Kenya-before/dp/B0000CJX2C">Muga Gicaru</a>, who in the 1950s tried to alert Britons to the violence and humiliations endemic in their east African colony, explained how initiated men “acquired self-respect” and a sense of self-mastery, maturity and adulthood.</p>
<p>Yet they weren’t granted respect, and they were disregarded as “men”. Radical pamphleteer Gakaara wa Wanjau <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3819874">charged that</a> whites believed that Africans’ “minds are the minds of children and therefore our leaders do not qualify for wise mature leadership.” </p>
<h2>Use of violence</h2>
<p>To the stings of these words and policies were added those of violence. </p>
<p>Charles Muhoro Kareri, who would in 1961 become the first African moderator of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Life_of_Charles_Muhoro_Kareri.html?id=itCkAAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">wrote</a> a dozen years after independence that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>people may fail to comprehend how the whites used to beat black people … missionaries, farmers, or government officers, all whites beat black people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The full power of the state stood behind white people, and protesting against this violence could bring yet more violence. </p>
<p>Recalling one brutal assault he witnessed, Kareri and others could only watch “in amazement, for there was nothing for us to do.” This inability to retaliate could be just as painful as the physical blows. </p>
<p>World-famous novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Dreams_in_a_Time_of_War.html?id=uT2Q4S8VrXsC&redir_esc=y">tells of</a> being struck by a white officer when Ngugi failed to address him as “effendi” (sir). Then he was ordered to utter the word:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>‘Yes, effendi!’ I said, tears at the edges of my eyelids. I was now a man (having been initiated); I was not supposed to cry. But a man is supposed to fight back, to defend himself and his own, but I could not summon even a gesture of self-defence.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In that moment of humiliation and violence, the pain was personal: Ngugi felt crushed when he could not react as he should. </p>
<p>Before he became a radical trade union activist and advocated for violent anti-colonialism, Bildad Kaggia was a clerk for the colonial state. One day when he <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Roots_of_Freedom_1921_1963.html?id=knWRAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">was yelled at</a> by his white supervisor for not removing his hat, he was “very embarrassed.” Kaggia and the friend he was with did not speak of it, “but I felt very indignant at being humiliated in his presence.” </p>
<p>The spectacle was meant to remind Kaggia of his station in life. Despite being an educated, white-collar employee of the state, Kaggia concluded that “what mattered was colour.” </p>
<p>The examples of white people humiliating and beating Africans are extensive in the writings of these Gikuyu men, as well as in the writings of <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526106810/">white people</a> who lived in colonial Kenya. </p>
<p>These everyday acts were central to the racial dictatorship. White people were daily reinforcing a hierarchy that allowed one person to abuse another, like a parent scolding and spanking a child.</p>
<h2>From humiliation to political action</h2>
<p>Kaggia, and others, took their personal hurt and used it towards a broader political programme. They sought ways to organise resistance through pamphlets, political parties, and force of arms to end a colonialism that was based on racial hierarchies. </p>
<p>Gakaara <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/mau-mau-author-in-detention-gakaara-wa-wanjau/TQGyxdcXWWPl4A?hl=en">began writing</a> radical treatises after witnessing Africans suffering “constant physical assaults and verbal abuse by white land owners.” </p>
<p>Gatheru <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4184590">wrote that</a> “Africans were being regarded as small children.” Their treatment in “such humiliating and degrading fashion” led him to organised politics. </p>
<p>Each of these men fought for freedom of their people, their passions raised by experiencing colonialism as a personal attack on their dignity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218261/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brett Shadle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Colonialists daily reinforced a hierarchy that allowed white people to abuse Africans.Brett Shadle, Professor, Virginia TechLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2173432023-11-14T22:54:44Z2023-11-14T22:54:44ZUniversity equity and racial justice strategies urgently need to address antisemitism<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/university-equity-and-racial-justice-strategies-urgently-need-to-address-antisemitism" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Many Jewish students are worried to go to campus in view <a href="https://thecjn.ca/news/jewish-students-at-canadian-universities-say-theres-a-new-level-of-worry-on-campus">of threatening and hateful messages</a> <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/montreal-lecturer-filmed-at-concordia-clash-over-israel-hamas-war-has-been-suspended-1.6639774">and even open hostilities at</a> some Canadian campuses. These are taking place within a wider context of <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/trudeau-humanitarian-pause-gaza">antisemitic incidents</a> in the wake of the eruption of the Hamas-Israel war.</p>
<p>The silence of some Canadian universities in addressing <a href="https://bc.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=2802895">antisemitism</a>, in particular when considered alongside otherwise active approaches toward equity, diversity, inclusion, decolonization (EDID) and <a href="https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2020/06/04/canadian-universities-racism-diversity/">racial justice</a> <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-universities-need-to-do-more-to-fight-antisemitism-on-campus">needs to be explicitly addressed</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://torontosun.com/news/national/national-class-action-lawsuit-filed-against-three-canadian-universities">Legal action has recently been filed against some Canadian universities</a> for <a href="https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/ubc-students-lawsuit-antisemitism">failing to address antisemitism</a>. </p>
<h2>Anti-Palestinian racism, antisemitism</h2>
<p>I’m an education scholar <a href="https://journals.sfu.ca/cje/index.php/cje-rce/article/view/6071">whose work</a> centres on equity, diversity, inclusion, decolonization <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2018.1468748">and anti-racism</a>.</p>
<p>My engagement in this work has been shaped by my own background migrating to Canada from Israel 12 years ago. My graduate studies in Jewish history, with focus on <a href="https://www.academia.edu/20203518/_On_Guilt_and_Atonement_Aktion_S%C3%BChnezeichen_Friedensdienste_and_Its_Activity_in_Israel">Holocaust memory</a>, made me attuned to injustice. </p>
<p>My migration was informed by concern my children wouldn’t be able to grow up without absorbing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870701692583">the racism against Palestinians</a> that is <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/05/25/most-israeli-jews-do-not-see-a-lot-of-discrimination-in-their-society">pervasive in Israeli society</a>. I now fear that my children, and students, will be absorbing antisemitism. </p>
<h2>Antisemitism in society at large, on campus</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/antisemitism-how-the-origins-of-historys-oldest-hatred-still-hold-sway-today-87878">Antisemitism</a> — the <a href="https://jerusalemdeclaration.org">prejudice</a>, hatred, and oppression of Jews <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108381710">and one of the oldest</a> forms of racism — is an <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/antisemitism-jews-victims-hate-1.6677276">ongoing concern in Canada</a>. </p>
<p>There has been work at some post-secondary institutions to consider how EDID frameworks need <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/provost/initiative-against-islamophobia-and-antisemitism">to address antisemitism and also Islamophobia</a> and anti-Palestinian racism both in the context of Israel and Palestinian issues and in the everyday. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://vpfo.ubc.ca/edi/edi-resources/edi-glossary/#a">many EDID frameworks</a> — both of specific institutions, and larger guiding frameworks — do not explicitly address these problems. For example, the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences’ 2021 “Charter on EDID,” which states the need for “<a href="https://fhss.swoogo.com/edid-charter">a more resolute effort to achieve</a> [EDID] in our disciplines [and] fields of inquiry,” mentions categories of race, ethnicity and does not name antisemitism. </p>
<h2>Addressing covert and explicit discrimination</h2>
<p>Because racism and discrimination are often covert in higher education institutions, EDID initiatives focus on creating systemic and institutional changes in all levels and aspects of institutions, including through policies, leadership, hiring, curriculum and student experiences. But this frame is also applied <a href="https://ischool.utoronto.ca/about-us/about-the-equity-diversity-and-inclusion-office/31976-2">to specific discrimination cases and complaints in higher education</a>.</p>
<p>Universities’ equity, diversity, inclusion and decolonization initiatives are emerging and should rightfully comprehensively respond to specific forms of racism and discrimination. For example, <a href="https://www.univcan.ca/media-room/media-releases/scarborough-charter-on-anti-black-racism-and-black-inclusion/">in 2020</a>, work on the <a href="https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/principal/sites/utsc.utoronto.ca.principal/files/docs/Scarborough_Charter_EN_Nov2022.pdf">Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion in Canadian Higher Education</a> was launched <a href="https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/principal/signatories-scarborough-charter">and multiple universities have since signed it</a>, pledging “shared recognition of the realities of anti-Black racism.” </p>
<h2>Focus on decolonization</h2>
<p>Inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its <a href="https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf">94 Calls to Action</a>, <a href="https://canadianscholars.ca/book/decolonizing-and-indigenizing-education-in-canada/#">decolonization and Indigenization</a> of Canadian higher education plans have become central for conceiving EDID work. </p>
<p>For example, the second part of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s <em>Igniting Change</em> 2021 report, from the Advisory Committee on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization, focuses on “<a href="https://www.federationhss.ca/sites/default/files/2022-10/Igniting-Change-Final-Report-and-Recommendations-en-part2.pdf">Principles, Guidelines, and Promising Practices of Decolonization</a>.” </p>
<p>In Canadian universities, an EDID <a href="https://www.univcan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Equity-diversity-and-inclusion-at-Canadian-universities-report-on-the-2019-national-survey-Nov-2019-1.pdf">focus on issues of decolonization and racism</a> is important, given histories and legacies of colonial oppression, racism, exclusion and marginalization affecting Black, Indigenous and people of colour in Canada.</p>
<p>Yet this focus, in specific <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/content/sfu/edi/reports/_jcr_content/main_content/download/file.res/Equity_compass.pdf">institutional approaches to EDID</a>, fails to address and at times downplays <a href="https://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Books/A/A-History-of-Antisemitism-in-Canada">the history of antisemitism</a> and its <a href="https://museeholocauste.ca/app/uploads/2018/10/brief_history_antisemitism_canada.pdf">ongoing reality in</a> Canada. </p>
<h2>Whiteness and Jews’ ambivalent racialized status</h2>
<p>Several factors have contributed to this. The majority of North American Jews <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14725886.2020.1718342">self-identify as white</a>. “Whitening” allowed white-passing Jews <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691136318/the-price-of-whiteness">to become part of a white</a> Christian mainstream in ambivalent ways.</p>
<p>This process has reduced Jewish heritage to simply a religious/faith affiliation, even while Jews remain vulnerable to pernicious <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/david-baddiel-whoopi-goldberg-antisemitism-holocaust-the-view-b980696.html">white supremacist and antisemitic beliefs about Jewishness being “in the blood</a>.” </p>
<p>No doubt, it is complex to identify Jews as a category under “race,” since such a categorization is reminiscent of Nazi ideology. On the other hand, if we understand race as a social <a href="https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/policy-preventing-discrimination-based-creed/3-background">construct</a>, the absence of naming antisemitism in EDID frameworks is deeply problematic. </p>
<h2>Tools to acknowledge antisemitism</h2>
<p>This prevents scholars and educators from acknowledging the <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781487528775/the-ever-dying-people/#">historical</a>, <a href="https://dialogue.cpso.on.ca/2022/09/a-dark-history-a-persistent-fear/">institutional</a>, <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/antisemitism/what-is-antisemitism/why-the-jews-history-of-antisemitism">ideological</a> and <a href="https://antisemitism.adl.org/?_gl=1%2A18xq8dt%2A_ga%2AMTcwMzQ0NzkyMS4xNjYxODA4MjU4%2A_ga_S9QB0F2PB5%2AMTY2ODcxNTM2Mi45LjEuMTY2ODcxNTk2Ny4wLjAuMA..">cultural</a> underpinnings of antisemitism. </p>
<p>Academics working on anti-racism issues trying to bring up antisemitism are often told this is <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-anti-jewish-bias-has-deeply-permeated-university-culture">not part of the EDID agenda</a>.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cmej/article/view/76086/56314">report</a> by a senior adviser on antisemitism at the University of Toronto’s medical school described how instances of antisemitism were dismissed as political activism against Israel, protected under academic freedom even while this activism was rife with antisemitic dog whistles (such as seeing Jews as “controlling the media” or “owning the university.”) </p>
<p>This conflation points to EDID <a href="https://medium.com/amor-mundi/an-open-letter-to-my-friends-who-signed-philosophy-for-palestine-0440ebd665d8">settler-colonial</a> discourses that position Jews as white colonial forces. </p>
<p>This framing fails to acknowledge the historical, cultural, and spiritual ties of <a href="https://cjs.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cjs/article/view/40013/36218">Jews to the land</a> of Israel and also erases the reality that Jews both in Israel and in diasporic communities globally are not a uniform <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8675.12470">ethnic group</a>. For example, about half of the Jewish population of Israel are <a href="https://people.socsci.tau.ac.il/mu/noah/files/2018/07/Ethnic-origin-and-identity-in-Israel-JEMS-2018.pdf">“Mizrachi”</a>, descendants of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa.</p>
<h2>Not about shielding Israel from critique</h2>
<p>Addressing <a href="https://thirdnarrative.org/does-zionismsettler-colonialism/">the complexity</a> of Jewish identities doesn’t mean justifying Israeli state politics or shielding Israel from critique. </p>
<p>Critiquing Israel is not antisemitism. Many Jewish and Israeli scholars have strong criticisms toward Israeli politics, just as many Jews object to the killing of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/israel-gaza-vivian-silver-1.7027333">civilians in Gaza</a>, and support “free <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/10/27/manela-two-state-solution/">Palestine</a>.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mz32lKvls6Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">CBC news video announcing the death of Canadian Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver who was killed in the Hamas attacks.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/DalrympleWill/status/1640556214907195392">Unpacking history</a> and <a href="https://archive.md/mRIFf">current events</a> is important for EDID work. </p>
<p>But portraying Jewish peoples as the embodiment of colonial oppression is an <a href="https://theconversation.com/antisemitism-has-moved-from-the-right-to-the-left-in-the-us-and-falls-back-on-long-standing-stereotypes-215760">antisemitic trope</a> that legitimizes hate and violence.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-women-in-israel-and-palestine-are-pushing-for-peace-together-215783">How women in Israel and Palestine are pushing for peace — together</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Antisemitic tones, slogans in political calls</h2>
<p>Antisemitism was seen after Oct. 7 when some academics <a href="https://bc.ctvnews.ca/jewish-federation-urges-vancouver-college-to-fire-instructor-who-praised-hamas-attacks-1.6624099">publicly celebrated</a> the Hamas massacre as a form of decolonizing and liberation, while victim-blaming those murdered and kidnapped. </p>
<p>Colleagues shared video with me of people at <a href="https://ubyssey.ca/news/ubc-community-members-march-in-nationwide-walkout-for-palestine/">University of British Columbia</a> marching and chanting “there is only one solution: Intifada revolution.” For many Jews, <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/final-solution-overview">this chillingly evokes the “final solution.”</a></p>
<p>In other protests, <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/anti-israel-march-dc-explicit-expressions-support-terror-and-antisemitism">demonstrators have</a> carried signs saying: “<a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/global-antisemitic-incidents-wake-hamas-war-israel">Keep the world clean</a>,” <a href="https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-771890">portraying a trash can</a> with a Star of David in it. </p>
<h2>Including all experiences</h2>
<p>The failure of EDID to address antisemitism makes <a href="https://montreal.citynews.ca/2023/11/08/altercation-two-groups-concordia/#">Jewish students targets</a> of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/jewish-students-at-western-university-react-after-posters-of-hostages-pulled-down-1.7009266">microaggression</a> and <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/adl-records-dramatic-increase-us-antisemitic-incidents-following-oct-7">hate</a> on campuses. </p>
<p>Universities must aim to create educational institutions in which all lived experiences are included. </p>
<p>A good way to address antisemitism would be for specific universities and the higher education sector to launch a task force. In so doing universities would also need to address hard political conversations surrounding Israel and settler colonialism. Universities have tended not to address this because of complexity, but this can no longer be avoided.</p>
<p>Jewish students should not be made to feel less than or illegitimate as they attend university. We have a responsibility to condemn and actively address antisemitism as part of our commitment to EDID.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217343/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lilach Marom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The silence of some Canadian universities in addressing antisemitism, in particular when considered alongside active approaches toward equity and racial justice, needs to be addressed.Lilach Marom, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2144942023-10-18T14:17:32Z2023-10-18T14:17:32ZColonialism shaped modern universities in Africa – how they can become truly African<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553975/original/file-20231016-25-h2hnpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One of the roles of an African university is to produce critical and democratic thinkers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vieriu Adrian/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Colonialism profoundly shaped modern universities in Africa. It implanted institutions on African soil that were largely replicas of European universities rather than organically African.</p>
<p>For historian and political theorist Achille Mbembe, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1474022215618513">one problem</a> of universities in Africa “is that they are ‘Westernised”. He describes them as “local institutions of a dominant academic model based on a Eurocentric epistemic canon that attributes truth only to the Western way of knowledge production”. This model, he says, “disregards other epistemic traditions”.</p>
<p>My research is mainly on universities, especially on issues of equity, inclusion and transformation. In a <a href="https://brill.com/display/book/9789004677432/BP000011.xml">recent chapter</a> I grapple with what universities need to do to stop being inappropriate replicas of European universities. How can they become, instead, African universities that address African needs?</p>
<p>I conclude that, to fulfil their key purposes of sharing and creating knowledge, they must play five associated roles. These are: encouraging students to be critical thinkers; undertaking more than just Eurocentric research; engaging proactively with the societies in which they are located; using their research and teaching to tackle development problems; and, finally, promoting critical and democratic citizenship.</p>
<p>In all these roles, African universities must take “place” – the geography, history, social relations, economics and politics of their respective contexts – seriously. They must overcome Eurocentric theories of knowledge and western institutional cultures. In doing so they must advance both decolonial thought and the public good.</p>
<p>But the African university cannot be created through changing the intellectual lens and basis alone. Political action is key.</p>
<h2>The importance of place</h2>
<p>African universities must be shaped by their contexts. Professor Louise Vincent of Rhodes University in South Africa rightly <a href="https://www.ru.ac.za/postgraduategateway/news/latestnews/proposaltotheandrewwmellonfoundation.html">argues</a> that it “entails a deep engagement, both literally and theoretically, with the notion of ‘place’” for universities to find their purpose. Universities, she adds, are situated in “place”. </p>
<p>For Vincent, place is neither “objective nor neutral”. It is “inscribed with relations of power” and how “power works in and through places has to be confronted.”</p>
<p>This means that, rather than distancing themselves from the surrounding communities, universities need to, in Vincent’s words, “actively seek exposure and collaboration – because that is what they are ‘for’.” This has implications for universities’ functioning, roles and activities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/toyin-falola-3-recent-books-that-explain-the-work-of-nigerias-famous-decolonial-scholar-200851">Toyin Falola: 3 recent books that explain the work of Nigeria's famous decolonial scholar</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This notion of “place” sees knowledge as being context sensitive rather than decontextualised. Eurocentrics assume that the findings of research undertaken in Europe apply to countries and areas in Africa. This is not so. The continent’s universities must imaginatively theorise their own realities as a basis for changing them. </p>
<h2>Five roles</h2>
<p>African universities must play at least five key roles.</p>
<p>One is encouraging students, as anthropologist Arjun Appadurai <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1474022215618513">puts it</a>, to “develop their own intellectual and moral lives as independent individuals”. </p>
<p>A second role is to undertake different kinds of scholarship that serve different purposes, aims and objects. Scholarship must confront dominant Eurocentric knowledge systems and theories. African universities need to, in <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n14/mahmood-mamdani/the-african-university">the words</a> of postcolonial scholar Mahmood Mamdani,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>theorise our own reality, and strike the right balance between the local and the global as we do so. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Third, they must engage proactively with the societies in which they operate. This engagement must happen at the intellectual and cultural levels. It is a crucial part of universities’ ability to contribute to developing a critical citizenry.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-happens-when-you-put-african-philosophies-at-the-centre-of-learning-95465">What happens when you put African philosophies at the centre of learning</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>A fourth role is actively engaging with the pressing development challenges. This is achieved through teaching and learning, research and community engagement. </p>
<p>Promoting critical and democratic citizenship is a fifth role. Africa requires not only capable professionals but also sensitive intellectuals and critical citizens. Universities must, in ethicist <a href="https://www.eur.nl/sites/corporate/files/nussbaum_text.pdf">Martha Nussbaum’s terms</a>, promote the “cultivation of humanity”.</p>
<h2>Making it happen</h2>
<p>The purposes and roles I’ve outlined here do not exhaust the meaning of an African university. Instead, they are its ideal core functions. </p>
<p>I also do not wish to imply that every purpose and role must be undertaken in identical ways by every university. There is no value in uniformity and homogeneity. It is essential that, within national systems, universities address different needs that span the local to the global.</p>
<p>But no matter their focus, African universities must, fundamentally, advance the “public good”. International higher education policy academic Mala Singh <a href="https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/aa/article/view/1433/1412">contends</a> that this is the “foundational narrative and platform” for universities to pursue a different path from their current dubious trajectories. </p>
<p>The state has a major role to play. It must ably steer and supervise – not interfere with – universities. It must resource them properly, and uphold academic freedom and institutional autonomy. It must also ensure a supportive macro-economic, social and financial policy environment.</p>
<p>The African university will be realised neither overnight nor without political struggles that involve diverse actors within and beyond universities. It will entail confronting complicity, opposition, inertia and apprehension. Collective and individual intellectual and practical political actions, as well as “<a href="https://intercontinentalcry.org/what-is-decolonization-and-why-does-it-matter/">everyday acts of resurgence</a>”, are required.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214494/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saleem Badat receives funding from the Mellon Foundation and the National Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences. </span></em></p>The African university cannot be created through changing the intellectual lens and basis alone. Political action is key.Saleem Badat, Research Professor, UFS History Department, University of the Free StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2078642023-06-20T12:23:53Z2023-06-20T12:23:53ZTextile queen Maman Creppy has died: the last of West Africa’s legendary wax cloth traders has left her mark<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532901/original/file-20230620-18-mzmx1q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Courtesy Yvette Sivomey</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Dédé Rose Gamélé Creppy, who <a href="https://nouvelangle.tg/index.php/2023/06/07/togo-disparition-de-maman-creppy-la-doyenne-des-nana-benz/">has died</a> aged 89, was one of west Africa’s most influential wax cloth traders. She was the youngest, and the last living, “Nana Benz” – the legendary first generation of women cloth traders from Togo. </p>
<p>Wax cloth was a European adaptation of a classic Indonesian batik hand printing technique which created designs using hot wax. Areas of design were blocked out by applying hot wax over them to resist dye. The cloth was introduced to west Africa by Dutch and English textile manufacturers in the <a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2018/08/cloth-copyright-and-cultural-exchange.pdf">late 19th century</a>. Women traders – who became experts at predicting what the market wanted – started feeding design and colour suggestions back to the manufacturers. They were integral to the cloth’s success. The Nana Benzes were particularly skilled at this. </p>
<p>Wax cloth became popular because its colours stood out, it could be easily tailored into stylish outfits for both men and women, the colours are fast – they wouldn’t fade when washed. Its patterns also had messages and broadcast images, from power and politics to beauty and wealth. They could speak to joyful or complex relations between men and women.</p>
<p>The Nana Benzes, a group of about 15 Togolese women, started trading in the wax print. The word “Nana” is a diminutive form of “mother” or “grandmother” and “Benz” is for the Mercedes-Benz cars some of them liked to drive – and which they were able to buy due to their big success. </p>
<p>As an anthropologist, I encountered Maman Creppy – as she was affectionately known – several times during research for my <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo25126083.html">book</a> Patterns in Circulation: Cloth, Gender, and Materiality in West Africa.</p>
<p>Rose Creppy’s story is an incredible one. She was one of Togo’s original Nana Benzes, who created a powerful empire founded on a monopoly over patterns – manufacturers distributed specific patterns only to specific women. A successful Nana could be the unique wholesaler for over 60 patterns, sold to traders from all over the continent.</p>
