February 2, 2023 at 12:00 pm on the Microsoft Teams platform will be held the next expert seminar with Dr. Karolina Golemo from Jagiellonian University, Poland entitled "Decolonizing Memory and Spaces. Voices of Afro-descendants in Contemporary Portugal".
Abstract: The lecture aims to show some of the contemporary (artistic) interpretations of colonialism created by representatives of the broad category of Afro-descendants, which includes people of African descent from the former Portuguese colonies. The functioning of Afro-descendants in Portuguese society can be analyzed today from a postcolonial perspective, but also in the broader context of complex intercultural relations. Afro-descendants' activities go beyond issues directly related to racism and colonialism, as evidenced by the wide range of socio-cultural or artistic activities undertaken by African organizations and associations. However, references to colonial history and contemporary forms of racial discrimination are recurring themes in the social debate they initiate. Their narratives are in line with what Boaventura de Sousa Santos, among others, has pointed out: colonialism as a form of social relations has survived longer than colonialism as a political system.
In the spring of 2021, the project “ReMapping Memories Lisboa – Hamburg: (Post)Colonial Places of Remembrance” was launched. Its initiators want to foster reflection and debate on strategies for decolonizing the urban spaces of Lisboa and Hamburg, including digital maps of the two cities, which are to include places associated with a colonizing, imperial past that continues to provoke ideological disputes. The maps are to be accompanied by descriptions showing the history of these places in a new context, allowing them to be analyzed using alternative narratives. In the case of Lisbon, these are to include the Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries) and – designed and approved by the municipal authorities, though still not realized – Memorial to Enslaved People.
The talk focuses on the current debate surrounding these two monuments, with a particular focus on the voice of descendants of Africans, in the context of postmemory. The International Decade for People of African Descent (2015- 2024), established by UNESCO, is also an important framework for my considerations. The reflections to be presented during the lecture are part of an ongoing broader research project on contemporary interpretations of African cultural heritage in Portugal.
Dr. Karolina Golemo - is a sociologist of culture, holding a degree in journalism and social communication. She is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Intercultural Studies, Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Her research interests focus on the cultural diversity of Italy and the Iberian Peninsula, artistic expression of migrants, music in intercultural relations and postcolonial relations from the cultural perspective (in the context of Italy and Portugal). She is an author, among other publications, of two monographs: The image of Poland and Poles in Italy, 2010; Italy. The Mosaic of Cultures, 2019 (together with Agnieszka Małek); recently she co-edited and co-authored two books: Remaking Culture and Music Spaces. Affects, Infrastructures, Futures, 2022 and Spaces of Diversity? Polish Music Festivals in a Changing Society, 2022. A list of her other publications is available at https://jagiellonian.academia.edu/KarolinaGolemo. In 2019-2022 she was one of the Principal Investigators in the international HERA-funded project European Music Festivals, Public Spaces, and Cultural Diversity (www.festiversities.org). Currently she is conducting a research on African cultural heritage in Portugal.
