Voices from the Lagers in Germany

This paper traces the everyday realities of refugees living in camps in certain federal states of Germany during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. It provides a systematic analysis of refugees’ testimonies and demonstrates that they have not received similar levels of care and protection as German citizens, and that their movement has become increasingly regulated. Drawing on Achille Mbembe’s notion of ‘necropolitics’, I argue that the German State has treated refugees’ lives as less liveable than those of their own citizens during the pandemic, as was the case before it broke out. Much scholarship has explained the notion of refugee camps in various ways, but there has been less discussion of Lagers (camps) as a site where colonial oppression persists outside the temporal and spatial contexts of former colonies. Data are drawn from archived data sets and testimonies that refugees uploaded to websites of various refugee activist groups.

The History of Korea, 1905–1945

This chapter provides an overview of key questions, issues, and debates in the scholarship on the political history of Korea from 1905 to 1945. Japan placed Korea in protectorate status in 1905 and colonized the country in 1910. After nearly forty years under colonial rule, the dominant narrative in the scholarship in South Korea from 1945 to the mid-1980s focused on Japanese colonial oppression and the Korean struggle against it to achieve national independence. The focus of this chapter is on subsequent approaches that have supplemented, qualified, challenged, and refined interpretations of this era. These include analysis of the causes behind the emergence of modern nationalism in Korea; the internal political polarization between left and right and the internal conflicts within each camp that formed the domestic foundations for the division of the Korean Peninsula after 1945; the bureaucratization that, according to some scholars, served as the template for the developmental state that emerged in South Korea during the 1960s; and the dissolution of absolute monarchy as a viable system of governance in the post-1945 period.

Part of The Whānau: The Emergence of Takatāpui Identity - He Whāriki Takatāpui

<p>Since the early 1980s, Māori who are whakawāhine, tangata ira tāne, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex or queer have increasingly adopted the identity of ‘takatāpui’ - a traditional Māori term meaning ‘intimate companion of the same sex.’ As the first study on takatāpui identity and well-being, this is fashioned as a Whāriki Takatāpui; a woven mat which lays the foundation for future research and advocacy. Kaupapa Māori research provides the tools for this task while Kaupapa Māori theory ensures the harvest of Māori narratives is underpinned by te reo, tikanga and mātauranga - Māori language, culture and knowledges. The preparation of weaving materials is represented by Mana Wāhine; which considers whakapapa (genealogy), intersectional colonial oppression with an artistic approach to analysing whakataukī (historical metaphor). Mana Motuhake represents the design of the Whāriki; the colours and patterns emanating from the subjective experiences of six leaders who have embraced a takatāpui identity. Te Whare Tapa Whā represents weaving together takatāpui health and well-being in response to the issues and discrimination they face. Oral history interviews were held with takatāpui participants who reflected a diversity of iwi, geographical location, gender identities and sexualities and, at the time of interview, ranged from 17 to 68 years of age. In order to gain insight into the perception of whānau with takatāpui members, semi structured interviews were also held with two kuia (female elders) and 12 whānau members of the takatāpui rangatahi (young people) interviewed. In total 27 participants were interviewed in three stages over four years. Their responses were recorded, transcribed then analysed based on the elements of the Whāriki Takatāpui framework. Despite colonial efforts to remove historical trace, this study reveals new evidence of takatāpui behaviour within traditional Māori narratives. It finds that takatāpui identity is predicated on Māori identity with a spiritual connection to takatāpui tūpuna (ancestors) that is crucial in addressing the discrimination they may face within their whānau and culture. It identifies the range of issues that impact on takatāpui health and well-being while highlighting the creative and strength-based manner in which takatāpui build resilience and connection through identity.</p>

Part of The Whānau: The Emergence of Takatāpui Identity - He Whāriki Takatāpui

<p>Since the early 1980s, Māori who are whakawāhine, tangata ira tāne, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex or queer have increasingly adopted the identity of ‘takatāpui’ - a traditional Māori term meaning ‘intimate companion of the same sex.’ As the first study on takatāpui identity and well-being, this is fashioned as a Whāriki Takatāpui; a woven mat which lays the foundation for future research and advocacy. Kaupapa Māori research provides the tools for this task while Kaupapa Māori theory ensures the harvest of Māori narratives is underpinned by te reo, tikanga and mātauranga - Māori language, culture and knowledges. The preparation of weaving materials is represented by Mana Wāhine; which considers whakapapa (genealogy), intersectional colonial oppression with an artistic approach to analysing whakataukī (historical metaphor). Mana Motuhake represents the design of the Whāriki; the colours and patterns emanating from the subjective experiences of six leaders who have embraced a takatāpui identity. Te Whare Tapa Whā represents weaving together takatāpui health and well-being in response to the issues and discrimination they face. Oral history interviews were held with takatāpui participants who reflected a diversity of iwi, geographical location, gender identities and sexualities and, at the time of interview, ranged from 17 to 68 years of age. In order to gain insight into the perception of whānau with takatāpui members, semi structured interviews were also held with two kuia (female elders) and 12 whānau members of the takatāpui rangatahi (young people) interviewed. In total 27 participants were interviewed in three stages over four years. Their responses were recorded, transcribed then analysed based on the elements of the Whāriki Takatāpui framework. Despite colonial efforts to remove historical trace, this study reveals new evidence of takatāpui behaviour within traditional Māori narratives. It finds that takatāpui identity is predicated on Māori identity with a spiritual connection to takatāpui tūpuna (ancestors) that is crucial in addressing the discrimination they may face within their whānau and culture. It identifies the range of issues that impact on takatāpui health and well-being while highlighting the creative and strength-based manner in which takatāpui build resilience and connection through identity.</p>