<p>These design ownership rights, combined with her entrepreneurial savvy and a deep knowledge of regional tastes and style, made Maman Creppy, like other Nana Benzes, a legend throughout west Africa. </p>
<p>Their craft however is sadly in decline. Since the early 2000s production of the cloth has shifted to Chinese factories. Today, no wax comes near the process.</p>
<h2>From beads to cloth</h2>
<p>Born in the southern town of Aneho on 22 December 1934, Maman Creppy was determined to become a successful entrepreneur. She started her career trading beads imported from Ghana. But, as she recalled in one of our many conversations, “this was hard manual work”. So, once she had acquired a small trading stock, she switched to cloth. </p>
<p>Maman Creppy initially traded in European-produced fancy-prints. These were less onerous to produce and hence cheaper. Africa’s fancy-print textile industry started in the early 1960s and many newly independent countries were using the textile industry to bolster their economies. </p>
<p>As Maman Creppy accumulated more capital, she switched to English wax-prints from Arnold Brunnschweiler & Company (ABC) and later to Dutch wax cloth from <a href="https://www.vlisco.com">Vlisco</a>.</p>
<p>Maman Creppy became a Nana Benz – one of the super-wholesalers of wax cloth. They originally collected the wax cloth from Ghana’s capital, Accra, in the 1940s but, by the late 1950s, shifted the centre of trade to the Lomé market in Togo’s capital. They transformed the Lomé market into a site of economic power and national prestige. </p>
<h2>Nana Benzes boom</h2>
<p>The heyday of the Nana Benzes was from the 1960s to the early 1980s. Traders flocked to the Lomé market, not only from Abidjan, Accra, Kumasi, Cotonou, Porto-Novo, Onitsha and Lagos, but also from Kinshasa and Libreville.</p>
<p>They benefited from a unique trading position. Trade rules in some post-independence African countries made it hard to trade in the cloth. For instance in Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah’s nationalist-protectionist policies placed high tariffs on imports. This made wax-print imports unprofitable. In Togo, low tariffs made the cloth cheaper. Nana Benzes therefore became a key part of the wax print trade and enabled the Dutch to penetrate other African markets. </p>
<p>The Nana Benzes also had a monopoly over patterns – many of them unique. For instance, they intercepted Yoruba trading networks that operated along the coastal corridor between Lagos and Accra, selling so-called Yoruba and Igbo patterns in specific colourways in Lomé. It was their effective monopoly over pattern rights that garnered the Nana Benzes unparalleled wealth.</p>
<p>The Nana Benzes soon established distribution rights for these classic designs from colonial firms, such as Unilever’s United Africa Company (UAC). In the process, they strengthened ties with European firms. This allowed them to exercise control over an emergent urban cultural economy of taste.</p>
<p>The Nana Benzes had cleverly inserted themselves into the restrictive retailing systems of European trading companies with whom they negotiated exclusive pattern rights to cloth distribution. </p>
<p>Amid changing political regimes, the women consolidated their power and economic interests by creating their own professional organisation in 1965, L’Association Professionelle des Revendeuses de Tissu, a body that negotiated trading policies directly with the state. They agreed on a low-tariff regime that made their Dutch and English cloth imports relatively cheap in comparison to others in the region. In return, they lent their branding power to the state, providing it with a felicitously modern entrepreneurial façade. </p>
<h2>The downfall</h2>
<p>The end of the Cold War and the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/161005">democracy movement</a> that liberalised political and economic spaces had serious consequences for the cloth trade. And for Rose Creppy. </p>
<p>A devaluation of the <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fabric/backgrnd.htm#:%7E:text=To%20address%20this%20situation%2C%20they,francs%20to%201%20French%20franc.">CFA franc (by 50%) in 1994</a> turned an everyday consumer good, wax cloth, into a near luxury almost overnight. Until then, wax cloth was available to most. When the price doubled, wax cloth became a luxury good. Many turned to cheaper alternatives, including counterfeits from China.</p>
<p>The liberalisation of the economy in post-Cold War Togo further derailed the Nana Benzes’ trade. The main distributor of wax cloth – Unilever’s United Africa Company – pulled out of the market and the Dutch manufacturer, Vlisco, took over its west African distribution points. This dismantled the system of exclusive retail rights that made the women’s trade profitable. </p>
<p>To add to the demise of the Nana Benzes, Chinese counterfeits entered the market in the early 2000s. </p>
<h2>Maman Creppy’s legacy</h2>
<p>Until her passing, Maman Creppy remained intimately connected to the market through her daughter, Yvette Sivomey, whom she initiated into the cloth trade in the early 2000s.</p>
<p>Like many of her older peers, Maman Creppy was married but lived independently with her children, whom she would later send to study in France; she owned a property in Lyon. In addition to her entrepreneurial activities, she held a ministerial position at the Lolan royal palace of her native Aneho. </p>
<p>Today a highly successful cloth entrepreneur herself, Sivomey works closely with Vlisco to rediscover and revive old patterns in new colour combinations. </p>
<p>The legacy of Dédé Rose Gamélé Creppy is preserved in her daughter’s work. It is alive and well, woven into the classic wax cloth patterns she co-designed and traded as one of the remarkable Nana Benzes, the women merchants of Togo.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207864/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nina Sylvanus does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Maman Creppy was one of Togo’s original Nana Benzes who had created a powerful wax cloth empire.Nina Sylvanus, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Northeastern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2057202023-05-18T14:37:02Z2023-05-18T14:37:02ZDecolonize your garden: This long weekend, dig into the complicated roots of gardening — Listen<p>The May long weekend is the unofficial start of summer. And for those of you with home gardens or access to community space, this is the weekend to dust off your gardening tools and visit the garden centre for the growing season ahead.</p>
<p>As we approach the start of gardening season, it’s good time to ask some questions about its origins.</p>
<p>Whether you plan to get marigolds, plant a vegetable garden or create a pollinator patch — all gardens have complicated roots. </p>
<p>In fact, the practice of gardening is <a href="https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/the-coloniality-of-planting">deeply tied to colonialism</a> — from the <a href="https://www.noemamag.com/the-long-shadow-of-colonial-science">formation of botany as a science</a>, to the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01865-1">spread of seeds, species and knowledge.</a> </p>
<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/92c92d2a-9628-4da6-9b3f-8bf5ec67d7cf?dark=true"></iframe>
<p><em><a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/decolonize-your-garden-this-long-weekend-visit-the-complicated-roots-of-gardening-listen">In this episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient</a>, we explore the complicated roots of the garden, including who gets to garden. We also discuss practical tips about what to plant with an eye to Indigenous knowledge. We speak with researcher Jacqueline L. Scott and also chat with community activist, Carolynne Crawley, who leads workshops that integrate Indigenous teachings into practice.</em></p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526840/original/file-20230517-5572-g2q2yt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526840/original/file-20230517-5572-g2q2yt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526840/original/file-20230517-5572-g2q2yt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526840/original/file-20230517-5572-g2q2yt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526840/original/file-20230517-5572-g2q2yt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526840/original/file-20230517-5572-g2q2yt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526840/original/file-20230517-5572-g2q2yt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Watercolor illustration of Tulipa sylvestris in I Cinque libri di piante.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pietro Antonio Michiel, Venice ca. 1550–1576, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Coveted tulips</h2>
<p>Some of the most recognizable plants today, such as <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/there-never-was-real-tulip-fever-180964915/">tulips</a>, are the result of early colonial conquests. Originally found growing wild in the valleys where current China and Tibet meet Afghanistan and Russia, tulips were first cultivated in Istanbul as early as 1055. </p>
<p>Later, after they were hybridized and commodified by the Dutch, they became highly coveted status symbols because of their gorgeous, but fleeting, blooms. </p>
<p>Exploratory botanical voyages by colonial European powers were integral to the expansion of empire. These trips fueled the big business of collecting global plant samples and also led to the emergence of botany as a scientific discipline. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526841/original/file-20230517-21-yooz26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526841/original/file-20230517-21-yooz26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526841/original/file-20230517-21-yooz26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526841/original/file-20230517-21-yooz26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526841/original/file-20230517-21-yooz26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526841/original/file-20230517-21-yooz26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526841/original/file-20230517-21-yooz26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526841/original/file-20230517-21-yooz26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">227 figures of plant anatomical segments with descriptive text. Botany. Plant anatomy. Plant morphology. Plants. Roots (Botany). Roots (Botany) – Morphology. Roots (Botany) – Anatomy. Rootstocks. Tubers. Leaves. Leaves – Morphology. Flowers – Morphology. Flowers. Fruit – Morphology. Bulbs (Plant anatomy). Plants – Variation. Botany – France. Stems (Botany).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Botanical gardens served as labs</h2>
<p>Botanical gardens played a key role, serving as the laboratories where plant specimens were organized, ordered and named. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsisyn.2021.100196">“Scientific objectivity”</a> asserted a Eurocentric point of view, disrupting and displacing Indigenous Knowledge and ecological practices. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526842/original/file-20230517-12607-80m0ex.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526842/original/file-20230517-12607-80m0ex.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526842/original/file-20230517-12607-80m0ex.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526842/original/file-20230517-12607-80m0ex.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526842/original/file-20230517-12607-80m0ex.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526842/original/file-20230517-12607-80m0ex.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526842/original/file-20230517-12607-80m0ex.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1913 illustrated depiction of African American people picking cotton.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CottonpickHoustonWhere17.png">Jerome H. Farbar: 'Houston: Where Seventeen Railroads Meet the Sea.' Page 31/40, 'Cotton Pickers'</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The movement and transfer of plants around the world went hand in hand with the transportation of people to provide a labour force, through slavery and indentured servitude. </p>
<p>The plantation system cleared out local ecosystems and replaced traditional farming methods with growing cash crops — like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/sugar-slave-trade-slavery.html">sugar-cane</a>, <a href="https://thecorrespondent.com/222/the-history-of-tea-is-darker-than-a-builders-brew">tea</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/8/16/20806069/slavery-economy-capitalism-violence-cotton-edward-baptist">cotton.</a> These were products meant for European curiosities, markets and profit and not for the local populations.</p>
<h2>Plant and racial hierarchies</h2>
<p>This colonial system of <a href="https://open.oregonstate.education/cultivatedplants/chapter/colonialagriculture/">organizing agriculture</a> laid the groundwork for <a href="https://www.sapiens.org/biology/race-scientific-taxonomy/">categorizing people</a> in a similar way, establishing a social hierarchy which dehumanized non-Europeans, helping justify slavery and Indigenous genocide, and eventually leading to racial categories.</p>
<p>This history has shaped our current relationships to the land, and our gardens. It also informs beliefs about land ownership and access; who has a right to enjoy the land, versus who is expected to be working on it. Who has the literal and figurative space and freedom to garden?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526848/original/file-20230517-13420-luw1sy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526848/original/file-20230517-13420-luw1sy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526848/original/file-20230517-13420-luw1sy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526848/original/file-20230517-13420-luw1sy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526848/original/file-20230517-13420-luw1sy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526848/original/file-20230517-13420-luw1sy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526848/original/file-20230517-13420-luw1sy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">On the left is a lawn (Stephen Cobb/Unsplash) and on the right is a native plant garden in Streeterville, Chicago (Shutterstock).</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shifting attitudes</h2>
<p>But the soil is shifting. There is a growing shift away from <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-is-it-time-to-decolonize-your-lawn/">the colonial status symbol of the lawn</a> and <a href="https://chatelaine.com/living/quiet-quitting-garden/">manicured gardens</a>, in favour of <a href="https://broadview.org/lorraine-johnson-interview/">pollinator-friendly</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/13/realestate/why-some-of-your-annuals-should-be-native-plants.html">native plants</a>. </p>
<p>There is also a growing understanding that <a href="https://broadview.org/grandfather-teachings-gardening/">centuries-old Indigenous land-based knowledge</a> and practices — like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/21/wildfire-prescribed-burns-california-native-americans">controlled burns</a> — can help manage wildfires, and foster a more resilient landscape.</p>
<p>With concerns about our climate crisis growing, one of the possible avenues for <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-urban-gardens-can-boost-biodiversity-and-make-cities-more-sustainable-162810">creating more sustainable cities may very well lie in our gardens</a>.</p>
<p>Could we have an impact simply by thinking a little differently about the seeds we sow and the “weeds” we pull?</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526851/original/file-20230517-10717-ww5ofa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526851/original/file-20230517-10717-ww5ofa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526851/original/file-20230517-10717-ww5ofa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526851/original/file-20230517-10717-ww5ofa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526851/original/file-20230517-10717-ww5ofa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1248&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526851/original/file-20230517-10717-ww5ofa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1248&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526851/original/file-20230517-10717-ww5ofa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1248&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monarch butterfly on purple coneflowers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeffrey Hamilton/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Listen and Follow</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9qZFg0Ql9DOA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a> or <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com">wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts</a>. </p>
<p><a href="mailto:DCMR@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheConversationCanada">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@theconversation">TikTok</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p>
<h2>Resources</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/01/29/news/tiffany-traverse-rare-indigenous-seed-project">Tiffany Traverse on seeds and their endless power to give, heal and grow</a> - <em>Canada’s National Observer</em></p>
<p><a href="https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/the-coloniality-of-planting">The coloniality of planting: legacies of racism and slavery in the practice of botany</a> - <em>The Architectural Review</em></p>
<p><a href="https://www.noemamag.com/the-long-shadow-of-colonial-science/">The Long Shadow Of Colonial Science</a> - <em>Noema Magazine</em></p>
<p><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-is-it-time-to-decolonize-your-lawn/">Is it time to decolonize your lawn?</a> - <em>Globe and Mail</em></p>
<p><a href="https://turtleprotectors.com">Turtle Protectors</a> in Toronto’s High Park</p>
<p><a href="https://gardeningoutloud.substack.com/p/guest-episode-1-spring-joy-with-ateqah">Spring joy with Ateqah Khaki</a> - <em>Gardening Out Loud</em></p>
<h2>From the archives - in The Conversation</h2>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-colonial-past-of-botanical-gardens-can-be-put-to-good-use-104786">How the colonial past of botanical gardens can be put to good use</a>
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</em>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/director-of-science-at-kew-its-time-to-decolonise-botanical-collections-141070">Director of science at Kew: it's time to decolonise botanical collections</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-shortage-of-native-seeds-is-slowing-land-restoration-across-the-us-which-is-crucial-for-tackling-climate-change-and-extinctions-199049">A shortage of native seeds is slowing land restoration across the US, which is crucial for tackling climate change and extinctions</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526355/original/file-20230515-24343-lszaxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526355/original/file-20230515-24343-lszaxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526355/original/file-20230515-24343-lszaxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526355/original/file-20230515-24343-lszaxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526355/original/file-20230515-24343-lszaxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526355/original/file-20230515-24343-lszaxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526355/original/file-20230515-24343-lszaxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">An aerial view of small green seedlings in pots.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Markus Spiske PG/Unsplash</span></span>
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</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205720/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
As we approach the start of gardening season, it’s a good time to ask some questions about what to plant and who gets to plant.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientAteqah Khaki, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2042872023-05-07T08:30:01Z2023-05-07T08:30:01ZChildren’s book revolution: how East African women took on colonialism after independence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524145/original/file-20230503-27-t4c7oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Detail from the cover of the children's book Kayo's House by Ugandan author Barbara Kimenye.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Macmillan/Mactracks Series</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As independence from British colonial rule swept across East Africa in the early 1960s and freedom was won in <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/uganda-gains-independence">Uganda</a>, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/kenya-granted-independence">Kenya</a> and <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/tanzania-gains-independence">Tanzania</a>, parents and teachers worried about what their children were reading.</p>
<p>Most children’s books on the market were dominated by European writers like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Enid-Blyton">Enid Blyton</a>. One of Kenyan writer <a href="https://ngugiwathiongo.com/about/">Ngũgĩ wa Thiongo’s</a> most stringent criticisms of colonialism was the explosive effect of this “cultural bomb” in the classroom, as missionaries taught African students western cultures and foreign histories. This, according to Kenyan publisher Henry Chakava, <a href="https://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/publishing-in-africa">was producing</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>a new breed of black Europeans, who began to despise their own skin and background. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Publishers and African writers were quick to realise the gap in the market for literature that was suitable for a new generation growing up in independence. From the mid-1960s onwards, publishing houses began a concerted effort to produce such literature. What’s particularly noteworthy is that most of these authors of children’s books in this period were women. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-story-of-an-african-childrens-book-that-explains-the-science-of-skin-colour-164324">The story of an African children's book that explains the science of skin colour</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>As an historian of East Africa, these women writers and their children’s books formed part of my <a href="https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/31493/1/Adima_205057140_CorrectedThesisClean.pdf#page=107">doctoral research</a>. Not only have they been largely ignored by history, but their voices matter because through them we receive a unique insight into this period of East African history.</p>
<h2>The women writers of independence</h2>
<p>In the 1960s, ideas of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/decolonization">decolonisation</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Afrocentrism">Afrocentrism</a> dominated East African culture and academia. The <a href="https://www.vestiges-journal.info/Abbia/Abbia_1_1963/Abbiav1n7.pdf">1962 African Writers Conference</a> was convened at Uganda’s Makerere College (today Makerere University). The University of Nairobi’s English Department was dissolved in a 1968 <a href="https://literature.uonbi.ac.ke/basic-page/our-history">revolution</a> led by East African writers and thinkers. It was replaced by a department of literature, and a department of linguistics and African languages. But such discourse happened mainly inside elite intellectual spaces and small circles. </p>
<p>We mainly know of male voices in East African literature from this period – the likes of Ngūgī, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Okot-pBitek">Okot p'Bitek</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Taban-lo-Liyong">Taban lo Liyong</a>. As men, they had more educational and professional opportunities, and better access to publishing networks. Women writers were seldom published and often dismissed or even ridiculed.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524419/original/file-20230504-27-szm0nf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A children's book cover with an illustration showing a classroom of school pupils in uniform, alarmed and recoiling at the sight of a green snake emerging from the shirt of a boy." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524419/original/file-20230504-27-szm0nf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524419/original/file-20230504-27-szm0nf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524419/original/file-20230504-27-szm0nf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524419/original/file-20230504-27-szm0nf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524419/original/file-20230504-27-szm0nf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524419/original/file-20230504-27-szm0nf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524419/original/file-20230504-27-szm0nf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Oxford University Press</span></span>
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<p>They found a gap in children’s literature. Women writers took it upon themselves to educate children about independence and the meaning of decolonisation. They did this outside of the academy’s ivory tower, with popular work that trickled down to all levels of society.</p>
<p>These authors included <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/18/barbara-kimenye">Barbara Kimenye</a>, <a href="https://www.asenathboleodaga.com/her-story">Asenath Bole Odaga</a>, <a href="https://nation.africa/kenya/life-and-style/lifestyle/the-making-of-prof-miriam-were-africa-s-2022-nobel-peace-prize-nominee-3777092">Miriam Khamadi Were</a>, <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/kola-pamela">Pamela Kola</a>, <a href="https://peoplepill.com/people/anne-matindi">Anne Matindi</a>, <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/zirimu-elvania-namukwaya-1938-1979">Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/31/marjorie-oludhe-macgoye">Marjorie Macgoye</a>. </p>
<p>They wrote for children of all ages, creating fiction, folk tales, and works used in school textbooks. With their words, the women imparted lessons they believed were important for the post-independence generation to learn in order to undo colonialism’s “cultural bomb”. These were works of transformative potential that foregrounded African settings and lessons.</p>
<h2>The Moses series</h2>
<p>Some of the best known African children’s books of the 1960s and 1970s included the Moses series by Ugandan author <a href="https://globaleastafrica.org/global-lives/barbara-kimenye-1929-2012">Barbara Kimenye</a>, one of East Africa’s most celebrated children’s book writers. The series follows the adventures and misdemeanours of Moses and his friends at the ficitional Ugandan boarding school, Mukibi’s Educational Institute for the Sons of African Gentlemen. The Moses series was published between 1968 and 1987 by Oxford University Press.</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Moses_in_Trouble.html?id=GUYQAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">Moses in Trouble</a>, the fifth in the series, centres on an upheaval at Mukibi’s due to poor school meals. Moses and his friend King Kong “sneak off to the village duka (shop) to buy a packet of biscuits” and are later forced to go to nearby farms to steal food. Eventually, Moses is hospitalised with malnutrition. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524423/original/file-20230504-17-53qf0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A children's book cover with an illustration of a boy falling to the ground as he's hit by a coconut from a tree." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524423/original/file-20230504-17-53qf0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524423/original/file-20230504-17-53qf0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524423/original/file-20230504-17-53qf0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524423/original/file-20230504-17-53qf0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524423/original/file-20230504-17-53qf0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1179&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524423/original/file-20230504-17-53qf0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1179&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524423/original/file-20230504-17-53qf0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1179&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Oxford University Press</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Despite the seriousness of the topic, the narrative is humorous, and the Moses series remained popular for decades. The book contains subtle criticism of post-colonial political oppression. Mukibi’s can be seen as a replication of the (post) colonial state: it restricts the boys’ movements and demands complete obedience to authority, but fails to provide basic necessities. </p>
<p>With Moses in Trouble, Kimenye encourages even young readers to remain critical of authority, especially in a time when then-president <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Milton-Obote">Milton Obote</a>’s rule in Uganda was becoming increasingly authoritarian. </p>
<h2>Folk tales</h2>
<p>African folk tales were another popular literary genre for children. African publishers encouraged that these be written and distributed across East Africa. One example is the collection <a href="https://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/east-african-why-stories">East African Why Stories</a> by Kenyan author Kola. It was published by East African Publishing House in 1966. </p>
