Writing History (Neue Rundschau 2018/2), ed. by Sharon Dodua Otoo and Manuela Bauche
Thursday, July 5th, 5pm Uhr, as part of the symposium “New Perspectives”
(www.xartsplitta.net/en/symposium-new-perspectives/)
Hegemonic historiographies – such as those about colonialism – are increasingly beginning to falter, are being rewritten and reperspectived. However, this does not happen by itself, but is also driven by the year-long struggles of activists, such as initiatives of Black people and other People of Colour. How can history be told differently? Is historical injustice comparable? Can history not also be decentered and complex?
Author Sharon Dodua Otoo and historian Manuela Bauche have asked writers, artists and academics about their vision of “writing history” for the latest edition of the magazine Neue Rundschau (S. Fischer Verlag). In the launch Otoo and Bauche will present the booklet together with Clementine Ewokolo Burnley, Anna Kim, Philip Kojo Metz, Musa Okwonga, Sita Ngoumou and Isidora Randjelović, who are some of the thirty contributors .
Programme
- Introduction | Sharon Dodua Otoo & Manuela Bauche
- “One Day for the Owner” | Clementine Burnley
- “1000 Pages” | Philip Kojo Metz
- ” ‘Sehen Sie die Dame sich genau an’ ” | Aischa Ahmed
- “14 Juli 1884” & “Selbstbildnis–Fremdbildnis” | Sita Ngoumou
- “Unbequeme Geschichte” | Anna Kim
- “Black Gravity“ and more | Musa Okwonga
Contributors
Sharon Dodua Otoo writes stories. She is a Black British mother, activist and author. She is also the editor of the book series “Witnessed” which appeared in the Münster-based publishing collective edition assemblage. In 2017 her most recent novels “the things i am thinking while smiling politely” and “Synchronicity” were published in German translation by Fischer Verlag. She won the prestigious Ingeborg-Bachmann-Prize at the 2016 Festival of German Language Literature with the text “Herr Gröttrup setzt sich hin”.
Manuela Bauche reconstructs history. She has a doctorate degree in history, researches and has published extensively on German colonialism. She is the author of Medizin und Herrschaft. Malariabekämpfung in Kamerun, Ostafrika und Ostfriesland (1890–1919). As a policy advisor for political education, she has coordinated numerous projects focussing on colonial history. Finally, as an activist, she has been committed to initiatives which promote an adequate commemoration of German colonialism, among others www.kolonialismusimkasten.de. She is currently a researcher on postcolonial expeditions at the Museum of National History Berlin.
Clementine Ewokolo Burnley is a writer, mother and community worker. Her poems and short fiction have appeared in Versal Journal, The Feminist Wire, Parabola Magazine, and elsewhere. She has been a finalist in the Bristol Short Story Prize Competition 2017, the Miles Morland Scholarship Award and received an Honourable Mention in the Berlin Writing Prize Competition. You can find her on Facebook or on Twitter at @decolonialheart.
Anna Kim, born 1977 in South Korea, lives and works in Vienna and Berlin. Last publications: “Anatomie einer Nacht” (2012), “Fingerpflanzen” (2017) and “Die große Heimkehr” (2017). She has received numerous awards and scholarships for her work, most recently the Literature Prize of the European Union in 2012.
Isidora Randjelović Studied social pedagogy / social work and worked for many years as a social worker in the field of youth welfare and political education. She is director of the RomaniPhen Feminist Romnja Archive in Berlin. In addition, she teaches racism and migration at Alice Salomon College. Main topics and publications focus on racism against Roma*nja and Sinte*zza as well as their civic engagement and current social movements, empowerment perspectives, critical social work and feminist analyzes. She is involved in the IniRromnja, a network of Berlin Sinti and Roma women *.
Musa Okwonga is a poet, journalist and musician. He studied law at Oxford before leaving a career as a solicitor to become a poet. The winner of the 1996 WHSmith Young Writers Competition, he is the author of two books about football, the first of which, “A Cultured Left Foot”, was nominated for the 2008 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. He has written for several outlets, including The Economist, The New York Times, The New Statesman, Al-Jazeera, Foreign Policy, and The Guardian. A vocalist who has been described by Q Magazine as “a globe-trotting Mike Skinner”, Musa’s music has been played by BBC Radio One, BBC6 Music and Xfm, and he is one half of future blues outfit BBXO.
Philip Kojo Metz: After studying photography, Philip Kojo Metz studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and graduated as a master student. In the years following the Academy, he received numerous national and international grants and scholarships. In the meantime he is represented in international exhibitions. His project “Adler Afrika”, presented here, has received international attention in the recent years. His central theme in this working cycle, is to explore the history of Germany in various African countries against an authentic background. He approaches so to speak a “hidden” part of German history. Philip Kojo Metz lives and works in Berlin.
Sita Ngoumou is a practicing gynecologist in Saarland and has been working as a visual artist since 2007. She is the daughter of a Cameroonian father and a German mother and grew up in Yaoundé (Cameroon). Among other things, her pictures tell stories on identity and transculturality. For this she uses different techniques. She prefers painting and drawing, but also uses screen printing, collages and digital imaging techniques.