Decolonizing Colonial Heritage: New Agendas, Actors and Practices in and Beyond Europe

Description

Decolonizing Colonial Heritage explores how different agents practice the decolonization of European colonial heritage at European and extra-European locations. Assessing the impact of these practices, the book also explores what a new vision of Europe in the postcolonial present could look like. Including contributions from academics, artists and heritage practitioners, the volume explores decolonial heritage practices in politics, contemporary history, diplomacy, museum practice, the visual arts and self-generated memorial expressions in public spaces. The comparative focus of the chapters includes examples of internal colonization in Europe and extends to former European colonies, among them Shanghai, Cape Town, and Rio de Janeiro. Examining practices in a range of different contexts, the book pays particular attention to sub-national actors whose work is opening up new futures through their engagement with decolonial heritage practices in the present. The volume also considers the challenges posed by applying decolonial thinking to existing understandings of colonial heritage. Decolonizing Colonial Heritage examines the role of colonial heritage in European memory politics and heritage diplomacy. It will be of interest to academics and students working in the fields of heritage and memory studies, colonial and imperial history, European studies, sociology, cultural studies, development studies, museum studies, and contemporary art. Cover Frontispiece Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of figures List of contributors Acknowledgements Preface Introduction Political climates in today’s world Heritage discourses The decolonial necessity and option Decolonial methodologies Decolonial re-emergent futures Structure of the book Notes References Part I: Haunted worlds: ghosts of the colonial past Chapter 1: Europe and its entangled colonial pasts: Europeanizing the ‘imperial turn’ 1 Paving the way: approaching Western and Southern Europe’s overseas histories Imperializing Nordic Europe Central and Eastern Europe’s imperial turns From decolonization to Europe’s integration and postcolonial condition Note References Chapter 2: 1917, Brexit and imperial nostalgia: A longing for the future 1 Brexit, Britishness and nostalgia Pastoral nostalgia and Little England A nostalgia for the modern Concluding remarks Note References Chapter 3: Spectres of Cecil Rhodes at the University of Cape Town 1 After the #Fall The temple on the hill A last little piece of Rhodesia Spectres of Rhodes Note References Chapter 4: Decolonizing the narrative of Portuguese empire 1 : Life stories of African presence, heritage and memory Silences and invisibilities in the public narrative of Portuguese empire Building memory counter-narratives Rethinking African history and places Decolonizing sight Educating interculturally through museums Visibilizing the African presence through graffiti The emerging voices and sight of entangled counter-narratives Notes References Chapter 5: Decolonizing Warsaw: The multiple afterlives of ‘Ali’ 1 A newcomer who comes back Ali depicted and displayed Ali at the museum Ali in the city Conclusions: what is Ali used for? Note References Part II: Contemporary heritage practices: new agents, urban space events and intercultural encounters (i): Museums and curatorship Chapter 6: Curating colonial heritage in Amsterdam, Warsaw and Shanghai’s museums: No single road to decolonization 1 Amsterdam: colonizer in the past, decolonizer in the present? Second-hand (de)colonialism in Warsaw The colonial matrix of power: the case of Shanghai Comparing decolonization Notes References Chapter 7: The influence of Western colonial culture on Shanghai: A case study of the ‘Modern Shanghai’ exhibition at the Shanghai History Museum 1 ‘The Rise of Shanghai City’ Urbanization Business Municipal administration Modern education and culture ‘A Bustling New Metropolis’ The Far East’s largest industrial centre The Far East’s largest commercial and trading centre The Far East’s financial centre Municipal administration Shanghai as a communication centre of Chinese and Western culture in modern China Fusing Chinese and Western styles to forge a modern new urban lifestyle Problems and challenges Conclusion Note Bibliography Chapter 8: Decolonizing contemporary art exhibitions: Okwui Enwezor (1963–2019), the turning point of curatorship The exhibition as a medium to deconstruct the dominant history The short century Documenta11 Terrible nearness of distant places Notes References (ii): Echoes of colonial heritage, visual culture and site-specific art Chapter 9: Sensitive memories at a World Heritage Site: Silencing and resistance at the Valongo Wharf 1 Placing the cemetery and the Wharf in World Heritage debates Pretos Novos Cemetery: between silencing and resistance Valongo Wharf: blackness, identities, belonging Heritage and memories on the move Notes References Chapter 10: Traces of contempt and traces of self-esteem: Deconstructing our toxic colonial legacy Go To Ben-Bella Said Mahdjoub The executive Habiba Mahdjoub Rage Djamel Mahdjoub Vomiting the face of ‘you-are-not-like-the-others’ Small shift of the bottle on the small yellow notebook Notes References Chapter 11: Reframing the colonial in postcolonial Lisbon: Placemaking and the aestheticization of interculturality 1 Cultural events and placemaking Festivals: instrumentalization of culture and massification of cultural practices Reframing the colonial in postcolonial Lisbon Conclusions Notes References Chapter 12: Aesthetics and colonial heritage: An interview with artists based in Marseille 1 Notes Chapter 13: Enslaved bodies, entangled sites and the memory of slavery in Cape Town: The meeting of the dead and the living Cape Town: a city of contrasts A meeting of the dead and living as a way to move on Container : witnessed the invisibilized—a response to the São José shipwreck Virtual reality, immersion, and a demand for change in society Conclusion References Part III: Imagining decolonial futures Chapter 14: Decolonial countervisuality 1 White gazes and visceral-affective responses Visuality and countervisuality Faire-part as countervisual documentary A participatory method Multiperspectival analysis of Faire-part Who constitutes the focus group? Common statement about Faire-part Favourite scenes Differences and positionality What does countervisuality look like in Faire-part ? Final remarks Notes References Chapter 15: New Diplomacy and decolonial heritage practices 1 Types of knowledge: indigenous, local, community Mid-space actors Arnhem Land expedition: a successful case of restitution A museum for Danish colonial history Conclusion Notes References Chapter 16: Decolonial voices, colonialism and the limits of European liberalism: The European question revisited 1 The Jewish question The colonial question and the colonized race Post-war Europe: all questions solved? The migrant crisis: a choc en retour ? Back to the Muslim question We are here Transnationality and interculturality Note References Index