<p>The stories recount the origins of the habits and characteristics of animals native to Kenya, with titles such as Why the Hippo Has No Hair or Why Baby Chickens Follow Their Mothers. As an educator, Kola understood the need for African stories to be read by African children. She wrote down the stories as they were told to her by her grandmother in the local Luo language before translating them into English. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524422/original/file-20230504-25-oq48q3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A children's book cover with an illustration of a buck leaping up at a bat in an African hut." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524422/original/file-20230504-25-oq48q3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524422/original/file-20230504-25-oq48q3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524422/original/file-20230504-25-oq48q3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524422/original/file-20230504-25-oq48q3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524422/original/file-20230504-25-oq48q3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524422/original/file-20230504-25-oq48q3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524422/original/file-20230504-25-oq48q3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">East African Publishing House</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The oral origins of the stories are reflected in the entertaining, conversational style in which they are written. Reading traditional folk stories was a way for African children to remain in touch with their heritage, which the colonial education system effectively eradicated.</p>
<h2>Why this matters</h2>
<p>The works of male authors continue to be celebrated today for their contributions to the East African literary canon. Fewer remember the role children’s book authors played in the Africanisation of written literature in the 1960s and 1970s – probably because most of them were <a href="https://africainwords.com/2020/08/18/where-were-the-women-east-african-writing-and-the-1962-makerere-conference/">women</a>.</p>
<p>Looking beyond the texts discussed here, the women critiqued colonialism and neocolonialism, inequality, oppression, patriarchy and state authoritarianism, often representing marginalised communities. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-things-you-should-know-about-ngugi-wa-thiongo-one-of-africas-greatest-living-writers-67009">Five things you should know about Ngugi wa Thiong'o, one of Africa's greatest living writers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In writing for young readers, these writers imparted their hopes for independence to them. Their texts reached all echelons of society, exposing children to ideas that allowed them to understand their changing world while serving as an antidote to Eurocentric education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204287/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Adima received funding from the Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>At independence, adults were reading decolonial classics - but children were reading Enid Blyton. A generation of unsung women writers changed that.Anna Adima, Post-Doctoral Research Associate in History, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1986282023-02-23T20:17:01Z2023-02-23T20:17:01ZHow linguistic diversity in English-language fiction reveals resistance and tension<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510196/original/file-20230214-24-s66z91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C704%2C4164%2C2466&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel 'Purple Hibiscus' intersperses Igbo words and expressions. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> (Rolf Vennenbernd/Pool Photo via AP)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Linguistic diversity, like other types of diversity, can enrich life. It’s a truism that languages and cultures are closely allied. Some believe that language imposes <a href="http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/whorf.html">its own unique perceptual grid on its users</a>. </p>
<p>If this were true, translation would be virtually impossible. On the other hand, it’s generally accepted that <a href="https://www.routledge.com/On-Translation/Ricoeur/p/book/9780415357784">a translation seldom reproduces the exact sense of the original text</a>; nuances don’t travel well. </p>
<p>The French phrase <em>joie de vivre</em> can be translated as “joy of living,” but that doesn’t capture the Gallic flavour of the original “joie,” which is why anglophones feel impelled to borrow the French phrase. </p>
<p>My forthcoming book <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/words-in-collision-products-9780228016977.php?page_id=46&"><em>Words in Collision: Multilingualism in English-Language Fiction</em></a> shows how language diversity has been employed by authors. </p>
<h2>Resistance, power conflicts</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A line drawing of a woman." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510197/original/file-20230214-24-h3mz41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510197/original/file-20230214-24-h3mz41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510197/original/file-20230214-24-h3mz41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510197/original/file-20230214-24-h3mz41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510197/original/file-20230214-24-h3mz41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510197/original/file-20230214-24-h3mz41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510197/original/file-20230214-24-h3mz41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In Charlotte Brontë’s novel ‘Shirley,’ English protagonists Shirley and Caroline use French to resist their patriarchal milieu.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In English-language fiction, a non-English tongue can provide a liberating alternative to conventional norms of behaviour. In <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/18827/shirley-by-charlotte-bronte/9780679640097">Charlotte Brontë’s 1849 novel <em>Shirley</em></a>, French serves the dual English protagonists, Shirley and Caroline, as a means of resisting the claustrophobic grip of their patriarchal milieu. </p>
<p>In other works of literature, linguistic clashes feed into broader power conflicts. <a href="https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/henry-v/entire-play/">Shakespeare’s play <em>Henry V</em></a>, <a href="https://www.bl.uk/treasures/Shakespeare/prtshakehenry5.html">likely written in 1599,</a> includes a remarkable amount of French dialogue. In the play, a literal war on the battlefield is paralleled by a figurative war between languages. Shakespeare’s Dauphin brags about the merits of his horse in a mixture of both languages that is likely to strike spectators as absurdly pretentious: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Ça, ha! He bounds from the earth as if his entrails were hairs; le cheval volant, the Pegasus, chez les narines de feu!” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>A less violent but still earnest war of words is fought in Henry James’s 1890 novel <em><a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-tragic-muse-9780141922126">The Tragic Muse</a></em>. Here, French language becomes identified with the art of the Paris theatre, while English represents the antagonistic forces of Anglo-Saxon sobriety. </p>
<h2>Political struggles, decolonizing</h2>
<p>Linguistic collisions <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Empire-Writes-Back-Theory-and-Practice-in-Post-Colonial-Literatures/Ashcroft-Griffiths-Tiffin/p/book/9780415280204">are rife in works of post-colonial literature</a>, where they coincide with political struggles between regimes of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230583863_5">European hegemony and decolonizing movements</a>.</p>
<p>A recent example is Arundhati Roy’s 1998 novel <em><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/158400/the-god-of-small-things-by-arundhati-roy/9780735273283">The God of Small Things</a></em>. In it, English, a holdover from <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/British-raj">the British Raj</a>, vies for supremacy <a href="https://omniglot.com/writing/malayalam.htm">with Malayalam</a>, the regional language <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Kerala">of Kerala</a> where <a href="https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/arundhati-roy">Roy was born</a>.</p>
<p>In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2003 novel <em><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/880/purple-hibiscus-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/9780345807526">Purple Hibiscus</a></em>, Eugene, the father of the protagonist, Kambili, imposes English speech on his Igbo-speaking Nigerian family, while they resist by speaking Igbo in private. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/D9Ihs241zeg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk, ‘The Danger of a Single Story.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Monolingualism as ideology</h2>
<p>Comparative literature scholar Sarah Dowling <a href="https://uipress.uiowa.edu/books/translingual-poetics">studies “translingual poetries”</a> — poetry written in multiple languages “informed by feminist, anti-racist, immigrant rights and Indigenous sovereignty movements.” Dowling prefers the term “translingual” because unlike “the term <em>multilingual</em>, which is often associated with dominant multiculturalisms, the term <em>translingual</em> typically describes critical, oppositional and survival practices.”</p>
<p>“Monolingualism is an ideology, a structuring principle that touches every aspect of social life,” writes Dowling. “It shapes how we understand ourselves and our units of belonging by <a href="https://uipress.uiowa.edu/books/translingual-poetics">constructing homologous relationships between mother tongue, ethnicity and nation</a>.”</p>
<p>Dowling’s insight rings true. As a student, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/905457673/how-stephen-miller-became-the-architect-of-trumps-immigration-policies">Stephen Miller, the architect</a> of ex-U.S. president Donald Trump’s exclusionary immigration policy, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/08/07/how-stephen-miller-went-teen-troll-trump-whisperer/">protested against the presence of Spanish in his Southern California high school</a>. </p>
<h2>Signs of promise</h2>
<p>Polyglot texts (texts using multiple languages) have become increasingly common; they are salvos fired against arrogant monolingualism. Monolingual English speakers would do best to join the multilingual world and welcome these texts. </p>
<p>The continuing emergence of polyglot texts like Julia Alvarez’s 1996 poetry collection <em><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/327929/the-other-sideel-otro-lado-by-julia-alvarez/9780452273412">The Other Side/El Otro Lado</a></em> or Quiara Alegría Hudes’s memoir <em><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/548314/my-broken-language-by-quiara-alegria-hudes">My Broken Language</a></em> (2021) demonstrate cosmopolitanism rather than insularity.</p>
<p>Such a development is likely to enhance our <em>joie de vivre</em>, however we choose to translate it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198628/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Ross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Polyglot texts — texts that use many languages — have become increasingly common as writers document struggles between regimes of European hegemony and decolonizing movements.Michael Ross, Professor Emeritus of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1999972023-02-21T09:40:14Z2023-02-21T09:40:14ZSouth Africa and Israel: new memorial park in the Jewish state highlights complex history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510859/original/file-20230217-16-6qx4p0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An artist's impression of Gan Siyobonga memorial park in Israel.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied by author</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Israeli officials and Jewish South African activists <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-723790">inaugurated</a> a memorial park in Tel Mond, a city north of Tel Aviv, in November 2022. Gan Siyabonga (We Thank You Garden) commemorates several dozen Jewish South African anti-apartheid activists who had personal connections to Israel. </p>
<p>The main sponsors of Gan Siyabonga are the <a href="https://www.jnfsa.co.za/">Jewish National Fund South Africa</a> and <a href="https://www.sazf.org/">South African Zionist Federation</a>. The park’s creation is a milestone in the South African Jewish community’s decades-long introspection into its complex relations with the apartheid regime. </p>
<p>This memorial site is unique in Israel, where an <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-south-africa-home-white-colonialists">estimated</a> 20,000 South Africans live.</p>
<p>Gan Siyabonga is the first site in Israel to highlight the involvement of Jews in the anti-apartheid struggle. It is also unique because it calls attention to a group that was both anti-apartheid and pro-Zionist, or at least not anti-Zionist. The combination is considered unconventional today. That’s because <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zionism">Zionism</a>, the political ideology that favours a Jewish state, is largely associated in South Africa with collaboration with apartheid and the oppression of Palestinians. </p>
<p>Gan Siyabonga is a reminder that relations between Zionism and apartheid, and between Israel and South Africa, were complex and multilayered. In the last few years I have been working on a PhD dissertation that explores this complexity. Digging into archives and historical periodicals revealed a fascinating story that defies some assumptions. </p>
<h2>Israel’s troubled relations with apartheid</h2>
<p>Israel is commonly remembered as one of the last allies of apartheid South Africa. From the mid-1970s, the Israeli government maintained <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/unspoken-alliance-israels-secret-relationship-apartheid-south-africa-sasha-polakow-suransky">close relations</a> with the minority white regime in Pretoria. </p>
<p>It was one of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/09/17/israel-imposes-sanctions-on-south-africa/70cbb4f4-77b9-4898-8df7-dc39c2c5a500/">last countries</a> to enforce full sanctions on Pretoria. As a result, many anti-apartheid activists, including Jewish ones, held fierce anti-Zionist stances. These were amplified by the strong alliances South African liberation movements forged with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/history-may-explain-south-africas-refusal-to-condemn-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-178657">Soviet Union</a> and the <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220609-the-plo-at-58-and-the-anc-at-110-how-they-evolved-and-where-do-they-stand-today/">Palestinian Liberation Organisation</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-push-led-by-south-africa-to-revoke-israels-au-observer-status-is-misguided-168013">Why the push led by South Africa to revoke Israel’s AU observer status is misguided</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution">accusation</a> that Israel practises apartheid-like policies against Palestinians is another reason Israel hasn’t been seen as anti-apartheid. Recent anti-Zionist rhetoric by some Jewish veterans of the South African struggle, such as <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/05/17/how-stop-apartheid-israel">Ronnie Kasrils</a>, strengthened this feeling of unbridgeable contradiction between Israel and anti-apartheid values.</p>
<h2>Support for Israel</h2>
<p>But anti-apartheid activism and Zionism were not always in conflict. Up until the late 1960s, many radical anti-apartheid activists were sympathetic towards Israel and Zionism’s more progressive strands.</p>
<p>In 1948, most radical activists in South Africa supported the establishment of the State of Israel and its war against the invading Arab armies in Palestine. <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/362107/pdf">The Guardian</a>, the main radical weekly in South Africa at the time (linked to the <a href="https://www.sacp.org.za/">South African Communist Party</a>), rooted for an Israeli <a href="https://twitter.com/AfrIsrRel/status/1626615101770936322">victory</a>. </p>
<p>Young Israel was a symbol of opposition to racial persecution and fascism. Those two themes strongly resonated with South African anti-apartheid activists. They tended to see the Afrikaner <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Party-political-party-South-Africa">National Party</a> as an <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02582473.2021.2009014?tab=permissions&scroll=top">ideological relative</a> of the Nazis. </p>
<p>The initial <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/martinkramer/files/who_saved_israel_1947.pdf">Soviet support for Israel</a>, and a prominent socialist element within Zionism, also contributed to these feelings, especially among South African Marxists.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-search-of-advantages-israels-observer-status-in-the-african-union-165773">In search of advantages: Israel’s observer status in the African Union</a>
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<p>From the late 1950s, many anti-apartheid activists cherished Israel’s stances against South Africa <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article/132/559/1440/4831456">at the United Nations</a>. Similarly its <a href="https://www.academia.edu/90295451/_We_Are_Returning_to_Africa_and_Africa_is_Coming_Back_to_Us_Israels_Evolving_Relations_With_Africa">support for decolonisation</a> in Africa. By the early 1960s, Israel had become the most anti-apartheid country in the “western” camp of the Cold War. In 1963, it <a href="https://www.jta.org/archive/south-african-premier-attacks-israel-for-recall-of-envoy-israel-mum">recalled its envoy</a> and supported international sanctions against South Africa. Israeli archives contain many <a href="https://twitter.com/AfrIsrRel/status/1524773424324923393">letters</a> from South African liberation movements <a href="https://www.archives.gov.il/archives/Archive/0b071706800399c8/File/0b071706804bc4fc">thanking Israel</a> for its support at the UN and elsewhere. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An old typed letter signed by an ANC official praises Israel" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510860/original/file-20230217-22-kdw80u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510860/original/file-20230217-22-kdw80u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510860/original/file-20230217-22-kdw80u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510860/original/file-20230217-22-kdw80u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510860/original/file-20230217-22-kdw80u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510860/original/file-20230217-22-kdw80u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510860/original/file-20230217-22-kdw80u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Letter from ANC officials praising Israel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Israel State Archive</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the 1960s, Israel offered covert material support to anti-apartheid groups, perhaps even <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2013-12-20/ty-article/.premium/mandela-and-the-mossad/0000017f-e66d-dc7e-adff-f6eda1960000">to Nelson Mandela</a>. Israeli experiences inspired the early stages of uMkhonto we Sizwe, the African National Congress’ (ANC) military wing, for example through <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/arthur-goldreich">Arthur Goldreich</a>. It also had stable communication channels with the <a href="https://www.archives.gov.il/archives/Archive/0b0717068031bdef/File/0b0717068062f0ae">Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania</a>. </p>
<h2>Post-1967</h2>
<p>Sympathy towards Israel diminished considerably after the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4325413">Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973</a>. But relations between anti-apartheid activism and Zionism remained complicated.</p>
<p>Many Jewish individuals who joined the struggle against apartheid had been active in Zionist youth movements. The socialist-oriented <a href="https://habonim.org.za/">Habonim</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Shomrim_in_the_Land_of_Apartheid.html?id=ZMltAAAAMAAJ">Hashomer Hatzair</a> stand out. Those who joined the anti-apartheid struggle (such as <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Slovo_the_Unfinished_Autobiography.html?id=9QxzAAAAMAAJ">Joe Slovo</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Revolutions_in_My_Life.html?id=vQYwAQAAIAAJ">Baruch Hirson</a>) typically abandoned Zionism. But they acknowledged its role in forming their radical worldview.</p>
<p>Jewish South African individuals were prominent in the liberal strand of the anti-apartheid struggle too. They usually used their professional skills to challenge the apartheid regime. Lawyers like <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/advocate-israel-isie-aaron-maisels">Isie Maisels</a>, parliamentarians like <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/helen-suzman">Helen Suzman</a>, journalists like <a href="https://southafrica.co.za/benjamin-pogrund.html">Benjamin Pogrund</a>, and rabbis like <a href="https://www.sajr.co.za/rabbi-ben-isaacson-a-maverick-soul-finds-rest/">Ben Isaacson</a> were examples. Jewish liberal activists usually expressed support for Israel in various ways.</p>
<p>Developments since the mid-1970s have largely overshadowed the complex history of Zionism’s engagement with the apartheid regime. The anti-apartheid struggle became tightly associated with the Palestinian struggle. And, after its rise to power in 1994, the ANC reaffirmed its commitment to its Palestinian allies.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-and-russia-president-cyril-ramaphosas-foreign-policy-explained-198430">South Africa and Russia: President Cyril Ramaphosa's foreign policy explained</a>
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<p>Since then, relations with Israel have largely remained chilly. The ANC <a href="https://bdsmovement.net/news/s-africas-ruling-party-anc-reaffirms-boycott-israel-resolution">supports</a> the movement to boycott Israel and Pretoria <a href="https://thewire.in/external-affairs/south-africa-israel-anc">downgraded</a> its representation in the Jewish state. South African foreign affairs minister Naledi Pandor has <a href="https://www.jpost.com/bds-threat/article-713140">called</a> for Israel to be declared an “apartheid state”. </p>
<h2>A step in the right direction</h2>
<p>Israel and South Africa’s Jewish communities have a long and ambiguous history of entanglement with race politics. There were admirable moments in this history. But there were also periods of complicity with racism. In Israel, both sides of this history are largely forgotten.</p>
<p>Gan Siyabonga is an important first step in placing this history in the Israeli public sphere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199997/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asher Lubotzky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Gan Siyabonga is unique in Israel. It highlights a group that was both anti-apartheid and pro-Zionist.Asher Lubotzky, PhD Candidate, History, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1981542023-02-02T20:27:53Z2023-02-02T20:27:53ZA growing number of non-Māori New Zealanders are embracing learning te reo – but there’s more to it than language<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507715/original/file-20230201-16802-wydv3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C177%2C6200%2C3534&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/traditional-maori-carving-whakarewarewa-marae-meeting-558569098">Shutterstock/Renata Apanaviciene</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As we approach another Waitangi Day, we should be thinking again about what Te Tiriti o Waitangi means. </p>
<p>As the late Moana Jackson commented, the meaning of Te Tiriti will be talked about in each generation because <a href="https://natlib.govt.nz/he-tohu/korero/interview-with-moana-jackson">it is about a relationship</a> between Māori and Pākehā and relationships must always be worked on. Here, we focus on the learning of te reo Māori by non-Māori in relation to Te Tiriti and the Māori concept of whakapapa in the hope of continuing the conversation and the relationship. </p>
<p>For full disclosure, we are married. Pania is Ngāti Porou and her father is a native speaker. Brian is Pākehā. We both learned te reo Māori as a second language as adults. We will come back to this later.</p>
<p>The learning of te reo Māori by non-Māori has become cool. Growing numbers of non-Māori are enrolled in te reo courses and there are many new resources to support their learning. It cannot be separated from Tiriti concerns and whakapapa. </p>
<p>Several authors have commented on this phenomenon of non-Māori enthusiasm for te reo Māori and Māori knowledge, highlighting the complex nature of the motivations involved. </p>
<p>Alison Jones, a Pākehā scholar in Indigenous education, notices how the demand by non-Māori to have te reo <a href="https://e-tangata.co.nz/reo/alison-jones-when-pakeha-acquire-te-reo/">echoes the colonising demand</a> to have Māori land. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1413952926377148419"}"></div></p>
<p>Catherine Delahunty, a Pākehā activist in environmental and social justice, reminds non-Māori to “<a href="https://e-tangata.co.nz/reflections/staying-in-our-lane/">stay in our lane</a>”, and warns that if we don’t, we effectively co-opt and attempt to control things that don’t belong to us. </p>
<p>Nicola Bright, a senior researcher of Tūhoe and Ngāti Awa descent at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (<a href="https://www.nzcer.org.nz/">NZCER</a>), tells us <a href="https://nzareblog.wordpress.com/2021/11/02/reo-revitalisation/">Māori should benefit first</a> from the revitalisation of te reo Māori. </p>
<p>Georgina Tuari Stewart, a scholar who explores the nexus between culture and education, alerts us to the need to <a href="https://pesaagora.com/columns/a-passion-for-ignorance/">accept the limits of our ability to know</a> in relation to Māori knowledge.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1543326588863148032"}"></div></p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.nzcer.org.nz/nzcerpress/ki-te-hoe-education-aotearoa">our own work</a>, as academics focused on Indigenisation and decolonisation of education systems, we talk of New Zealand and Aotearoa as two different countries occupying the same land. Te Tiriti is about relations between these two countries.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tokenism-and-te-reo-maori-why-some-things-just-shouldnt-be-translated-190140">Tokenism and te reo Māori: why some things just shouldn’t be translated</a>
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<h2>A whakapapa perspective on language</h2>
<p>We see the learning of te reo Māori with a whakapapa lens. We refer to whakapapa as the emergence of new entities from their previous forms. Inherent in our understanding is an acceptance that entities have a natural right to have their whakapapa respected.</p>
<p>For most non-Māori, languages have been commodified and are available on demand. We liken this to having a language supermarket. Customers can buy various products “off the shelf” to allow them to learn any language they like. </p>
<p>These days, the supermarket is virtual and the products are digital apps. We see the dark irony in Māori having to shop for their own language in this supermarket.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bilingual-road-signs-in-aotearoa-new-zealand-would-tell-us-where-we-are-as-a-nation-150438">Bilingual road signs in Aotearoa New Zealand would tell us where we are as a nation</a>
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<p>In this commodified world, language is understood as a symbolic code that can be learned to express your thoughts. Learning a new language just means learning a new code. This is a distinctly colonising and capitalist view of language which cuts right across whakapapa, treating language as a disembodied entity, fixed through a vocabulary and a set of rules. </p>
<p>Viewed through whakapapa, a language is inherent in the worldviews and experiences of the people who emerge with it. Seen this way, languages cannot be separated from the people who speak them and who have inherited them from their ancestors. </p>
<h2>Could non-Māori learning te reo be akin to colonisation?</h2>
<p>The learning of te reo Māori, whether we like it or not, is already in the public domain. Anyone can learn it and we encourage everyone to do so. But if not done well and ethically, it could be another wave of colonisation. </p>
<p>If we go about learning te reo Māori as if it were a symbolic code or a commodified product that will provide certain (economic and self-investment) benefits, several things become apparent. </p>
<p>Since we learn a commodified version of te reo, we are not part of any processes of emergence alongside the people whose heritage te reo Māori is. This commodified form is in fact part of whakapapa for many non-Māori. It has emerged from our experiences and worldview and is a form of appropriation. </p>
<p>The taking of other people’s stuff and refashioning it for our purposes is indeed colonisation. But there is also great potential for growth as people and as a nation because learning a language can change you. </p>
<p>In whakapapa terms, the presence of te reo Māori in your life has become part of the emergence of the next versions of you and your descendants. The bottom line is to understand and respect whakapapa. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/learning-to-live-with-the-messy-complicated-history-of-how-aotearoa-new-zealand-was-colonised-172219">Learning to live with the 'messy, complicated history' of how Aotearoa New Zealand was colonised</a>
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<h2>Honouring te Tiriti</h2>
<p>Non-Māori people must first acknowledge the right for te reo to emerge in the world along with the people whose own emergence is intimately entwined with it through whakapapa. That’s iwi Māori.</p>
<p>This is a difficult task because many non-Māori are so used to believing that, in theory at least, they can know and possess anything (if they want to and put in the effort). Respecting whakapapa then involves non-Māori in a necessary self-limitation which runs counter to their own cultural development in a capitalist, exploitative and predatory culture. </p>
<p>Non-Māori must figure out how to acquire te reo Māori without possessing it.
