Dealing with Postcolonial Pasts to Envision a Respectful Future: On the Format of Collaborative Walk-Shops

Abstract:Addressing colonial legacies has become an urgent task for national societies of the Global North involved in projects of colonialism in the Global South. German institutions of education are challenged to decolonize their curriculum, to develop strategies to involve future generations in processes of reconciliation, and to establish dialogue with populations of the Global South who entered the struggle of postcolonial transformation after colonial liberation. How can scholars of the humanities and social sciences contribute to such transcultural processes of public memorialization and future making? How might we support local interventions that make colonial legacies visible and expand public knowledge? In this paper I reflect on a collaborative walk-shop conducted in the urban environment of Windhoek, Namibia, in 2019, which included a wide array of places, from remains of colonial infrastructure to existing memorial sites. In reflecting upon my own experience within this gathering of participants from different backgrounds and professions, I discuss how this work contributed to a creative process of interpretation by exploring hidden tracks in the landscape and exchanging fragments of knowledge.