Reflections from the Margins: Complexities, Transitions and Developmental Challenges - The Case of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Since the dawn of colonialism in Southern Africa, the province of the Eastern Cape emerged as the cradle of African resistance against colonial oppression. A closer look at the province reveals opportunities for progress and ultimate resurgence of economic and social development, yet conflated by a myriad of challenges. This book brings together different perspectives and realities of the post-apartheid Eastern Cape to provide an in-depth exploration of the developmental dilemmas that the province faces. This book provides insightful reflections on development and its sustainability some 25 years since democracy, and specifically focuses on sociological and demographic realities in the areas of migration and its impact on families. The book further grapples with the role of the state in developing culture and heritage in the province, pointing to fundamental and multiple challenges of deprivation, unemployment and subsequent community resilience in a variety of sectors including health and education. While it provides a historical analysis of contextual issues facing the province, the book also highlights the agency of the people of the Eastern Cape in confronting challenges in leadership, accountability, citizen participation and service provision. The book will be useful for development scholars and practitioners who are interested in understanding the state of the province, and similar settings, and the degree to which it has emerged from the shadows of its colonial and apartheid legacies.

Asserting Control Over [A]Historical Consciousness: How the Settler State Perpetuates Indigenous Homelessness

The following historiographical analysis briefly outlines the legacy of Indigenous encampments on the Aboriginal Burial Ground in Rossdale Flats in what is colonially known as Edmonton, AB. Specifically, the following analysis documents the grassroots activism of prayer camp pekiwewin in the final months of 2020. Beginning with a brief overview of the encampment site, this research analysis critiques the ongoing colonialism in urban settler cities which regulate how peoples can operate in relation with the land. The methodologies of the state explored herein pertain to the function of public history, ongoing settler colonial oppression, and the criminalization of homelessness as factors that reproduce inequalities. Keywords: settler colonial, public history, homelessness, Indigenous Peoples, urban cities

Insurgent Being After Langston Hughes

The poem illustrates a call to divorce the self from double consciousness in order to imagine a reality beyond colonial oppression.

Dance, Religion, and the Legacy of European Colonialism

In the waning days of the Renaissance, the race among Western Europeans to control, convert, and displace Indigenous peoples around the globe precipitated a collision of cultures, unprecedented in scope, between Christians who largely denied dance a constitutive role in religious life and Indigenous traditions from Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas for whom dancing and religion were inseparable. In the economic, political, and cultural conflicts that ensued, the practice of dancing as religion emerged as a contested site—both a nearly universal target of Christian imperial and colonial oppression, and an equally frequent agent of Indigenous resistance, resilience, and creative response. Focusing on the United States, this article documents how European colonization of Native American people, and European and American enslavement of Africans precipitated cultural shifts in how each of these cultures conceived and practiced “dancing” in relation to “religion.” Among European and Euro-American colonizers, these collisions fueled some of the most virulent expressions of hostility toward dancing in Christian history—as an activity punishable by death—especially when that dancing appeared in the form of Native American or African American religion. Nevertheless, Native American and African American dancing also inspired Euro-American artists to create techniques and aesthetics of dance that they claimed functioned as religion. Such cases of religious art-dance in turn not only catalyzed the use of dancing in Christian worship, they spurred Western philosophers, scholars of religion, and Christian theologians to reconsider the importance of dancing for the study and practice of religion, Christianity included. Meanwhile, Native and African peoples, as they navigated the challenges of ongoing racism and oppression, created new forms of their own dance traditions. Some of these forms emerged in explicit dialogue with Christian forms and even in Christian contexts; and others have appeared on secular concert stages, representing ongoing efforts to preserve and perpetuate Native and African identity, spirituality, creativity, and agency. These projects are dismantling the conceptual typologies that Euro-Americans have used to devalue Native and Indigenous dancing, including the assumption that religion and dance are separable dimensions of human life.

Another Colonial History: How Cosmopolitan Was Cavafy's Contemporary Alexandria?

This essay provides an alternative reading of modern Alexandria's social and cultural history as a basis for a better contextualization of Cavafy's poetry. It revisits the watershed year 1882, which marks the city's destruction after its bombardment by the British fleet, using new evidence from a little-known diary by the nineteen-year-old Cavafy. It then examines the overlooked context of Alexandria's late Ottoman cosmopolitanism and shows its decisive contribution to the city's modern culture, including Cavafy's own diasporic ethnic group, the Egyptian Greeks. Finally, the argument reassesses some prevalent misconceptions about the impact of British rule in Egypt, including the problematic view that it purportedly enhanced the city's cosmopolitan life. Instead, the article shows that British colonialism sought to constrain Alexandrian cosmopolitanism, whereas Cavafy, and a circle of radical intellectuals around him, actively defended it through nuanced expressions of opposition to the injustices of colonial oppression in Egypt, Cyprus, and Greece.

Shaming Colonial Africa

An examination of the ways in which shame was used during the colonial period both to encourage submission to the colonial project and to resist that oppression. The primary texts to consider are Le vieux nègre et la médaille by Ferdinand Oyono for its depiction of shame’s utility in maintaining social hierarchies and how, ironically, a shameful narrative can contest that power, Les Bouts de bois de Dieu by Ousmane Sembène, for its more strident shaming and addition of economic and legal aspects of shame, and Le pauvre Christ de Bomba by Mongo Beti and L’Aventure ambiguë by Cheikh Hamidou Kane for their inclusion of the role religious shame plays in colonial oppression.