It might help to return to our idea of two countries overlapping in time and space – New Zealand and Aotearoa. Honouring Te Tiriti then asks those of us who live in New Zealand to honour what happens in another country, Aotearoa. </p>
<p>We would never say, for example, that we have claims over what happens in China, nor that because we speak Chinese we have some special insight or claim over China or Chinese people. Adopting a similar stance with respect to te reo Māori as the native language of Aotearoa will bring us closer to being able to respect its right to have natural emergence through whakapapa. </p>
<p>For us, even though we converse with each other every day in te reo Māori, one of us speaks Māori and the other doesn’t.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198154/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We encourage everyone to learn te reo Māori, but if not done well and ethically, it could be another wave of colonisation.Brian Tweed, Senior lecturer, Massey UniversityPania Te Maro, Associate Professor, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1976412023-01-24T14:34:50Z2023-01-24T14:34:50ZFootball and politics in Kinshasa: how DRC’s elite use sport to build their reputations and hold on to power<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504456/original/file-20230113-26-o6a4dx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young people play football on a street in Goma, eastern DRC. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Guerchom Ndebo/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Football in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – as in much of the world – is intertwined with politics. </p>
<p>In the central African country, football clubs have long been a way for the regime in power to build political capital. Many politicians involve themselves with clubs to bolster their image. On the other hand, football is also a space for political opposition. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://medialibrary.uantwerpen.be/files/8518/fa1af368-d443-41cc-88b9-38bcdcb90449.pdf">our recent paper</a>, we show how politics and football come together in a number of ways in Kinshasa, the country’s capital city. </p>
<p>Football was particularly important for Joseph Kabila’s regime, from 2001 to 2019. His was a <a href="https://africanarguments.org/2018/01/kabila-must-go-the-congolese-see-this-why-cant-the-west/">contested and repressive regime</a>. Throughout his tenure as president, Kabila and his party members looked for ways to improve their reputation to gain votes. One way was by financially supporting football clubs. This worked because these clubs don’t have structural or sufficient commercial or state support. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://medialibrary.uantwerpen.be/files/8518/fa1af368-d443-41cc-88b9-38bcdcb90449.pdf">our study finds</a> that football politics can also work against a regime. During the Kabila years, football stadiums and supporter crowds offered a relatively safe place to protest the repressive regime. Anti-Kabila songs, for example, were often heard at matches. </p>
<h2>Football and power</h2>
<p>Our interviews with supporters, regime figures and others found that during the Kabila years, supporters and club officials made a distinction between regime figures supporting the club, and the regime. A common statement we heard was: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>supporters still appreciated Kabila-associated politicians as long as they were able to provide financial support.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Gabriel Amisi (commonly known as Tango Four), for example, was a close ally of Kabila’s and currently serves as an <a href="https://www.jeuneafrique.com/1016772/politique/rdc-sous-pression-des-usa-felix-tshisekedi-procede-a-un-prudent-remaniement-dans-larmee/">army general and inspector general of the Congolese army</a>. Amisi has been accused of a wide range of human rights abuses during his time as a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2002/08/20/congo-war-crimes-kisangani">rebel commander</a> and an <a href="https://www.radiookapi.net/actualite/2012/11/22/rdc-le-president-kabila-suspend-le-general-major-amisi-le-chef-de-forces-terrestres">army commander</a>. One press article describes him as “<a href="https://afridesk.org/whos-who-le-general-amisi-tango-four-le-boucher-du-kivu-jj-wondo/">the butcher of Eastern Congo</a>”. </p>
<p>Between 2007 and 2020, Amisi was president of the AS Vita Club, one of the biggest clubs in Kinshasa. Before 2007, the team was performing poorly. Under Amisi’s leadership, the team won three national titles and excelled internationally. Players remember his leadership as providing financial stability, with regular and good salaries, and material supplies. </p>
<p>This made him very popular. When Amisi tried to resign in 2012 after AS Vita Club’s elimination from the national league, the team’s management and club supporters didn’t accept his submission. When protests began against the Kabila regime in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-congo-politics-idUSKBN14800C">2016</a> in Kinshasa, AS Vita supporters protected Amisi’s house. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/12/16/dr-congo-profiles-individuals-sanctioned-eu-and-us">Human Rights Watch</a> has documented how Amisi (and other elite figures) used youth league members of football clubs to infiltrate protests against the Kabila regime “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/12/16/dr-congo-profiles-individuals-sanctioned-eu-and-us">and incite protesters to loot and commit violence</a>”. </p>
<p>An association with regime figures gives football clubs advantages, such as protection from prosecution if supporters are caught up in stadium violence. This makes it unattractive for clubs to associate with opposition figures, who generally have less money to invest and less political power. </p>
<p>In this way, Congolese football isn’t very different from football elsewhere in the world. It has been shown how <a href="https://books.google.be/books?id=VIlcDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA463&lpg=PA463&dq=Armstrong,+G.,+%26+Mitchell,+J.+P.+(2001).+%E2%80%9CPlayers,+patrons,+and+politicians:+oppositional+cultures+in+Maltese+football.%E2%80%9D+Fear+and+loathing+in+world+football,+137-158.&source=bl&ots=6GcJZyJ7BE&sig=ACfU3U3YaJGbpHXEt6nnlRXMeLAYfrrpVw&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiorpSsspz8AhUROewKHQ0BDxAQ6AF6BAgHEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false">worldwide</a> – not only on the <a href="https://polaf.hypotheses.org/5030">African continent</a>, but in a variety of places such as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14660970.2013.792482">Turkey, Indonesia</a> and <a href="http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/10117/">Malta</a> – football helps regimes to reproduce their hegemony, particularly by creating political capital. </p>
<h2>Football and protest</h2>
<p>But the opposite has also been shown. Football has played an important role in contesting power. It has, for example, played a role in decolonising struggles in <a href="https://experts.arizona.edu/en/publications/visualizing-politics-in-african-sport-political-and-cultural-cons">Zimbabwe</a>, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/abs/kickin-it-leisure-politics-and-football-in-colonial-zanzibar-1900s1950s/A97494FF2D4FEB7BFA1252B4A11A6309">Zanzibar</a> and <a href="https://books.google.be/books?hl=nl&lr=&id=N65pbr2hC4wC&oi=fnd&pg=PP12&dq=Martin,+P.+(2002).+%E2%80%9CLeisure+and+society+in+colonial+Brazzaville.%E2%80%9D+Cambridge+University+Pr&ots=2MF69toPoN&sig=6yK6P7RbPAWkvnTOo0XuYu3Tp6U#v=onepage&q=Martin%2C%20P.%20(2002).%20%E2%80%9CLeisure%20and%20society%20in%20colonial%20Brazzaville.%E2%80%9D%20Cambridge%20University%20Pr&f=false">Congo-Brazzaville</a>; and in the <a href="https://www.eurasiareview.com/24122012-pitched-battles-the-role-of-ultra-soccer-fans-in-the-arab-spring-analysis-2/">Arab spring</a> in the 2010s. </p>
<p>These dynamics also played out in Kinshasa, where football supporters participated in decolonisation struggles. On <a href="https://dialectik-football.info/16-juin-1957-lunion-saint-gilloise-au-congo-et-la-premiere-emeute-anti-coloniale/">16 June 1957</a>, a match between Kinshasa’s FC Leopoldville and Belgium’s Union Saint Gilloise de Bruxelles led to the first riots leading up to independence. A year and a half later, AS Vita Club supporters played <a href="https://books.google.be/books?id=bF5Vx8cCnrMC&printsec=frontcover&hl=nl&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">an important role</a> in decisive riots against colonial authorities. In 1960, the DRC got its independence from Belgium. </p>
<p>In the postcolonial period, football has also played a role in challenging power. During the Kabila regime, as <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/29/dr-congo-repression-persists-election-deadline-nears">political repression escalated</a> in almost every other space, the football stadium became an important venue for political protest. </p>
<p>In the words of a soccer fan in <a href="https://medialibrary.uantwerpen.be/files/8518/fa1af368-d443-41cc-88b9-38bcdcb90449.pdf">our study</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Since we’re in the stadium, we won’t be arrested. The police knows this: they won’t try anything because we’re way more numerous than them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The lyrics of protest songs and slogans – referred to as “hymns of the oppressed” – included: “God is doing everything so that Kabila dies!” and “Eeeh, we refuse (to be) the voting machine”. </p>
<p>During <a href="https://qz.com/africa/569612/dr-congos-joseph-kabila-is-taking-a-slippery-path-to-a-third-term">the “slippage” period</a> from 2015 onwards – when Kabila went beyond the formal limits of his mandate – anti-Kabila slogans became even more popular. </p>
<p>The engagement of regime figures with soccer clubs didn’t overcome hostile feelings about the regime. </p>
<h2>Regime controls</h2>
<p>The impact of these confrontations of regime power was limited, though. </p>
<p>For example, during the Kabila regime, radio and TV stations would cut their broadcasting when political songs were sung during games involving the national team. And in late 2016, the minister of sports <a href="https://www.radiookapi.net/2016/12/14/actualite/sport/rdc-le-ministre-des-sports-suspend-le-championnat-national-de-foot">temporarily suspended</a> the national football competition. The official reason for this was “<a href="https://www.radiookapi.net/2016/12/14/actualite/sport/rdc-le-ministre-des-sports-suspend-le-championnat-national-de-foot">excessive violence in the stadiums</a>”. But it was widely understood as a political measure by the regime, fearing protests by supporters in reaction to the end of Kabila’s official mandate during this period. The former minister confirmed this to us during interviews. </p>
<p>In sum, football in Kinshasa is politics – but primarily regime politics. Even though political opposition can be expressed through football, it is questionable how much potential for change this carries. </p>
<p>During the authoritarian Kabila regime, the protest role of football was confined. It’s similar under the current Felix Tshisekedi regime, which uses football as a political tool. Kinshasa’s main clubs (Daring Club Motema Pembe and AS Vita), for example, have club presidents who are close allies of Tshisekedi.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197641/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Football provides a way for unpopular elites to build political capital – but also creates space for citizens to voice dissent.Kristof Titeca, Professor in International Development, University of AntwerpAlbert Malukisa Nkuku, Associate researcher, University of AntwerpLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1958302022-12-05T14:01:27Z2022-12-05T14:01:27ZWhy Britain should immediately withdraw from Mauritius’ Chagos Islands<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498697/original/file-20221202-12-ij0794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Demonstrators from the Chagos Islands protest for Britain to end its "illegal occupation".
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by JEAN MARC POCHE/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Britain is on the cusp of decolonising Mauritius – again. The first attempt at decolonisation took place in 1968 but went unfulfilled when London kept hold of an island group that had long been regarded as Mauritian territory: the Chagos Archipelago.</p>
<p>In recent years, the international community has handed down a clear and consistent view that Britain’s occupation of the Chagos Islands is <a href="https://theconversation.com/britains-ownership-of-the-chagos-islands-has-no-basis-mauritius-is-right-to-claim-them-177461">illegal</a>. Now, London and Port Louis are engaged in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/03/uk-agrees-to-negotiate-with-mauritius-over-handover-of-chagos-islands">talks</a> over the future of the islands – the final act, perhaps, in the decolonisation of Mauritius.</p>
<p>Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2022-11-03/hcws354">has suggested</a> that an agreement on the status of the Chagos Archipelago will come “by early next year”. </p>
<p>But what might a settlement look like?</p>
<p>The answer depends almost entirely on what can be agreed about the future of Diego Garcia, the largest island of the Chagos group. It’s the site of a critical US military base that Britain has dutifully hosted for the past 50 years.</p>
<h2>The American elephant</h2>
<p>It is hard to overstate the legal and political pressure that Britain faces to withdraw from the Chagos Islands. No fewer than <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/22/uk-suffers-crushing-defeat-un-vote-chagos-islands">116 national governments</a>, the <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2019/ga12146.doc.htm">UN General Assembly</a>, the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-mauritius/african-union-urges-britain-to-cede-chagos-islands-end-colonial-rule-idUSKBN1XW1GG">African Union</a> and the <a href="https://www.ejiltalk.org/icj-delivers-chagos-advisory-opinion-uk-loses-badly/">International Court of Justice</a> have called upon Britain to cease its occupation of the islands. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/28/un-court-rejects-uk-claim-to-chagos-islands-in-favour-of-mauritius">settled opinion</a> of the international community is that Diego Garcia and the rest of the Chagos Archipelago belong to Mauritius, not the United Kingdom. This is not much of a grey area.</p>
<p>But complying with international law is a voluntary act. </p>
<p>For a long time, Britain’s policy was that the Chagos Islands would be returned to Mauritius when they were <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/questions-on-the-british-indian-ocean-territory-have-long-been-a-bilateral-matter-between-the-uk-and-mauritius#:%7E:text=When%20we%20no%20longer%20need,needed%20them%20for%20defence%20purposes.">no longer needed</a> “for defence purposes”. In his written statement to announce talks with Port Louis, Cleverly appeared to reaffirm this commitment by insisting that “any agreement between our two countries will ensure the continued effective operation” of the base on Diego Garcia.</p>
<p>The elephant in the room is that Britain does not now need – and, in fact, has never truly depended upon – the Chagos Archipelago for military purposes. Only a handful of British military personnel cycle through Diego Garcia. What, then, is London waiting for?</p>
<p>In reality, it is US forces that use the island of Diego Garcia as a logistics hub and staging post for military actions across the Indo-Pacific. As they negotiate with Mauritius, British leaders are therefore mostly interested in securing guarantees that America’s military interests will not be harmed by a transfer of authority to Port Louis. </p>
<p>This is what will shape negotiations over the territory’s future.</p>
<h2>Difficult talks ahead</h2>
<p>Four scenarios stand out as realistic.</p>
<p>First, Britain could relinquish its claim to the Chagos Archipelago without delay, and with few or no strings attached. This would be the “cleanest” way to uphold London’s obligations to Mauritius under international law. It would then be up to Port Louis and Washington to decide upon the future of the base on Diego Garcia.</p>
<p>Second, London could suggest a <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/finding-compromise-chagos-islands-saga">staged approach</a> to decolonisation. The opening phase would see Britain return the so-called “Outer” Chagos Islands to Mauritius – that is, the 57 islands of the archipelago that have never been used for military purposes, which are scattered around 100 miles north and west of Diego Garcia. But in exchange, Port Louis would grant London temporary sovereignty over Diego Garcia (a rump British Indian Ocean Territory) so that the base there could continue its operations uninterrupted for a specified amount of time.</p>
<p>Another variant of this option would be for Britain to acknowledge Mauritian sovereignty over the entire Chagos Archipelago – including Diego Garcia – but negotiate to access rights for itself and the United States.</p>
<p>Finally, talks could break down altogether. This is a real possibility. Decision-makers in London are unlikely to agree to anything that Washington cannot support.</p>
<h2>The case for full decolonisation</h2>
<p>Strictly bilateral talks might not be the best way to resolve the Chagos dispute. The United States must be engaged in the process, too.</p>
<p>Indeed, finding a long-term agreement between Washington and Port Louis is complicated by Britain’s persistent attempts to serve as an intermediary. Colonialism and illegality are hard to accommodate in diplomatic accords, after all.</p>
<p>Britain ought to announce the full and unconditional decolonisation of the territory as a backdrop to Mauritius and the United States discussing the issues that concern the two of them: basing rights, a status of forces agreement, and support for a resettled Chagossian community, to name three.</p>
<p>America’s military is hosted by a diverse cast of national governments on every continent. Dealing with Mauritius should be no more difficult than negotiating with Australia, Poland, Saudi Arabia, or South Korea.</p>
<p>Either way, London has no constructive role to play in these discussions, which concern the territory’s future rather than its past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195830/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Harris does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As they negotiate with Mauritius, British leaders are mostly interested in securing guarantees that America’s military interests will not be harmed by a transfer of authority to Port Louis.Peter Harris, Associate Professor of Political Science, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1924672022-11-23T16:04:44Z2022-11-23T16:04:44ZHow to decolonize journalism — Podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497076/original/file-20221123-24-8zq33s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C57%2C1902%2C1020&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Duncan McCue, left, walks with Rocky James, a podcast guest on CBC's 'Kuper Island.'
