Postcolonial Poetry Project: The mirage of national identity and the possible otherness

by Mauricio Jiménez Hernández and Mario Alberto Naranjo Ricoy

“This project has allowed us to politicize our personal inclination for poetry and, watered in the tradition of postcolonial poetry that we have been discovering in our research, to articulate a discourse and a shared approach in order to nourish and reinvent that tradition of rebellious words that accompany the struggles of humanity and peoples for a fairer world…”

Neo-colonialism and Australian off-shore detention

by Jack Garton
The Australian government undertakes deliberate steps to dehumanise asylum seekers who come to Australia through a network of illegal concentration camps. The Australian federal government has consistently and knowingly disregarded legal norms and violated international law. Despite claims to the contrary, Australia wields profound and undue influence over Papua New Guinea and the Republic of Nauru, where these camps are located. Finally, the efforts of the Australian government in the years 2013-6 at ‘othering’ asylum seekers is an insidious form of dehumanisation. These policies, I shall argue, are not an aberration in European-Australian history, but rather a culmination of a profound and latent racism upon which the modern Australian state was founded upon.

Cabral speaks with Hegel – A Radio Podcast

by Beth Castaneda
Amílcar Cabral and Georg Hegel discuss various topics. Cabral taunts Hegel with his theory of master and bondsman and Hegel questions Cabral’s celebration of particularity. The debate follows this short introductory paper and it is an attempt to see how these men respond to some of the more sensitive parts of their theories.

A magazine of critical perspectives on the G20 summit. Or: The Summit of Colonialism?

by Annika Basten, Dshamilja Roshani, Emmanuel Dahan, Vanessa Lee, Yasmine Bakr
Concerning our aim to break out of academic contexts, it made sense for us to use the form of a magazine as it it allows various media approaches and makes space for conversation with a diverse audience due to its accessible nature. It also provides the possibility to generate, share and discuss information in a digital and physical form. We decided to use the G20 Summit as a focal point as it reflects current political, economic and social processes. We found that public discourse about the G20 often failed to provide firstly general information about the summit itself and secondly explanations for the motivations behind the protests against it, including its whole diversity and controversies. Therefore, we wanted to make this knowledge accessible by summarizing basic information about the G20 before proceeding with our own criticism about the G20 summit. We hope to create alternative narratives – not only by opposing the labelling of G20 protests as useless, destructive and purely violent actions, but also by presenting a different view on the “partnership with Africa” and all its related topics.

Bleeding Latin America the “Nice” Way: Canadian Mining in Latin America

by L. M. K.

In fact, companies are protected by trade agreements which allow them to sue local governments when the latter take action to protect local communities. For instance, “Canada has played an active role in changing regulations governing Colombia’s energy sector in ways that favour Canadian companies,” with neoliberal trade deals which protect investors at the expense of the populations. The local governments are accused of lacking surveillance of the situations where Canadian mining companies operate, without care for the local water sources and populations’ displacements.

Photojournalism and Objectivity – The World Press Photo Contest (2017)

by Catriona Miller and Adèle Brailly
This project is a critique of the World Press Photo Contest from a postcolonial perspective. We state that photojournalism is part of a wider power discourse: colonial tropes are reproduced by depicting a poor and miserable other, in opposition to developed Western people. The very aim of the World Press Photo Foundation is to show what is happening worldwide, in the name of freedom press, freedom of expression, and freedom of speech. But what about the voice of the photographed people? Is it actually necessary to show violent images? Does it raise social awareness? The questions of empathy and dignity of the victims seem to be relevant in a context of continuous information.

On the Power of Narrative – A Play about Racism in Joseph Conrad’s “The Heart of Darkness”

by Lene Glinsky
This is a theater play in which Chinua Achebe confronts Joseph Conrad with all the racist contents in Conrad’s novel on the Congo. The research preceding the writing of this play produced 4 main characters; one is the author Joseph Conrad, who will find himself trying to explain his attitude to colonialism which led to the writing of “Heart of Darkness”. He will be supported by the choir of critics, who try to speak in his favour and defend him against the accuse of racism. On the other side we have Chinua Achebe, Nigerian author and as well the person, who started the debate of racism in Heart of Darkness with his 1975 essay “An image of Africa”. He will be supported by the leading figure of the Reader, which is very positively portrayed as a critical and reflected person who leads the discussion, asks questions and contributes impressions of reading as well as academic knowledge. The dialogues are featuring original quotes from literature essays and interviews.

“I SEE NO CHANGES” – Exploring Mass Incarceration in the United States Through Tupac Shakur’s Lyricism

by Aaron Navid Dahm
This paper examines the issue of mass incarceration, especially its most striking feature, the racial dimension. The issue of mass incarceration is, first and foremost, a social issue and, as such, touches upon the lives of individuals, families and communities. By intertwining the music of Tupac, who was a respected voice within the Black community, with contemporary literature, I seek to break with the traditional antagonistic relationship between researcher and research topic and attempt to make the voices heard of those most affected by the here examined issue of mass incarceration. Two major themes are addressed in this paper: mass incarceration as a system of social control and the War on Drugs as the driving force behind this system. Mass incarceration can be understood as the “what” while the War on Drugs answers the question to the “how”, more specifically the question “how did we get here”? Tupac’s lyricism informs the exploration at every step of the way. Many aspects of both the system of mass incarceration as well as the War on Drugs, are addressed in his lyrics and can be explored through them. But Tupac’s voice in this paper transcends the mere function of illustration. His commentary allows the reader to gain insights into the inner life of the Black community and the effects which the system of mass incarceration has had especially on impoverished ghettos. Since the here explored system of mass incarceration has had a paramount effect on a whole population – the Black community – I think of it as my responsibility as a researcher to make these effects visible through an authentic voice from within this community. As we will see Tupac’s lyrics add an invaluable dimension to the effort of understanding this complex issue.