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Evan Aagaard/CBC Podcasts)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/e7d12b26-7189-4da9-a83b-09e54f131b65?dark=true"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-572" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/572/661898416fdc21fc4fdef6a5379efd7cac19d9d5/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Despite the jokes about our egos, many of us journalists got into the business because we felt a need to call out powerful institutions. </p>
<p>But journalism itself is one of those powerful institutions, and it has failed time and again to address criticisms around who gets to tell the news and whose perspectives get left out. </p>
<p>Some researchers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190067076.001.0001">have called this a crisis of journalism, a “digital reckoning.”</a> And they are not talking about economics — with local newsrooms and news budgets on the decline — though that is part of it. </p>
<p>When it comes to reporting and covering Indigenous Peoples, journalism’s institutions have failed. For example, a good part of the reason so many <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2022/06/20/how-familiar-are-canadians-with-the-history-of-indigenous-residential-schools.html">Canadians are not familiar with the history of the Indian Residential Schools</a> is because Canadian media failed to tell those stories. We failed to address the ongoing colonialism and that has meant that urgent Indigenous issues have been ignored or sensationalized.</p>
<p>And journalism schools only recently began teaching their students how to think critically while covering stories like these. </p>
<p>Our guest <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/decolonizing-journalism">on this episode of <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a> has been working on correcting these issues both in the newsroom and in the classroom. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492213/original/file-20221027-40102-xuwshh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492213/original/file-20221027-40102-xuwshh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492213/original/file-20221027-40102-xuwshh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492213/original/file-20221027-40102-xuwshh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492213/original/file-20221027-40102-xuwshh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492213/original/file-20221027-40102-xuwshh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492213/original/file-20221027-40102-xuwshh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492213/original/file-20221027-40102-xuwshh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Duncan McCue has published Decolonizing Journalism, a new book to help journalists contend with the bias in news media.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Duncan McCue is an award-winning Anishinaabe journalist. </p>
<p>He has worked at the CBC for over 20 years reporting for <em>The National</em> and as the host of <em>Cross Country Checkup</em>. </p>
<p>Duncan was part of a CBC investigation into missing and murdered Indigenous women that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/cbc-mmiw-investigations-hillman-prize-1.3501398">won the Hillman Award for Investigative Journalism</a>. Most recently, he has produced and hosted <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/1062-kuper-island"><em>Kuper Island</em></a>, an eight-episode podcast that focuses on four students of a residential school in B.C. — three who survived and one who didn’t. </p>
<p>As an educator, Duncan has taught journalism at the University of British Columbia and Toronto Metropolitan University. And he just published a new book, <a href="https://www.oupcanada.com/catalog/9780190164263.html"><em>Decolonizing Journalism</em></a>.</p>
<h2>Follow and Listen</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9qZFg0Ql9DOA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a> or <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com">wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts</a>. <a href="mailto:theculturedesk@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheConversationCanada">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@theconversation">TikTok</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p>
<h2>Also in The Conversation</h2>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/four-corners-how-many-more-reveals-the-nations-crisis-of-indigenous-women-missing-and-murdered-193216">Four Corners' 'How many more?' reveals the nation's crisis of Indigenous women missing and murdered</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-toronto-star-is-making-the-right-move-by-renaming-the-lou-marsh-trophy-191831">The Toronto Star is making the right move by renaming the Lou Marsh trophy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-shameful-history-of-sterilizing-indigenous-women-107876">Canada's shameful history of sterilizing Indigenous women</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thunder-bay-local-news-is-important-for-conversations-on-reconciliation-114875">Thunder Bay: Local news is important for conversations on reconciliation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stanley-trial-highlights-colonialism-of-canadian-media-91375">Stanley trial highlights colonialism of Canadian media</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/media-portrays-indigenous-and-muslim-youth-as-savages-and-barbarians-79153">Media portrays Indigenous and Muslim youth as 'savages' and 'barbarians'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Sources</h2>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/decolonizing-journalism-9780190164263?cc=ca&lang=en&"><em>Decolonizing Journalism</em></a> by Duncan McCue</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://uofmpress.ca/books/detail/seeing-red"><em>Seeing Red</em></a> by Mark Cronlund Anderson and Carmen L. Robertson </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2953-our-history-is-the-future"><em>Our History is the Future</em></a> by Nick Estes</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190067076.001.0001"><em>Reckoning: Journalism’s Limits and Possibilities</em></a> by Candis Callison and Mary Lynn Young. </p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492346/original/file-20221028-13-w3hbdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492346/original/file-20221028-13-w3hbdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492346/original/file-20221028-13-w3hbdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492346/original/file-20221028-13-w3hbdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492346/original/file-20221028-13-w3hbdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492346/original/file-20221028-13-w3hbdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492346/original/file-20221028-13-w3hbdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492346/original/file-20221028-13-w3hbdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From the left: Seeing Red by Mark Cronlund Anderson and Carmen L. Robertson,
Our History is Our Future by Nick Estes and Reckoning by Candis Callison and Mary Lynn Young.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Transcript</h2>
<p>The unedited version of the transcript is available <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/decolonizing-journalism/transcript">here</a>.</p>
<p><em>Don’t Call Me Resilient is produced in partnership with the Journalism Innovation Lab at the University of British Columbia and with a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192467/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Canadian journalist institutions have failed to address their ongoing colonialism and that has meant that urgent Indigenous issues have been ignored or sensationalized.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1946462022-11-23T14:03:47Z2022-11-23T14:03:47ZBlack Panther in the classroom: how Afrofuturism in a film helped trainee teachers in South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495637/original/file-20221116-145-s91scs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Letitia Wright in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marvel Studios/Disney</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Back in 2018 I joined the millions of people who flocked to cinemas worldwide to watch Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther. The story of an ultra modern African society not shaped by colonialism was celebrated by critics and audiences alike as “<a href="https://time.com/black-panther/">revolutionary</a>”. It won three Oscars. Now its sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is dominating box office returns and delighting critics.</p>
<p>While I enjoyed and was entertained by the first film, I was also struck by its potential as a teaching tool. Its Afrofuturistic approach – using the past to imagine futures that differ from existing historical narratives – could, I thought, be a catalyst for dispelling myths about African history, culture and tradition. It might be a way to help my students – trainee teachers at a South African institution – overcome cognitive injustice. This is the idea that some forms of knowledge are more significant than others.</p>
<p>Eurocentrism, which is based on a biased view of western or European knowledge at the expense of knowledge from the global south, leads to cognitive injustice. </p>
<p>As I’ve <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.20853/32-4-2922">explored</a> in <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/ersc/v7nspe/06.pdf">my research</a>, students at a university in the global south might experience cognitive injustice when the curriculum is dominated by western thought and knowledge.</p>
<p>Overcoming their own sense of cognitive injustice is a powerful way for educators to enable their students to question and transform society’s unbalanced power relations. This is especially urgent in a South African society troubled by <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/ramaphosa-says-number-of-women-murdered-in-south-africa-up-50-percent/6818242.html">gender-based violence</a>, <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-06-27-the-rise-of-xenophobia-is-south-africas-road-to-ruin/">xenophobia</a>, <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/sunday-tribune/news/parents-slam-christian-primary-school-over-monkey-jibe-64c628e1-0b42-460c-a547-1d1a2295acf6">racism</a> and <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/03/09/new-world-bank-report-assesses-sources-of-inequality-in-five-countries-in-southern-africa">social inequality</a>. </p>
<p>So I conducted <a href="https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ctl_00080_1">a study</a> in which I examined whether seeing Black Panther influenced future teachers to think differently about their identities and relationships with others. I used the film to introduce them to the concept of Afrofuturism. I found that Black Panther made a significant contribution to the students’ awareness by reinforcing the idea that people should be proud of how they look, and that beauty is not tied to a grand, western or global standard, but is, rather, fluid and different for each person.</p>
<p>By understanding the importance of identity and using teaching methods that are sensitive to different cultures, these teachers will be better able to promote diversity in their future classrooms.</p>
<h2>Varying messages</h2>
<p>Fifty-two trainee teachers were involved in the study. They were asked to see the film in cinemas and we then discussed what they learned from it.</p>
<p>The students identified with several aspects of Black Panther, often depending on their own place in society. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/afrofuturism-and-its-possibility-of-elsewhere-the-power-of-political-imagination-166002">Afrofuturism and its possibility of elsewhere: The power of political imagination</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For instance, some of the female students found the film’s message of gender equality to be the most interesting aspect. These students perceived a connection between the many roles portrayed by the black actresses in the film and their capacity for both physical and emotional expression. They further seemed to have had the insight that a society’s power dynamics may be shaken up when women are given equal status within that society.</p>
<p>Most of the female students held the belief that the way women are treated in their communities or society renders them helpless. However, several of them felt inspired by the film to take a stand against the many forms of discrimination that, in today’s culture, make it difficult for roles to be shared equitably.</p>
<p>Several students felt the systems and structures of many modern African communities demonstrated that the continent was still subject to the policies of globalisation rather than developing its own policies, tailored to its requirements. </p>
<h2>Challenging norms</h2>
<p>A few other students expressed their views on the importance of challenging political norms, as well as resisting orthodox ways of thinking. They were firmly on the side of decolonisation – pulling entirely away from global north influence, theories and knowledge systems.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/black-panther-wakanda-forever-continues-the-series-quest-to-recover-and-celebrate-lost-cultures-193508">'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' continues the series' quest to recover and celebrate lost cultures</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Others, though, insisted that it was essential to collaborate with others from across the globe rather than to operate in isolation. They argued that western and European knowledge had value but that African knowledge and policies ought to be at the centre of learning and teaching on the continent.</p>
<p>In my opinion, schools in South Africa are lacking a social justice curriculum that would teach students about the concept of cognitive injustice. Students should constantly be immersed in a welcoming learning environment that acknowledges and appreciates their individuality, while also fostering a feeling of community among their peers. Black Panther’s Afrofuturistic perspective, in my opinion, encourages students to reflect on what makes them unique and to be receptive to discussions on the impact of gender stereotypes and racism on their experiences in the classroom and beyond.</p>
<p>Using Black Panther as a way into exploring Afrofuturism led to decolonial ideas. That, in turn, could alter the students’ future classrooms if they take up these ideas in teaching and learning. Those classrooms would be fairer and more inclusive, giving pupils a chance to speak up and challenge society’s norms, values and attitudes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194646/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zayd Waghid does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Black Panther and its sequel are more than just good movies: they can be used as teaching tools.Zayd Waghid, Associate professor, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1921902022-10-11T14:04:32Z2022-10-11T14:04:32ZDecolonising education in South Africa – a reflection on a learning-teaching approach<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489103/original/file-20221011-17-7r5061.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Opening up spaces for students to talk to each other and to lecturers is a way to entrench education as a public good.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has been seven years since students in South Africa began <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/student-protests-democratic-south-africa">protesting</a> in a bid to “Africanise” the country’s university curricula. They viewed what they were learning as too <a href="https://oxfordre.com/education/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264093-e-404">neoliberal</a> – characterised by Western values pushing the marketisation of education. They wanted universities to become more relevant to students in an African country and more connected to their own lives.</p>
<p>The students’ calls propelled “decolonisation” to the forefront of national (and even <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/16/the-real-meaning-of-rhodes-must-fall">international</a>) debate. Decolonisation in the university context involves dismantling the institutional practices and policies that uphold white supremacist, Western values. Since then there have been various initiatives at most of the country’s 26 public universities designed to change what students learn and how. </p>
<p>Every academic has their own opinion and their own approach. Mine, as a university educator who lectures future teachers, has been to adopt a teaching-learning approach called defamiliarisation.</p>
<p>The idea of defamiliarisation was coined by Russian literary theorist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Viktor-Shklovsky">Viktor Shklovsky</a>. It is a process of looking at things differently through art, poetry, or film so that you don’t see them automatically; Shklovsky said that you could look at something you know several times without really analysing it. </p>
<p>I have <a href="http://ersc.nmmu.ac.za/articles/ERSC_June_2018_SPEd_Waghid__Hibbert_Vol_7_pp_60-77.pdf">researched</a> and used defamiliarisation in my teaching since 2015, finding it a good place to contribute towards disrupting the sort of neoliberal curriculum student protesters opposed. If a curriculum doesn’t consider the humanistic side of learning, the system and institution can treat students as a form of human capital. That ultimately changes education from a public good to a commodity. </p>
<p>By approaching my classes using defamiliarisation, I have been able to help students think beyond the usual stories about history. Crucially, they have been put in charge of their learning. In this way, education is shored up as a public good.</p>
<h2>A space to speak openly</h2>
<p>So, what does defamiliarisation look like in practise? One example is an activity a colleague and I designed: we asked a group of students, as part of a lesson, to draw how they saw themselves and how they felt about being taught in English at the university. While English is widely spoken in South Africa, most of our students speak isiXhosa as their first language. </p>
<p>Even though the question was about the university, many of the students’ drawn answers were about society and their communities in reference to the university. These examples showed that, for these students, the community and the university are not separate. The question seemed to bring up deeper issues that neither the students nor I were aware of at the time.</p>
<p>For example, one of the students I talked to about her drawing creatively explained how her feelings were connected to her beliefs, culture, and context pertaining to the dominant and gendered power relations in her community, and at the school she had attended. </p>
<p>She drew two portraits of herself: on the left, a false representation at the school she attended, depicting the aesthetic beauty and success that came with being able to speak English fluently and with excellent grades; on the right, a portrait of her dormant natural beauty that held on to her culture and true identity.</p>
<p>Her drawing showed how she saw herself and how she thought the rest of society saw her. Her drawing showed her race, language, culture, gender, and a false representation of who she was in her school environment. </p>
<p>The student said that in her community, people often asked her about her race because she spoke in a dialect that she may have picked up at a former Model C (whites only during apartheid) school, and that was often associated with “white culture” in her community. </p>
<p>The defamiliarisation approach allowed this student to make her peers and me aware of her socio-cultural context and, more importantly, the challenges and subtleties of her identity and how she felt about them. By doing this activity, she, like many of her peers, could talk about herself creatively and effectively.</p>
<p>This approach developed students’ openness, compassion, sympathy and responsibility. </p>
<p>You could say that defamiliarisation gave the students the freedom to become their own narrators. It also allowed them to understand what their peers were going through and show compassion for them around instances of marginalisation in society. This, in my opinion, is crucial for aspiring educators to fully comprehend the range of experiences and viewpoints held by learners from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds.</p>
<h2>Educators benefit, too</h2>
<p>I believe this kind of teaching was valuable and essential to assist students in developing the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours needed for critical global citizenship. It allowed them to communicate openly about victimisation and unjust treatment in South Africa. </p>
<p>Even though in some instances it made them feel uncomfortable, defamiliarisation was met with <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.20853/32-4-2922">mostly favourable reactions</a> from students. It helped them to open up about the challenges in their own lives. And I still use the approach today, mostly through the medium of film. For instance, I showed the <a href="https://www.showmax.com/eng/movie/69pli6p9-krotoa">movie</a> <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/krotoa-eva">Krotoa</a> to a different class. It examines the impact of Dutch colonisation on the culture and identity of the indigenous Khoi people of the Cape in the 17th century. </p>
<p>Defamiliarisation helps educators, too. I have reflected on my role as a university lecturer and, frankly, to question aspects of my teaching that seem dominant and obvious to my students but are just habitual to me. Learning about my students’ real-life experiences and sentiments helped me empathise with them and value their individuality. It helped us to connect in a meaningful way as equals. </p>
<p>Using this approach is a way for academics to return to the basics. That’s crucial if universities are to offer a curriculum that centres students’ needs as the primary focus of learning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192190/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zayd Waghid does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Putting students at the centre of their learning is a powerful tool for decolonising the classroom.Zayd Waghid, Associate professor, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1910482022-09-27T21:16:22Z2022-09-27T21:16:22ZNational Day for Truth and Reconciliation: Universities need to revisit their founding stories<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486646/original/file-20220926-4427-ri7a1n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C392%2C5683%2C3450&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indigenous histories often go unrecognized in institutional university memories.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/national-day-for-truth-and-reconciliation--universities-need-to-revisit-their-founding-stories" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Universities pride themselves on their founding stories. These stories, however, tend to privilege <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/hard-task-writing-university-history/">dominant institutional narratives</a> and reproduce settler memories — and erase <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-commonwealth-universities-profited-from-indigenous-dispossession-through-land-grants-185010">institutional participation in the dispossession of Indigenous Peoples from their lands</a>.</p>
<p>In our preliminary research <a href="https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/headandheartprogram_2022/24">on Indigenous presence at Western University</a> with <a href="https://indigenous.uwo.ca/faculty/sally-kewayosh.html">Sally Kewayosh</a>, a filmmaker and instructor with the Faculty of Information and Media Studies, we find compelling reasons to retrace the history of universities and expose Indigenous Peoples’ ongoing contributions. </p>
<p>Grappling with Western University’s origins, and the origins of all universities, means coming to a deeper understanding of how these origins are steeped in colonial and racist assumptions — and bolstered <a href="https://doi.org/10.32316/hse-rhe.v33i1.4891">by networks connecting different branches of colonial education</a>.</p>
<p>At the same time, it’s critical <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-an-indigenous-delegation-prepares-to-visit-the-vatican-its-worth-revisiting-trudeaus-2017-papal-gift-of-the-jesuit-relations-179258">to acknowledge the agency</a> of Indigenous Peoples who saw the university as a place of opportunity for their Nations, and to revisit historical promises.</p>
<h2>Early Canadian universities</h2>
<p>As the country shifts attention to <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/national-day-truth-reconciliation.html">the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation</a>, we call for universities to revisit their founding stories with a critical eye to how settler colonialism and Indigeneity have shaped them.</p>
<p>Many universities in what we now call Canada were founded within Christian traditions that demonstrated zeal for the assimilation of Indigenous Peoples into Euro-Christian traditions. </p>
<p>Over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries, <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/disciplined-intelligence--a-products-9780773521414.php">universities began to shed Christian religious and denominational aims</a> — yet they continued to benefit from appropriated lands and accrued financial capital.</p>
<p>As the Government of Canada ushered Indigenous Peoples <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/indian-act">onto reserves, ramped up the residential school system and imposed other legal restrictions</a>, universities
contributed heavily to remaking Indigenous Lands <a href="https://uofrpress.ca/Books/D/Dissident-Knowledge-in-Higher-Education">into the political nation state</a> and developing white settler prosperity. Universities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3899-0_69">reinforced settler ideologies</a> in the education of Canada’s political and thought leaders. </p>
<h2>Western University’s founding story</h2>
<p>Part of our early findings suggest Indigenous Peoples have an enduring presence at Western, despite colonial attempts to overlook them. </p>
<p>As records from the Anglican Diocese of Huron show, on Feb. 20, 1877, an “Association of the Professors and Alumni of Huron College” gathered in London, Ont., to encourage <a href="http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/hellmuth_isaac_13E.html">Isaac Hellmuth,</a> the Anglican Bishop of Huron Diocese, to work towards building an “undenominational School of Arts, Law, Medicine and Engineering.” A year later, on March 7, <a href="https://www.uwo.ca/about/whoweare/history.html">1878, Western University was born</a>.</p>
<p>But left out in many accounts is the role settler colonialism and promises of
Indigenous education played in securing the university’s early years.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A flag seen on top of a tower." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486607/original/file-20220926-25-s6agtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486607/original/file-20220926-25-s6agtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486607/original/file-20220926-25-s6agtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486607/original/file-20220926-25-s6agtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486607/original/file-20220926-25-s6agtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486607/original/file-20220926-25-s6agtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486607/original/file-20220926-25-s6agtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Despite colonial attempts to overlook Indigenous Peoples, they have an enduring presence at Western University.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Isaac Barefoot</h2>
<p>According to the resolution from that 1877 meeting, Isaac Barefoot was one of 42 men gathered to encourage Hellmuth to work towards the new university. </p>
<p>Barefoot was an Onondaga man from Six Nations of the Grand River. As a child he attended <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools">the Mohawk Institute, Canada’s oldest residential school</a>, and later trained to become a teacher <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/egerton-ryerson">at Egerton Ryerson’s</a> <a href="https://library.torontomu.ca/asc/2013/04/feature-from-the-collections-looking-back-at-the-history-of-the-normal-school-building-part-two">Normal School</a>.</p>
<p>From there, Barefoot went on to teach at <a href="https://woodlandculturalcentre.ca">the Mohawk Institute</a>. He was eventually ordained an Anglican priest <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Huron_College_1863_l963.html?id=olkXAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">at Western’s founding College, Huron, in 1878</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of people seen sitting on chairs next to a man speaking at a podium." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486614/original/file-20220926-24-1odjjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486614/original/file-20220926-24-1odjjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486614/original/file-20220926-24-1odjjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486614/original/file-20220926-24-1odjjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486614/original/file-20220926-24-1odjjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486614/original/file-20220926-24-1odjjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486614/original/file-20220926-24-1odjjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Survivors of the Mohawk Institute, with Six Nations Elected Chief Mark B. Hill at the podium, at a press conference in July 2021, requested a criminal investigation into, and a search for, unmarked graves on the grounds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Power</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Barefoot is a complex figure entangled in asymmetrical colonial power relations. His presence at this meeting also reminds us that the vision to train Indigenous Peoples was an early rationale for creating universities: For example, university founders in the United States <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska-paperback/9780803259669">used relationships with Indigenous Peoples to raise funds</a> for establishing universities that included the promise of Indigenous education deeply entwined with colonial aims.</p>
<h2>Indigenous Peoples and building universities</h2>
<p>Researchers at the Six Nations of the Grand River Lands & Resources Department and scholars <a href="https://www.sixnations.ca/LandsResources/SNLands-GlobalSolutions-FINALyr2020.pdf">document how McGill University</a> borrowed government-controlled Indian Trust Funds. </p>
<p>Educational studies researcher Rosalind Hampton references McGill’s use of the Indian Trust Fund and critiques intersections of settler colonialism, legacies of slavery and anti-Black racism at the university in <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781487524869/black-racialization-and-resistance-at-an-elite-university"><em>Black Racialization and Resistance at an Elite University</em></a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lrHcjSFj2V0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Video from the Yellowhead Institute about the Indian Trust Fund.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hellmuth applied to the <a href="http://archives.algomau.ca/main/?q=taxonomy/term/1022">New England Company — which ran the Mohawk Institute</a> — for funds to start Western. The vision for the funds, according to company records, was “the training of both Indian and white students for the ministry.”</p>
<p>In 1879, <a href="https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_06916_451/1">as the newspaper</a> of <a href="https://anglicanjournal.com/about/our-story/">the Anglican Church of Canada</a> reported, Hellmuth approached Anishinaabe Anglican missionary Henry Pahtahquahong Chase to help him “solicit aid on behalf of the Western University.” </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-donors-from-canada-and-europe-helped-fund-indian-residential-schools-164028">How donors from Canada and Europe helped fund Indian Residential Schools</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>An Aug. 23 article, “The Indians and the Western University,” detailed how Chase hoped “to get admission for their youth into the institution, so that his people would have a chance of obtaining good learning.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_06916_550/1">Two years later, in July 1881</a> the newspaper reported Hellmuth worked with another Anishinaabe missionary, Keshegowenene (John Jacobs) to seek more funds for the university. This was while visiting Bkejwanong Unceded Territory. </p>
<p>According to this report, at the meeting, Hellmuth said: “When the Western University is opened, Indians from different parts will continue to avail themselves of the grand privileges of obtaining a university education.”</p>
<h2>Ties with residential schools</h2>
<p>While Western’s founder recruited Chase and Keshegowenene to help with his fundraising campaign, Huron’s first librarian, Edward Francis Wilson was involved in the residential school movement. </p>
<p>Common social and financial <a href="https://doi.org/10.32316/hse-rhe.v33i1.4891">Anglican networks were instrumental in the beginnings of Huron College, Western University and Shingwauk Residential School</a> in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. After attending Huron, Wilson moved to Sault Ste. Marie where he helped establish <a href="https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/srsc/chapter/the-industrial-shingwauk-home-1874-1935/">the Shingwauk Industrial Home</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486613/original/file-20220926-14-k4dqix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486613/original/file-20220926-14-k4dqix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486613/original/file-20220926-14-k4dqix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486613/original/file-20220926-14-k4dqix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486613/original/file-20220926-14-k4dqix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486613/original/file-20220926-14-k4dqix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486613/original/file-20220926-14-k4dqix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shingwauk Home, Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., circa 1900.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(BiblioArchives /LibraryArchives/Flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/srsc/front-matter/shingwauk-residential-schools-centre/">A vision for a Shingwauk school</a> first emerged from <a href="https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/srsc/chapter/the-shingwauk-family">Chief Shingwaukonse’s vision for a “Teaching Wigwam” at Garden River</a> where his people and settlers would learn together. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2015/trc/IR4-9-1-1-2015-eng.pdf">Wilson promoted assimilation</a> and the school “<a href="https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/srsc/chapter/the-industrial-shingwauk-home-1874-1935/">gradually became absorbed into the Canada-wide Indian Residential School system</a>,” designed to effect cultural genocide.</p>
<p>In 2006, the Shingwauk Education Trust and Algoma University College signed a Shingwauk Covenant — an agreement to <a href="https://www.myalgoma.ca/2021/02/10/teaching-wigwam-the-reclaiming-shingwauk-hall-project-continues-to-build-archive-collection/">work together to realize Shingwauk’s vision for Indigenous education</a> and research.</p>
<p>The project involved a “<a href="http://shingwauk.org/srsc/node/28">Survivor-driven reclamation of the former Shingwauk Indian Residential School</a>” resulting in a collaborative project to create the <a href="https://algomau.ca/research/shingwauk-residential-schools-centre/">Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre (SRSC)</a>.</p>
<h2>Promises, Indigenous presence</h2>
<p>Our research into Western’s history continues. Importantly some of this work <a href="https://teaching.uwo.ca/teaching/indigenous-tl-resources.html">engages faculty</a> and <a href="https://www.huronresearch.ca/confrontingcolonialism">undergraduate students</a>. </p>
<p>We are sharing these early findings because, as our work to date demonstrates, Indigenous histories and how universities intersect with colonial aims often go unrecognized in university collective memories.</p>
<p>We look forward to sharing stories of Indigenous presence in the form of film, a website and publications. Every public institution should embark on similar decolonizing journeys.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191048/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Peace received funding from a SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant in 2018. He is an associate professor of history at Huron University College, an affiliated college at Western. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Candace Brunette-Debassige does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>University histories need to be re-examined with attention to the role of Indigenous Peoples, connections to Residential Schools and universities’ fundraising efforts.Thomas Peace, Associate professor, Department of History, Western UniversityCandace Brunette-Debassige, Assistant professor, Faculty of Education, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1891092022-09-13T20:06:26Z2022-09-13T20:06:26ZTo accurately portray histories, museums need to do more than ‘reimagine’ galleries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481895/original/file-20220830-6748-fsx0ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=220%2C229%2C2364%2C1504&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Western museums need to meaningfully come to terms with their colonial past and present to fulfil their role as places of knowledge. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is a wave of change underway in North American museums. Museums and galleries are re-evaluating their own places and roles in colonial history and discourse. This change has resulted in galleries being <a href="https://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/about/our-work/publications-news/latest-news/royal-bc-museum-announces-upcoming-changes-core">closed</a> or <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-at-calgarys-glenbow-museum-decolonization-is-at-the-top-of-the-agenda/">decolonized</a> across Canadian museums.</p>
<p>But are these moves enough to disassemble colonial ideologies and narratives that have underpinned museums for so long?</p>
<p>Museums have <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Museums-and-the-Shaping-of-Knowledge/Greenhill/p/book/9780415070317">historically been recognized as authorities of knowledge and truth</a>. They tell the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/National-Museums-New-Studies-from-Around-the-World/Knell-Aronsson-Amundsen/p/book/9780415547741">story of nations</a> and can influence and shape societies. </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/museums-diversity-equity-commitments-1901564">current politically charged environment, they are being challenged to reconstitute their roles</a> in a way that goes beyond neoliberal settler colonialism and represents the voices of the marginalized.</p>
<h2>Evolving museums</h2>
<p>Museums have always evolved to meet the needs and demands of changing societies.</p>
<p>After WWII, museums in the U.S. were <a href="https://www.smithsonianbooks.com/store/museum-studies/making-museums-matter/">concerned with recording and preserving history</a>. Into the 1980s, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20027573#metadata_info_tab_contents">museum practices were becoming more visitor-centred</a> and the neoliberal free-market made them <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/778666">more corporate in nature</a>. At the turn of the century, with the intensification of globalization, the relationship between museums and corporations deepened.</p>
<p>Now, new campaigns are pushing museums in the West to come to terms with their colonial legacies and to return artifacts stolen by imperial powers to their country of origin.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481893/original/file-20220830-35941-wu06ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Totem poles lines a hallway inside a building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481893/original/file-20220830-35941-wu06ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481893/original/file-20220830-35941-wu06ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481893/original/file-20220830-35941-wu06ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481893/original/file-20220830-35941-wu06ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481893/original/file-20220830-35941-wu06ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481893/original/file-20220830-35941-wu06ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481893/original/file-20220830-35941-wu06ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Totem poles at the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa. Canadian museums have responded to calls for greater inclusion, but the measures taken have been paltry and more concessional than inclusive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A rocky path to change</h2>
<p>Over the past few years the path towards change has been disappointing, rocky and systemically ineffectual.</p>
<p>In Canada, the push for the decolonization of museums has involved greater consultation with Indigenous and local communities to go beyond nationally constructed narratives. However, these measures have been paltry and more concessional than inclusive.</p>
<p>During the Canadian Museum of History’s renovation project in 2012, Indigenous Peoples were expressly consulted about the changes being made to the museum. The consultations, however, were <a href="http://wp.comminfo.rutgers.edu/maronczyk/wp-content/uploads/sites/178/2015/10/CJC-Branding-History-at-CMC.pdf">partial and served more as a way to legitimize decisions</a> that had already been made by museum officials and the Heritage Minister.</p>
<p>The Canadian Museum of Human Rights’ <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/national-museum-changes-stance-on-genocide-sides-with-inquiry-findings/">initial reluctance to acknowledge the treatment of Indigenous Peoples in Canada as genocide</a> is another case that demonstrated a lack of meaningful consultation with Indigenous communities. </p>
<p>What’s more, it revealed the settler colonial lens with which Indigenous history was viewed and presented in the museum. As a museum dedicated to human rights, the knee-jerk reaction of denying Indigenous perspectives in its presentation is especially telling. It demonstrates the simultaneous erasure of colonial histories and endurance of colonial perspectives in museums.</p>
<p>These cases reveal that lauded changes in museums are oftentimes more ceremonial than meaningful. They also remind us that institutional and systemic change is not easy to achieve.</p>
<p>In the context of repatriations, the return of artifacts has been small in scale, rife with political clashes and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/cologne-museum-wants-to-return-cameroonian-artifacts/a-62433134">long and drawn out</a>. </p>
<p>France’s process of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/9/france-hands-back-26-treasures-looted-from-benin">repatriating 26 artifacts to Benin</a>, initiated in 2017, is a prime example. The objects were returned to Benin in 2021 <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/french-senate-restitution-bill-1932400">following much political handwringing</a>.</p>
<p>French president <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/video/20211027-replay-french-president-emmanuel-macron-s-speech-on-the-restitution-of-benin-artefacts">Emmanuel Macron’s speeches</a> consistently reminded everyone that France would not give up all stolen objects in its museums.</p>
<p>Repatriating the objects was further framed as <a href="https://observer.com/2020/11/france-return-looted-art-benin-senegal-bill/">a gesture of goodwill rather than an admission of wrongdoing</a>. </p>
<p>Much pomp and ceremony was made out of returning 26 artifacts. The returns garnered France global attention as a European nation committed to change. Meanwhile, <a href="http://restitutionreport2018.com/sarr_savoy_en.pdf">over 100,000 stolen objects from the sub-Saharan region</a> remain in France.</p>
<p>France has since not made any significant commitments to return additional artifacts. It further continues to identify stolen objects as French heritage under its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/03/france-museums-restitution-colonial-objects">principle of inalienability</a>. The principle states that objects in French museums are, and will remain, part of French national heritage forever. </p>
<p>Western museums <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/major-european-institutions-will-loan-looted-artifacts-new-nigerian-museum-180970619/">offering to loan</a> countries their own objects, illustrate the continued colonial relations of power, paternalism and cultural appropriation surrounding repatriations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481892/original/file-20220830-35846-5n7p7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A child sits on a bench infront of a museum display that shows small bronze figures." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481892/original/file-20220830-35846-5n7p7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481892/original/file-20220830-35846-5n7p7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481892/original/file-20220830-35846-5n7p7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481892/original/file-20220830-35846-5n7p7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481892/original/file-20220830-35846-5n7p7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481892/original/file-20220830-35846-5n7p7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481892/original/file-20220830-35846-5n7p7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some of the Benin Bronzes seen on display at the British Museum in London. The Benin bronzes were stolen by European imperial powers from the kingdom of Benin, now in present-day Nigeria.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Decolonizing museums</h2>
<p>Modern western museums’ intrinsic ties to colonialism raises the question of how they can be decolonized and reimagined as truth tellers with more inclusive and fluid narratives. While this is certainly not an easy question to answer, it is clear that decolonization is a continuous process that cannot be implemented by closing or “reimagining” a few galleries and exhibits.</p>
<p>Museums must be disentangled from national and corporate interests that guide narratives and reproduce dominant social norms. Structural transformation is needed which involves more <a href="https://canadianart.ca/features/a-crisis-of-whiteness/">diverse staff, especially in senior and executive positions</a>. </p>
<p>Greater and more genuine inclusion of Indigenous and marginal voices is needed. Inclusions that go beyond politically correct check marks and liberal premises of toleration. <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf">As the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples</a> outlines, that requires giving those represented in museums control of their own cultural heritage and authority over how it is presented and reproduced for the public.</p>
<p>It also means incorporating perspectives that challenge prevailing narratives. As historian <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807837153/decolonizing-museums/">Amy Lonetree</a> notes, it requires hard truths to be told to nations that have silenced different versions of the past.</p>
<p>Greater community engagement and including diverse voices can also eliminate barriers and foster equitable access. <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Birth-of-the-Museum-History-Theory-Politics/Bennett/p/book/9780415053884">Museums have historically been designed for the elite class</a>. One continuing socioeconomic barrier is that they can be quite costly. A visit to a Canadian museum or gallery can cost anywhere between $15 to $30 per person. For many families those costs can be prohibitive. </p>
<p>Change must also mean making space available for everyone. </p>
<p>Whether this new push to undo colonial narratives will bring about significant change in museums remains to be seen. What is certain is that to be effective, this change must go beyond the concessional and rhetorical.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189109/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Umbrin Bukan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Western museums are beginning to re-evaluate how they portray cultures and history and return stolen artifacts. But for change to be meaningful, it needs to be truly inclusive.Umbrin Bukan, PhD candidate in Social and Political Thought, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1903432022-09-10T04:13:30Z2022-09-10T04:13:30ZThe Queen has left her mark around the world. But not all see it as something to be celebrated<p>From the very beginning, Queen Elizabeth II’s reign was deeply connected to Britain’s global empire and the long and bloody processes of decolonisation. </p>
<p>Indeed, she became Queen while on a royal visit to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/09/08/princess-elizabeth-queen-kenya/">Kenya in 1952</a>. After she left, the colony descended into one of the worst conflicts of the British colonial period. Declaring a state of emergency in October 1952, the British would go on to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/aug/18/uncovering-truth-british-empire-caroline-elkins-mau-mau">kill tens of thousands of Kenyans</a> before it was over.</p>
<p>Is it possible to disentangle the personal attributes of a gentle and kindly woman from her role as the crowned head of a declining global empire that waged numerous wars and resisted those demanding independence across the globe? </p>
<p>Even though she was a constitutional monarch who generally followed the lead of her parliament, many of Britain’s ex-subjects don’t think so, and some historians agree, with <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2022/09/08/maya-jasanoff-mourn-queen-not/">one commenting</a> that “Elizabeth II helped obscure a bloody history of decolonisation whose legacies have yet to be adequately acknowledged”.</p>
<p>Here in Australia, too, while some Australians remember with nostalgia the time they waved small flags along the route of royal tours as children, <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2022/09/09/what-first-nations-people-are-saying-following-queen-elizabeths-death">one Indigenous scholar</a> has pointed out that the queen “wasn’t a bystander to the effects of colonisation and colonialism”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-royal-family-cant-keep-ignoring-its-colonialist-past-and-racist-present-156749">The royal family can't keep ignoring its colonialist past and racist present</a>
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<h2>It depends who’s remembering</h2>
<p>How the queen and her reign is being remembered depends on where the remembering is taking place and by whom.</p>
<p>This isn’t a new phenomenon. Unforgettable is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/25/william-and-kate-caribbean-tour-slavery-reparations-royals">the royal tour of the Caribbean</a> in March 2022, when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were bluntly told by the prime minister of Jamaica the region was “moving on” from the British monarchy.</p>
<p>Others, too, noted the British monarchy was a constant reminder of the period of slavery, with a government committee in the Bahamas urging them to offer “a full and formal apology for their crimes against humanity”. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1567942498772729860"}"></div></p>
<p>This ongoing process of national distancing from a British royal past is continuing today, even in the week of the queen’s death.</p>
<p>In India, for example, only days ago the once grand boulevard of empire, Rajpath (and before that Kingsway in honour of the British Emperor of India, George V) <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/delhi-central-vista-avenue-inauguration-live-updates-kartavya-path-pm-modi-1997747-2022-09-08">has been renamed Kartavya Path</a> and headed with a giant statue of Subhas Chandra Bose, one of India’s most strident (and controversial) anti-British nationalists.</p>
<p>At the unveiling of this statue, India’s nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that “another symbol of slavery has been removed today” and urged all Indians to visit the site.</p>
<h2>Complicated histories</h2>
<p>The theme of a “complicated historical relationship” with the monarchy is also prominent in South Africa, with <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/queen-elizabeth-ii-died-africa/?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1">one African news site</a> declaring that “South Africa’s relationship with the British monarchy is as complicated as it gets”.</p>
<p>It was in South Africa that Elizabeth declared her intention to devote herself to Britain’s “imperial family” of colonies <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/queen-elizabeth-ii-country-commonwealth">on her 21st birthday</a>. But it was also on the question of South Africa’s apartheid regime that the queen showed a rare moment of dissent with one of her prime ministers, <a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a34764793/the-crown-queen-margaret-thatcher-feud-apartheid-sanctions/">refusing to accept</a> quietly Margaret Thatcher’s decision not to join other countries in placing economic sanctions on the regime. </p>
<p>Elsewhere, Iraq’s <a href="https://www.iraqinews.com/iraq/iraq-mourns-the-death-of-her-majesty-queen-elizabeth/">complicated history</a> with the United Kingdom, which stretches back to the 1920s, <a href="https://www.iraqinews.com/iraq/iraq-mourns-the-death-of-her-majesty-queen-elizabeth/">has also been noted</a> in local reports. More recently, <a href="https://www.iraqbodycount.org/">hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed</a> during the war that Britain began alongside the United States, Australia and other nations in 2003. </p>
<p>In Malaysia, <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2018/07/70-years-later-malayan-emergencys-legacy-lives-on/">the role of the British in massacres</a> and mass resettlement programs during the bloody Malayan Emergency (1948-60) and the period of decolonisation is also still clearly remembered. Not only did this conflict rumble on during the early years of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, all attempts at an inquiry into events in Malaya have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/09/malaya-massacre-villagers-coverup">stymied</a> by British governments. </p>
<p>Even in neighbouring Ireland, which has sought to smooth relations with its nearest neighbour, <a href="https://www.irishpost.com/news/deepest-condolences-president-of-ireland-leads-tributes-following-death-of-queen-elizabeth-239729">President Michael D Higgins</a> has spoken euphemistically of Queen Elizabeth’s relationship with “those with whom her country has experienced a complex, and often difficult, history”.</p>
<p>Newspapers there also ponder what her death might mean for <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/world/uk/2022/09/08/susan-mckay-queen-elizabeths-death-is-an-earthquake-for-unionists/">Northern Ireland</a>, the site of the Anglo-Irish conflict euphemistically known as the “Troubles” as well as recent strained relations.</p>
<p>The queen may have “charmed” <a href="https://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/britain/queen-elizabeth-ii-will-be-best-remembered-for-charming-the-irish-nation-during-her-successful-visit-here-in-2011-41972820.html">some in Ireland</a> with her commemoration of those who fought the British there. But few will have forgotten the role of the British army in Northern Ireland, including the now infamous “Bloody Sunday” Massacre of 1972, nor the queen’s <a href="https://www.irishpost.com/news/anger-queens-speech-appears-dismiss-fight-justice-bloody-sunday-victims-vexatious-claims-175999">statement on behalf of Boris Johnson’s</a> government rejecting its victims’ demands for justice. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-ways-the-monarchy-has-benefited-from-colonialism-and-slavery-179911">Five ways the monarchy has benefited from colonialism and slavery</a>
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<p>Some might suggest the tortured history of the declining British Empire should be seen as separate from the reign and person of Elizabeth II. Certainly nothing suggests the queen was particularly bellicose in her demeanour.</p>
<p>But as <a href="https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/paine-the-rights-of-man-part-i-1791-ed">Thomas Paine</a> once remarked, while a monarch might personally be kind and generous, they remain the monarch, the head of the state which fights its wars and (on occasion) commits its crimes – all in the name of the Crown.</p>
<p>The role of Queen Elizabeth II in the history of British colonialism will continue to be debated well after her death.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190343/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matt Fitzpatrick receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Is it possible to disentangle the personal attributes of a gentle and kindly woman, from her role as the crowned head of a declining global empire that waged numerous wars? Many don’t think so.Matt Fitzpatrick, Professor in International History, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1894942022-08-26T14:03:59Z2022-08-26T14:03:59ZMacron en Afrique : un revirement cynique pour réparer les préjudices liés au passé colonial tout en gardant une mainmise sur le continent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481335/original/file-20220826-18-vppwnw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Emmanuel Macron (G) et Umaro Sissoco Embalo, president du Guinée Bissau (D).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fin juillet 2022, le Président français Emmanuel Macron <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20220725-macron-embarks-on-african-visit-to-renew-relationship-with-continent">a achevé sa tournée</a> au Cameroun, au Bénin et en Guinée-Bissau. Il effectue actuellement une visite en <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20220820-five-years-after-last-visit-macron-to-return-to-algeria-in-bid-to-reset-ties">Algérie</a> du 25 au 27 août.</p>
<p>À première vue, difficile de comprendre pourquoi il a choisi ces pays apparemment très différents : trois anciennes colonies françaises – le Cameroun, le Bénin et l’Algérie, et une ancienne colonie portugaise – la Guinée-Bissau.</p>
<p>Néanmoins, dans l’ensemble, les visites de M. Macron révèlent que la France se repent de ses crimes coloniaux tout en essayant de conserver l’influence découlant du colonialisme.</p>
<p>Ces deux thèmes sont également apparus lors du <a href="https://theconversation.com/france-wants-to-fix-its-relations-with-africa-but-its-going-about-it-the-wrong-way-171234">Nouveau Sommet France-Afrique</a> organisé en octobre 2021 à Montpellier. Macron y a promis d’investir dans des start-ups technologiques africaines afin d’étendre l’influence des entreprises privées françaises, tout en faisant la promotion du <a href="https://www.elysee.fr/admin/upload/default/0001/11/47114246c489f3eb05ab189634bb1bf832e4ad4e.pdf">rapport</a> de l’universitaire Achille Mbembe sur les nouvelles relations entre la France et l’Afrique.</p>
<p>Le Président français a eu une autre occasion de montrer les bonnes relations qu’il entretient avec les dirigeants africains, lors du <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/international-summit/2022/02/17-18/">Sommet Union européenne-Union africaine de février 2022</a>, qui a été organanisé conjointement par Macron – la France assurait alors la présidence de l’Union européenne – et par le Président du Conseil de l’UE, Charles Michel.</p>
<p>Les efforts de repentance ont été mis en scène lors de chacune de ses récentes visites de pays. Lors d’une conférence de presse avec le président camerounais Paul Biya, Macron a déclaré que les archives de la France sur la domination coloniale au Cameroun seraient <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20220726-macron-says-france-remains-committed-to-africa-s-security-on-first-stop-of-three-nation-tour">ouvertes</a> « dans leur intégralité ». Il a dit espérer que les historiens des deux pays travailleraient ensemble pour faire la lumière sur les “moments douloureux”.</p>
<p>Au Bénin, le Président français a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/27/macron-contin-to-visit-benin-to-talk-about-security-and-culture">accompagné</a> le président béninois, Patrice Talon, lors de la visite d’une exposition consacrée aux trésors royaux d’Abomey, dérobés par la France il y a 139 ans et restitués en novembre 2021. En Guinée-Bissau, il a <a href="https://newsaf.cgtn.com/news/2022-07-29/French-president-wraps-up-Africa-tour-in-Guinea-Bissau-1c2SjqOqiqs/index.html">annoncé</a> l’ouverture d’une école française et la mise en place d’un programme d’échanges sportifs, conformément à l’importance accrue qu’il accorde à la diplomatie culturelle.</p>
<p>Les efforts fournis lors de ces trois visites pour préserver l’influence de la France étaient également évidents. Compte tenu de la diminution de la présence des troupes françaises au Mali, Paris cherche de nouvelles options militaires et espère les trouver auprès des hôtes de Macron. Au Bénin, le président français a donc parlé de sécurité, tandis qu’à Yaoundé il a réaffirmé que la France restait <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2022/07/26/macron-promises-to-open-archives-on-cameroon-colonial-era_5991547_4.html">attachée</a> à la sécurité du continent.</p>
<p>En Guinée-Bissau, Macron a déclaré que la France devait « <a href="https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20220729-macron-promises-to-revive-relations-with-guinea-bissau-and-help-region-battle-terrorism">contribuer</a> à la lutte contre le terrorisme partout dans la région ».</p>
<p>De mon point de vue, Macron se sert de la demande de plus en plus pressante des sociétés africaines pour une décolonisation plus fondamentale comme d’un prétexte pour continuer à exercer une influence sur le continent.</p>
<h2>Corriger les erreurs de l'histoire coloniale</h2>
<p>Le projet de <a href="https://www.londonmet.ac.uk/about/equity/centre-for-equity-and-inclusion/race/decolonising-academia/what-does-decolonising-mean/">justice décoloniale</a> a récemment été évoqué par d’autres anciennes puissances coloniales pour redorer leur image en Afrique. La Belgique a récemment <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/20/belgium-returns-patrice-lumumba-tooth-congolese-independence">restitué une dent</a> de Patrice Lumumba, le premier Premier ministre du Congo, 61 ans après avoir autorisé son assassinat.</p>
<p>Corriger les erreurs commis pendant la colonisation est devenu un moyen populaire pour les gouvernements du Nord de mettre en pratique leur diplomatie en Afrique. Dans le passé, des appels étaient lancés en faveur de nouvelles relations et de l’oubli du passé colonial. Aujourd'hui, les chefs d’État affichent leur volonté d’assumer les crimes coloniaux. Le Secrétaire d’État américain Antony Blinken, par exemple, a souligné la nécessité de devenir « <a href="https://agoa.info/news/article/16039-transcript-us-secretary-of-state-s-address-at-south-africa-s-future-africa-institute.html">des partenaires égaux</a> » et de reconnaître qu'il existe</p>
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<p>des générations d’Africains dont le destin a été forgé par les puissances coloniales.</p>
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<p>À mon avis, c’est une façon intelligente d’inverser le scénario mis au point par les Russes et les Chinois qui soulignent qu’ils n'ont jamais colonisé ce continent, un argument déjà avancé dans les années 1960 lorsque <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/zhou-enlais-african-safari-1963-1964/">Zhou Enlai et Leonid Brejnev</a> ont visité l’Afrique.</p>
<p>Dans sa tentative de réécrire ce récit, Macron est allé jusqu’à désigner la Russie comme « l’une des dernières puissances coloniales impériales » pour son invasion de l’Ukraine.</p>
<p>Tout cela fait partie du revirement cynique de Macron sur la décolonisation, sa version tendant à réparer les préjudices du passé tout en faisant reculer la cause de la décolonisation par l’intervention.</p>
<h2>Un intérêt renouvelé pour l’Afrique</h2>
<p>Ce qui différencie la France des États-Unis et de la Belgique, c'est que l’Élysée tente de contrebalancer une <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-60419799">position militaire en déclin</a> au Mali. Ses troupes quittent le pays et sont remplacées par des mercenaires russes, le fameux <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/world/europe/wagner-group-russia-ukraine.html">groupe Wagner</a>.</p>
<p>La France est intervenue dans le nord du Mali en 2013 avec l’<a href="https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/ASPJ_French/journals_E/Volume-06_Issue-3/spet_e.pdf">Opération Serval</a>. Paris a également fait appel aux capacités et aux formations supplémentaires des nations comme la Belgique et la Suède avec pour objectif de repousser les combattants islamiques au Sahel.</p>
<p>La logique de guerre froide qui a été imposée à ce voyage est, toutefois, beaucoup trop simpliste. Elle ne tient pas compte de la politique régionale de l’Afrique de l’Ouest, où la Communauté économique des États de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (<a href="https://ecowas.int/">CEDEAO</a>) ressent de plus en plus le besoin de prendre des mesures contre les <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-west-africa-has-had-so-many-coups-and-how-to-prevent-more-176577">coups d’État</a> qui ont frappé la région : le Mali en août 2020 et mai 2021, la Guinée en septembre 2021, le Burkina Faso en janvier 2022 et la tentative ratée de coup d’État en Guinée-Bissau en février 2022.</p>
<p>Bien plus que l’intervention en Ukraine, les coups d’État en Afrique de l’Ouest expliquent également ce qui a amené Macron en Guinée-Bissau, le pays qui a accédé à la présidence tournante de la CEDEAO en juillet. Cette organisation a par ailleurs <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-62037317">levé ses sanctions</a> lorsque la junte malienne a promis d’organiser des élections en février 2024.</p>
<p>La CEDEAO a également réussi à trouver un accord avec la junte militaire du Burkina Faso sur un calendrier de transition vers la démocratie. Le retour à un régime civil est prévu pour juillet 2024.</p>
<p>En faisant la double promesse à la Guinée-Bissau d’augmenter les investissements culturels et de lui fournir des armes, Mcron cherche à s’immiscer dans l’organisation régionale, en dépit du fait que la France a « toujours respecté » la position de la CEDEAO sur les questions régionales. Il s’agit simplement pour l’Élysée de couvrir l'Afrique de l'Ouest sans avoir à faire la navette sur le plan diplomatique entre différentes capitales ouest-africaines, lorsqu’il faut protéger un intérêt vital.</p>
<p>Maintenir l’attention sur l’Ukraine et sur la mission de Lavrov était donc dans l’intérêt du président français, qui a par ailleurs été opportunément interrogé sur les raisons pour lesquelles les pays africains n'avaient pas reçu de livraisons d’armes aussi facilement que l’Ukraine. Celles-ci pourraient alors être présentées comme quelque chose de positif, plutôt que comme une politique désastreuse qui ne fonctionne pratiquement jamais.</p>
<p>Comme toujours, ce sont les gens ordinaires qui en paieront le prix, car ils sont contraints de vivre dans des sociétés de plus en plus lourdement armées. Le <a href="https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/destabilization-mali">soulèvement</a> dans le nord du Mali en 2013, que Macron s’efforce maintenant de gérer par le biais de la CEDEAO, était la conséquence de l’<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/19/libya-air-strikes-gaddafi-france">intervention militaire de 2011</a> de la France et de ses alliés en Libye et du renversement ultérieur du dirigeant libyen <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muammar-al-Qaddafi">Mouammar Kadhafi</a>.</p>
<p>Cela pourrait retarder de plusieurs années le développement de ces pays, les empêchant de rejoindre les économies des “Lions d’Afrique” – l’Éthiopie, le Ghana, le Kenya, le Mozambique, le Nigéria et l’Afrique du Sud – tous évités par Macron.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189494/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Gerits reçoit un financement du Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) au Royaume-Uni
</span></em></p>Les récentes visites de Macron en Afrique racontent une histoire
de la France qui fait acte de repentance pour ses crimes coloniaux tout en essayant de conserver son influence héritée du colonialisme.Frank Gerits, Research Fellow at the University of the Free State, South Africa and Assistant Professor in the History of International Relations, Utrecht UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1891752022-08-25T09:16:45Z2022-08-25T09:16:45ZMacron in Africa: a cynical twist to repair the colonial past while keeping a tight grip<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480624/original/file-20220823-11-sz325m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">French President Emmanuel Macron (L) and Guinea-Bissau's President Umaro Sissoco Embalo (R) during Macron's visit in July 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In late July 2022 French president Emmanuel Macron <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20220725-macron-embarks-on-african-visit-to-renew-relationship-with-continent">concluded a tour</a> of Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau. And he visits <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20220820-five-years-after-last-visit-macron-to-return-to-algeria-in-bid-to-reset-ties">Algeria</a> between 25 and 27 August.</p>
<p>At first glance, his choice of countries is difficult to understand. Three former French colonies – Cameroon, Benin and Algeria – and a former Portuguese colony, Guinea-Bissau, seem very different.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, taken together, Macron’s visits tell a story in which France is doing penance for its colonial crimes while simultaneously trying to maintain the influence it gained through colonialism. </p>
<p>These two themes also emerged at the <a href="https://theconversation.com/france-wants-to-fix-its-relations-with-africa-but-its-going-about-it-the-wrong-way-171234">New France Africa Summit</a> in October 2021 in Montpelier. There, Macron promised investments in African technology startups as a way to increase the influence of French private business, while also promoting the scholar Achille Mbembe’s <a href="https://www.elysee.fr/admin/upload/default/0001/11/47114246c489f3eb05ab189634bb1bf832e4ad4e.pdf">report</a> on the new relationship between France and Africa. </p>
<p>Macron got another chance to show off his good relationship with African leaders at the <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/international-summit/2022/02/17-18/">European Union-African Union summit of February 2022</a>. This was hosted by Macron – France held the presidency of the European Union at the time – and EU Council president Charles Michel.</p>
<p>The penance efforts were on show in each of the recent country visits. At a press conference with Cameroon’s president Paul Biya, Macron said France’s archives on colonial rule in Cameroon would be <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20220726-macron-says-france-remains-committed-to-africa-s-security-on-first-stop-of-three-nation-tour">opened</a> “in full”. He said he hoped historians from both countries would work together to investigate “painful moments”.</p>
<p>In Benin the French president <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/27/macron-contin-to-visit-benin-to-talk-about-security-and-culture">accompanied</a> Benin’s president, Patrice Talon, on a visit to an exhibition devoted to the royal treasures of Abomey. These had been robbed by France 139 years ago and were returned in November 2021. In Guinea-Bissau he <a href="https://newsaf.cgtn.com/news/2022-07-29/French-president-wraps-up-Africa-tour-in-Guinea-Bissau-1c2SjqOqiqs/index.html">announced</a> the opening of a French school and a sports exchange programme, in line with his increased emphasis on cultural diplomacy. </p>
<p>The effort to maintain influence was evident in all three visits too. With the presence of French troops in Mali dwindling, Paris is looking for new military options and hoping to find those with Macron’s hosts. In Benin the French president therefore talked about security while in Yaoundé he restated France remained <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2022/07/26/macron-promises-to-open-archives-on-cameroon-colonial-era_5991547_4.html">committed</a> to the security of the continent. </p>
<p>In Guinea-Bissau Macron declared France should “<a href="https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20220729-macron-promises-to-revive-relations-with-guinea-bissau-and-help-region-battle-terrorism">contribute</a> to the fight against terrorism everywhere in the region”.</p>
<p>In my view Macron exploits the increased call for the more fundamental decolonisation of African societies as a cover to exercise continued influence on the continent.</p>
<h2>Rectifying the colonial past</h2>
<p>The project for <a href="https://www.londonmet.ac.uk/about/equity/centre-for-equity-and-inclusion/race/decolonising-academia/what-does-decolonising-mean/">decolonial justice</a> has recently been used by other former colonial powers to brush up their image in Africa. Belgium recently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/20/belgium-returns-patrice-lumumba-tooth-congolese-independence">returned a tooth</a> of Patrice Lumumba, the Congo’s first prime minister, 61 years after enabling his assassination. </p>
<p>Rectifying the colonial past has become a popular way for northern governments to do their diplomacy in Africa. In the past there were calls for new relationships and a forgetting of the colonial past. Now heads of state showcase their willingness to face colonial crimes head on. US secretary of state Antony Blinken, for instance, talked about the need to become “<a href="https://agoa.info/news/article/16039-transcript-us-secretary-of-state-s-address-at-south-africa-s-future-africa-institute.html">equal partners</a>” and acknowledge </p>
<blockquote>
<p>generations of Africans whose destiny had been determined by colonial powers. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In my view this is a smart way to flip the script the Russians and the Chinese employ. They stress that they never colonised the continent, a claim already put forward in the 1960s when <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/zhou-enlais-african-safari-1963-1964/">Zhou Enlai and Leonid Brezhnev</a> visited the continent. </p>
<p>In his bid to reset this narrative, Macron went as far as to brand Russia “one of the last imperial colonial powers” for its invasion of Ukraine. </p>
<p>It’s all part of the cynical twist of Macron’s version of decolonisation, which seeks to repair the old while setting back the cause of decolonisation through intervention. </p>
<h2>Renewed interest in Africa</h2>
<p>What separates France from the US and Belgium is that the Elysée is trying to offset a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-60419799">dwindling military position</a> in Mali. Its troops are leaving and are being replaced by Russian mercenaries, the so-called <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/world/europe/wagner-group-russia-ukraine.html">Wagner Group</a>. </p>
<p>France intervened in the north of Mali in 2013 with <a href="https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/ASPJ_French/journals_E/Volume-06_Issue-3/spet_e.pdf">Operation Serval</a>. Paris also brought in allied nations like Belgium and Sweden to provide additional capacity and training. The aim was to push out Islamic fighters in the Sahel. </p>
<p>The Cold War logic that has been imposed on this trip, however, is far too simplistic. It overlooks the regional politics of West Africa, where the Economic Community of West African States (<a href="https://ecowas.int/">ECOWAS</a>) has increasingly felt the need to intervene against the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-west-africa-has-had-so-many-coups-and-how-to-prevent-more-176577">coups</a> that have plagued the region: Mali in August 2020 and May 2021, Guinea in September 2021, Burkina Faso in January 2022 and the failed coup attempt in Guinea-Bissau in February 2022.</p>
<p>The West African coups, rather than the intervention in Ukraine, also explain what brought Macron to Guinea-Bissau, which took over the rotating presidency of ECOWAS in July. The organisation <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-62037317">lifted sanctions</a> when the junta in Mali promised to hold elections in February 2024. </p>
<p>ECOWAS has also managed to reach an agreement with Burkina Faso’s military junta on a timetable for a transition back to democracy. A return to civilian rule is scheduled for July 2024.</p>
<p>With a combined promise of increased cultural investments and weapons for Guinea-Bissau, Macron is seeking to meddle with the regional organisation. That’s despite claiming France “always respected” the position of ECOWAS in regional matters. It is an easy way for the Élysée to blanket West Africa without having to engage in shuttle diplomacy to different West African capitals when it has a vital interest to protect.</p>
<p>Keeping the focus on Ukraine and Lavrov’s mission was therefore in the interest of the French president, who was also conveniently asked questions about why African countries had not received weapon shipments as easily as Ukraine. The delivery of weapons could then be presented as something positive, rather than a disastrous policy that hardly ever works. </p>
<p>As always, it will be regular people who will pay the price because they are forced to live in increasingly heavily armed societies. The <a href="https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/destabilization-mali">uprising</a> in the north of Mali in 2013, which Macron is now seeking to manage through ECOWAS, was the consequence of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/19/libya-air-strikes-gaddafi-france">2011 military intervention</a> by France and its allies in Libya and the subsequent overthrow of Libyan leader <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muammar-al-Qaddafi">Muammar Gaddafi</a>. </p>
<p>It might set these countries back for years, preventing them from joining the African Lion economies – Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, and South Africa – countries that were avoided by Macron.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189175/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Gerits receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in the United Kingdom </span></em></p>Macron’s recent visits to Africa tell a story in which France is doing penance for its colonial crimes while trying to maintain influence gained through colonialism.Frank Gerits, Research Fellow at the University of the Free State, South Africa and Assistant Professor in the History of International Relations, Utrecht UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1854942022-07-06T13:30:16Z2022-07-06T13:30:16ZNdabaningi Sithole: Zimbabwe’s forgotten intellectual and leader<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472725/original/file-20220706-21-uer96h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ndabaningi Sithole, July 1977. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Central Press/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ndabaningi-Sithole">Ndabaningi Sithole</a> was one of the founding fathers of the modern state of Zimbabwe in southern Africa. In August 1963, he became the first president of the <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803133457774">Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu)</a>, the militant liberation organisation that fought against white minority rule that he led for a decade before being deposed in a palace coup engineered by his rival <a href="https://theconversation.com/robert-mugabe-as-divisive-in-death-as-he-was-in-life-108103">Robert Mugabe</a>. Mugabe went on to become the post-independence leader of Zimbabwe.</p>
<p>Sithole was the most prolific black writer in colonial <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Rhodesia">Rhodesia</a> from the 1950s until the country gained independence as Zimbabwe in 1980. In that period he published nine books (one serialised in African Parade magazine). He also left an incredible archive of the liberation struggle that was generated in real time. Surprisingly, most of Zimbabwe’s liberation figures did not leave behind a lot of their own writings. Sithole is unique in that regard. </p>
<p>His most important book, <a href="https://www.african-nationalism.com/">African Nationalism</a>, which has recently been republished, is part autobiography and part polemics that provides a history of the liberation movement in Zimbabwe at its nascent stages. It was first published in 1959 and then in 1968.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470768/original/file-20220624-16-3ltr5s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Book cover featuring a graphic of the map of Africa." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470768/original/file-20220624-16-3ltr5s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470768/original/file-20220624-16-3ltr5s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470768/original/file-20220624-16-3ltr5s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470768/original/file-20220624-16-3ltr5s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470768/original/file-20220624-16-3ltr5s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470768/original/file-20220624-16-3ltr5s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470768/original/file-20220624-16-3ltr5s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Third edition of African Nationalism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ndabaningi Sithole Foundation</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A third edition of African Nationalism is timely. It was released by his family through the <a href="https://www.sithole.org">Ndabaningi Sithole Foundation</a> which was launched last year to “honour and perpetuate his legacy as an advocate for civil rights and pan African democracy” through republishing his books and hosting events.</p>
<p>It’s timely because there is a reconfiguration of the politics of Zimbabwe. Mugabe, who was a dominant force for almost four decades, has since died. There is currently a vigorous contestation for power and legitimacy going on in the country. Figures like Sithole who have been sidelined in Zimbabwe’s history offer us an opportunity to reconsider suppressed views and perspectives.</p>
<h2>The philosopher-politician</h2>
<p>More than six decades after the publication of African Nationalism, it remains a critical text to think about topical subjects such as self determination, political representation and decolonisation. Sithole’s foray into active politics was primarily through his writings and thus his bona fide credentials as a leading intellectual were embraced. His book’s wide critical acclaim and translation into half a dozen European languages earned him respect among his peers. </p>
<p>Sithole composed the book in the US where he was a student of theology. He explained his impetus in his introduction:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was confronted by what some of my American friends said about African nationalism, which at the time was just beginning to be felt throughout the length and breadth of the continent of Africa, and which was also beginning to make fairly sensational international headlines. The big question which everyone was asking: Is Africa ready for sovereign independence? The majority greatly doubted that Africa was ready. Some regarded the rise of African nationalism as a bad omen for the whitemen in Africa.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As historian <a href="https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2022-04/special_o_religion_nationalism_in_zimbabwe_2022-23.pdf">David Maxwell</a> writes, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/nationalism">nationalism</a> – supporting the interests of the nation-state – has been a powerful force in Zimbabwean history as a mobilising ideology. It continues to play a key part in the arena in which political ideas and participation are imagined. </p>
<p>Zimbabwean nationalism, a version of which historian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/18/terrance-ranger-obituary">Terence Ranger</a> called <a href="https://www.african.cam.ac.uk/system/files/documents/ranger.pdf">“patriotic history”</a> remains central to debates about who belongs, and who has the right to speak, to vote and to own land.</p>
<h2>The barrel of a pen</h2>
<p>Sithole’s tenure as leader of Zanu was mostly from prison, between 1964 and 1974. It was a treacherous time. Most of the black political leaders had been rounded up, detained, killed or forced into exile. Besides directing Zanu’s insurgent activities from his prison cell, Sithole also filled up time writing books: novels, poetry, and political tracts. He considered writing as a revolutionary tool. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472730/original/file-20220706-160-hzrycn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four men in suits sitting on couches around a coffee table in a lounge setting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472730/original/file-20220706-160-hzrycn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472730/original/file-20220706-160-hzrycn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472730/original/file-20220706-160-hzrycn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472730/original/file-20220706-160-hzrycn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472730/original/file-20220706-160-hzrycn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472730/original/file-20220706-160-hzrycn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472730/original/file-20220706-160-hzrycn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From left to right, Chief Jeremiah Chirau, Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, Prime Minister Ian Smith and Bishop Abel Muzorewa in New York, 1978.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His manuscripts, smuggled from prison with the help of guards and sympathisers, were mostly published abroad to avoid censorship. Two of these included <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/The_Polygamist.html?id=xlQRAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">The Polygamist</a> and <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Obed_Mutezo_the_Mudzimu_Christian_Nation.html?id=p3Z0AAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">Obed Mutezo</a> – the story of an “African Nationalist (Christian) Martyr”. Sithole was also a leading contributor to the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=zimbabwe+news&so=rel">Zimbabwe News</a>, a newsletter that was published by Zanu to convey its revolutionary messages. </p>
<p>As if he knew history was not going to be kind to him, Sithole spent considerable time writing his ideas, but also about people he met as a leader. He partly coordinated the liberation struggle through the barrel of the pen. Sithole writes himself into history. He is not just a chronicler of the liberation struggle, as it is happening in real time, but also acts as an archivist for the future.</p>
<h2>The teacher and preacher</h2>
<p>Sithole was a primary school teacher at home before studying theology in the US between 1955 and 1958. He had been mentored by the revered missionaries <a href="https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/2265">Garfield and Grace Todd</a> at Dadaya Mission. This relationship was formative to his politics and civic interests. Despite later political disagreements, they maintained a cautious allyship and respect.</p>
<p>While in the US, Sithole published <em>AmaNdebele kaMzilikazi</em> in 1956, the first published novel in Ndebele in Zimbabwe. It was released by Longmans, Green & Co. in Cape Town before being republished in 1957 as <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Umvukela_wamaNdebele.html?id=GKZfPQAACAAJ&redir_esc=y"><em>Umvukela wamaNdebele</em></a> by the newly established Rhodesia Literature Bureau. The book is inspired by the events of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/second-matabele-war-breaks-out">Ndebele uprisings of 1896</a>.</p>
<p>Sithole was the product of an unusual progeny – a father from the Ndau clan and a mother from the Ndebele clan. As such, he was not easily contained by the Shona-Ndebele binary that has informed much of Zimbabwe’s modern politics. Growing up in rural Matebeleland, he was raised under Ndebele tradition and culture. It is not surprising that his first published book was inspired by Ndebele traditions. </p>
<h2>A complicated legacy</h2>
<p>To look at Sithole’s life and career in retrospect is to wade through so much hubris, of his own making and of others. His fall from grace was spectacular. He has been for the modern <a href="https://www.zanupf.org.zw">Zanu-PF</a> a persona non grata. But a figure like Sithole cannot be easily expunged from history, which he actively contributed to as a leading actor and as a writer.</p>
<p>At a time when a young generation of Africans are calling for decolonisation, Sithole’s ideas resonate even further. In the preface to the new edition of African Nationalism, former Kenyan prime minister, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Raila-Odinga">Raila Odinga</a> posits:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Reading African Nationalism evokes mixed feelings of sadness and joy. It is sad to imagine that a whole book had to be written to try and explain to fellow humans why Africans were agitating for and deserved self rule.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is always important to look back to the past, in order to navigate the present and the future. His ideas aside, Sithole is also a reminder of the fickleness of politics and history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185494/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tinashe Mushakavanhu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite being almost erased from history, Sithole’s ideas are still relevant today.Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Junior Research Fellow, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1856482022-07-03T08:10:30Z2022-07-03T08:10:30ZBook on Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe’s legacy has many flaws<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470799/original/file-20220624-17-oop0y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe died in 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Yeshiel Panchia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Development studies professor David Moore’s new <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/mugabes-legacy/">book</a>, Mugabe’s Legacy: Coups, Conspiracies and the Conceits of Power in Zimbabwe, attempts to understand the legacy of <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/Robert_Mugabe">Robert Mugabe</a>, who led Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2017, when he lost power in a military coup. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/david-b-moore-285501">Moore</a> maintains that Mugabe’s legacy revolves around what he terms “the three Cs”: coups, conspiracies and conceits of political power. He shows that “the three Cs” have their origins in the perilous politics of the independence struggle, in which Mugabe was a key participant.</p>
<p>The book consists of a prologue and 10 chapters. The first chapter seeks “to erect a conceptual structure on which the Zimbabwe ‘facts’ will sit”. Chapters two to five set out “the making of Mugabe and his legacy” in the liberation struggle years. Chapters six to nine trace the independence time trajectory of Mugabe’s political career through to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-military-coup-is-afoot-in-zimbabwe-whats-next-for-the-embattled-nation-87528">2017 coup</a>. Chapter ten examines Zimbabwean politics after Mugabe’s fall from power and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-49604152">death in 2019</a>.</p>
<p>The scholars <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003026280/personality-cult-politics-mugabe-zimbabwe-ezra-chitando">Ezra Chitando</a>; <a href="https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Robert+Mugabe">Sue Onslow and Martin Plaut</a>; <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/11424894/mugabe">Stephen Chan</a>; and <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-47733-2">Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Pedzisai Ruhanya</a>, among others, have debated the legacies of Mugabe’s 37-year rule. </p>
<p>Moore largely ignores the contributions of these important contending studies about Mugabe’s legacies. This is subnormal academic practice. Consequently, the precise ways in which his book surpasses or buttresses competing works about Mugabe’s legacy are indistinct.</p>
<p>Bar an interview with the veteran nationalist politician Edgar Tekere (who had a mammoth lifelong axe to grind with Mugabe) in 2004, Moore did not interview anybody else in Zanu-PF who knew Mugabe well, or worked closely with him for an extended period. For that reason, the book is bereft of exceptionally revealing findings about Mugabe’s leadership, legacy and the politics of Zanu-PF. Moore’s main sources are unremarkable diplomatic cables in Western archives and material already in the public domain such as newspaper articles, NGO reports and published books. They do not make for a groundbreaking book.</p>
<h2>Missing the point</h2>
<p>We live in an age where the decolonisation of the knowledge agenda has, rightly, come to the fore in the academy. In light of this, I expected arguments about Mugabe’s leadership developed by black Zimbabwean scholars based in Zimbabwe to be central to Moore’s analysis. In place of debates about Mugabe by black Zimbabwean scholars, he has the thought of 20th century Italian Marxist intellectual-politician <a href="https://globalsocialtheory.org/thinkers/gramsci-antonio/">Antonio Gramsci</a> as his book’s central point of reference. </p>
<p>Moore invokes Gramsci <em>ad infinitum</em>, without ever properly contextualising his ideas or making clear their illuminating pertinence in debates about Mugabe’s legacy. Nor does Moore use his study of Mugabe’s legacy to extend and refine Gramscian theories. My comprehension of Mugabe, his legacy and Zanu-PF was not enhanced in any novel way after all that Gramsci. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470798/original/file-20220624-22-lqecj8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470798/original/file-20220624-22-lqecj8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470798/original/file-20220624-22-lqecj8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470798/original/file-20220624-22-lqecj8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470798/original/file-20220624-22-lqecj8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470798/original/file-20220624-22-lqecj8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470798/original/file-20220624-22-lqecj8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>Discussion of real and imagined coups is an important theme in Moore’s book. This is presented as a key component of Mugabe’s legacy. But, Moore does not engage relevant coup and military rule literature in order to enhance our understanding of Zimbabwe’s 2017 coup, and for the coup to advance broader studies about the nature and effects of coups, such as work by <a href="https://yalebooks.co.uk/page/detail/?k=9780300040432">Samuel Decalo</a>, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/african-government-politics-and-policy/when-soldiers-rebel-ethnic-armies-and-political-instability-africa?format=HB&isbn=9781108422475">Kristen Harkness</a>, <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/10989/seizing-power">Naunihal Singh</a>, <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-polisci-032211-213418">Barbara Geddes</a> and <a href="https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/In+Idi+Amin%E2%80%99s+Shadow">Alicia Decker</a>, among others.</p>
<p>Moore states that he finds coup literature “boring” because it consists of “conservative tracts on the primordial-like prebendal and neo-patrimonial coupishness of Africans” (page 164). Serious coup scholars will bristle at his characterisation of their work as “conservative”, and defined by a propensity to regard Africans as innately prone to coup making because of personalised patronage-based politics. </p>
<p>Moore cursorily engages the African studies scholar <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9248.1973.tb01413.x">Ali Mazrui’s 1973 article</a>, called Lumpen Proletariat and Lumpen Militariat: African Soldiers as New Political Class, about the consequences of coups, to underline why he finds coup literature “boring” and unhelpful.</p>
<p>The problem with this is that Mazrui’s article is dated and was hardly authoritative even in 1973. Moore depicts a crude caricature of a diverse, sophisticated, instructive and evolving coup and military rule literature.</p>
<h2>Portrayal of women</h2>
<p>Feminist scholarship has done much to challenge patriarchal erasure and trivialisation of women in political science. Moore’s book does precisely what feminist scholars have critiqued for decades now. It is laden with unquestioned patriarchal notions and gendered trivialisations that impoverish the study of politics.</p>
<p>Moore writes as if nothing can be gained analytically by treating women (Zimbabwe’s former <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/Grace_Mugabe">first lady Grace Mugabe</a>, specifically) seriously. By this I mean methodically tracing, listening to and understanding women’s actual political incentives and experiences. </p>
<p>Moore employs sexist tropes when discussing Grace Mugabe’s role in politics and the 2017 coup. For example, he describes her as “the volatile former secretary”, “the woman who whipped her son’s girlfriend” and “incendiary Grace”. Yet there is no mention of the equally notable emotional volatility of the powerful political men – Mugabe, <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/Constantino_Chiwenga">Constantino Chiwenga</a>, <a href="http://www.swradioafrica.com/Documents/Dzinashe%20Machingura.pdf">Dzinashe Machingura</a>, <a href="https://www.colonialrelic.com/biographies/joshua-nkomo/">Joshua Nkomo</a>, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/samora-machel">Samora Machel</a> and <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/Josiah_Tongogara">Josiah Tongogara</a> – who he discusses in his book.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Moore did not unearth any treasures in his research of Mugabe’s legacy. He has not even drawn a map that might lead us to an enhanced understanding of the making of Mugabe and his legacy, the politics of Zanu-PF, and coups and their corollaries.</p>
<p><em>Blessing Miles Tendi is the author of <a href="http://www.milestendi.com/books">The Army and Politics in Zimbabwe - Mujuru, the liberation fighter and kingmaker</a></em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185648/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blessing-Miles Tendi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Moore did not unearth any treasures in his research of Mugabe’s legacy. He has not even drawn a map that might lead us to them.Blessing-Miles Tendi, Associate Professor in the Politics of Africa, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1841882022-06-23T14:27:56Z2022-06-23T14:27:56ZNigerian historian and thinker Toyin Falola on decolonising the academy in Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467935/original/file-20220609-14-6t06uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Toyin Falola </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo courtesy Boydell & Brewer</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Nigerian intellectual and historian Toyin Falola’s latest book is called <a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781648250279/decolonizing-african-studies/">Decolonizing African Studies</a>: Knowledge Production, Agency, and Voice. It sets out to respond to the urgent need to eliminate the vestiges of colonialism (the domination of foreign powers) in the academy and in research methodologies where African perspectives continue to be marginalised or excluded, creating the problem of misrepresentation of the continent. The book also critiques the limitations to and failures of decoloniality so far. It closes with a discussion of African futurism. In this interview Falola talks about some key battlegrounds for the decolonisation of knowledge production.</em></p>
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<p><strong>Olayinka Oyegbile:</strong> How do you or other African intellectuals hope to replace the hegemony of Western knowledge systems imposed on Africa in a one-sided world?</p>
<p><strong>Toyin Falola:</strong> I think we can both agree that the side of the narrative preferred by the western world is not that which entirely favours the best interest of Africa. Though the colonial masters have been gone for decades, they left behind intellectual legacies that are not so obvious to many of us in Africa. Such legacies include those that reflect in knowledge and how we acquire it, legacies that permeate the operations of our institutions and have an effect on the means of development of our continent. These are the legacies we are making positive efforts to remove through decolonisation. </p>
<p>My book is one of the materials that help set things straight about decolonisation. I know there are many materials out there, and there are many more that will come from scholars across Africa who understand the patriotic assignment of decolonising knowledge production. But this does not stop here. There is also sensitisation going on across Africa. Seminars and think tank assemblies are being held to develop strategies for fastening the grip on decolonisation in Africa. </p>
<p>An important mission is to integrate indigenous systems into the formal western-education style. What is ours? Our languages, ideas, crafts, stories, including festivals, ceremonies, useful knowledge from elders, and many more. And we must put what we have learned into practice as we play, interact with one another, and build purposeful communities.</p>
<p><strong>Olayinka Oyegbile:</strong> How do you redress the problem of the misrepresentation of how the history of the continent has been told?</p>
<p><strong>Toyin Falola:</strong> If you tell a story or the history of a people from a wrong perspective for too long, people will come to accept it, regardless of how untrue it is, while disregarding the other perspective or even believing that there cannot be any other perspective than the one they have been told. </p>
<p>For a long time, there has been a lot of westernisation of African history, and in return, African perspectives have been neglected or deemed nonexistent. It was not until after the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II">second world war</a> that African writers began to decolonise African history. So, yes, if you say there has been a misrepresentation of the continent, I wouldn’t deny it, but at the same time, we are already creating new narratives. We now have people strongly and tirelessly correcting this misinformation and replacing them with our truth. </p>
<p><strong>Olayinka Oyegbile:</strong> What do you mean by “African futurism”? (<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-afrofuturism-an-english-professor-explains-183707">Afrofuturism</a> is a movement in art, literature, etcetera featuring futuristic or science fiction themes that incorporate elements of black history and culture.)</p>
<p><strong>Toyin Falola:</strong> African futurism is the latest stage of decolonisation. It is a movement of the creative world that emphasises the relevance of Blackness, one that displays the energies of our youth to merge technology with performance, to <a href="https://theconversation.com/hip-hop-and-pan-africanism-from-blitz-the-ambassador-to-beyonce-151680">re-imagine Pan Africanism</a> in their own way. It borrows and integrates ideas and practices from various parts of the world and is receptive and adaptive to changes, innovations, enlightenment, reasoning, and many other legacies and concepts in Africa’s best interest. </p>
<p><strong>Olayinka Oyegbile:</strong> In the book you have a chapter on empowering marginal voices, this includes LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) Africans, who many believe are ‘unAfrican’ in nature?</p>
<p><strong>Toyin Falola:</strong> We must accept the reality of change, respect boundaries, embrace other identities, and accept that a new generation will replace the old. LGBTQ people should be considered a sexual orientation and human rights issue, and we need to acknowledge that they are Africans like you and me. We must treat all Africans with respect.</p>
<p>I believe that the obstacle is that the tool needed to advance Africa into a pro-LGBTQ continent is still within the control of the older generation. But I believe that change is constant and that when this change happens, and a new generation of Africans emerges to take positions of power, the animosity towards LGBTQ will be reduced, and there will be tolerance and the political will to implement a pro-LGBTQ agenda in Africa. </p>
<p><strong>Olayinka Oyegbile:</strong> You write about using language as a form of decolonisation as well as decolonising African literature?</p>
<p><strong>Toyin Falola:</strong> I have always believed that beyond being an art, language is also a science. It is a tool of transformation, and as far as decolonisation is concerned, language is a necessary tool. I do not think literature is worth anything without language, and the language in which it is told goes a long way to convey different things that can alter the perspective of a people or transform it. Of course, African literature needs to be decolonised.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/drama-that-shaped-ngugis-writing-and-activism-comes-home-to-kenya-184353">Drama that shaped Ngũgĩ’s writing and activism comes home to Kenya</a>
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<p>Many aspects of African literature cannot be adequately conveyed if you take it away from the African context. Meanwhile, leaving it in the African context means using the African language to properly communicate it. So, yes, language has a huge place in African literature, and we need to do a better job of harnessing it. Language is more than literature; it is an entry to socialisation and education, to people’s well-being, and to the advancement of cultures and civilisations. African languages are an integral part of our march of progress.</p>
<p><strong>Olayinka Oyegbile:</strong> What is the relevance of African history to the world or vice versa?</p>
<p><strong>Toyin Falola:</strong> We need to understand that the history of any people, no matter how small a group, is relevant to them and the world, even at a time of globalisation. Every one of us must be able to distinctly identify ourselves and our histories while being active partakers of the global village. African history is highly important to the world, and not just the history as told from outsiders’ perspective, but as told by Africans. Africans have made significant contributions to the growth of civilisation, from the very early humans to the advancement in technologies and the development of capitalism.</p>
<p><strong>Olayinka Oyegbile:</strong> Although it has been reintroduced, history was phased out of Nigeria’s school curriculum or relegated at some point, what does this portend?</p>
<p><strong>Toyin Falola:</strong> It is a bad idea to ignore the teaching of history because a river that forgets its source will surely dry up. History is crucial for the growth of any nation, and any nation that decides to forget it or undervalues its relevance in the educational system will suffer the consequences. There are no two ways to it. If you desire a better future for yourself or your country, you must consider where you are today, as well as where you have been coming from. The interrelation of these things will birth an encompassing understanding of what to do to reach where you need to be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184188/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olayinka Oyegbile does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Indigenous knowledge, African languages, queer rights and Afrofuturism are some of the issues discussed in the new book.Olayinka Oyegbile, Communications scholar, Trinity University, LagosLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.