Events Archive

Over the past five years, a project team based at the International Institute of Social History (IISH), Amsterdam has developed the ESTA Database structure in collaboration with international partners. The ESTA project has established a relational database model that is able to accommodate structural differences in source material and (existing) datasets relating to different parts of the Indian Ocean and maritime Asia region. Currently (2023), the database contains over 4,000 slave trade voyages across the maritime Asia region between roughly 1600 and 1850. The number of enslaved persons transported during these voyages range from at least 340,000–342,500 to 600,000 individuals. IISH and BCDSS are closely linked not only by their collaboration on this project but also by an international partnership. 13:30 Welcome 13:45 Launch of ESTA Database 14:30 Comments 15:00 Open Discussion and Q&A 16:30 Reception Registration required due to limited seating!

"Ecological Transition and the Dependency Trap: Challenging Old Approaches to Sovereignty". Sabrina Fernandes is a Brazilian sociologist and political economist with a PhD from Carleton University, Canada. She has researched transitions and ecology for over a decade, with expertise on Latin America. Formerly a postdoctoral fellow with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, with research appointments at the University of Vienna, Freie Universität Berlin, and University of Brasília, she has recently completed a fellowship with the Centre of Advanced Latin American Studies at the University of Guadalajara focused on the Anthropocene and the topic of sacrifice zones. She was also a contributing editor at Jacobin Magazine and chief editor of Jacobin Brazil. Her books and articles cover various fields and her publications can be found in English, Portuguese, Spanish and other languages. Currently, she is Head of Research at the Alameda Institute.

Join the Facebook Live discussion and Q&A featuring the former BCDSS Bonn-Yale-Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Fellow Dr. Frank J. Cirillo and his new LSU Press book, "The Abolitionist Civil War: Immediatists and the Struggle to Transform the Union." The presentation will take place from 2–2:30pm, followed by a 10-minute Q&A.

Join the book presentation and discussion with Dr. Jeroen Wijnendaele, postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Dr. Julia Hillner's project "Connecting Late Antiquities". This book delves into the significant political, social, economic, religious, and cultural changes that shaped a crucial region of the Roman world during the second quarter of the first millennium CE. Key features include its status as the first modern research volume on Late Antiquity's core region, a tight chronological focus on the transformation of Late Roman Italy, and a balanced exploration of topics like gender and environmental history. The volume reevaluates the pivotal transition in Late Antiquity, specifically the shift from the Roman Empire to autonomous kingdoms in Italy between 250 and 500 CE.

Join us as historian Ana Lucia Araujo discusses her latest book, 'The Gift: Exploring the Influence of Prestigious Objects in the Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism' in an engaging reading and discussion session. The book explores how objects of prestige contributed to cross-cultural exchanges between Africans and Europeans during the Atlantic slave trade. Drawing on a rich set of sources in French, English, and Portuguese, as well as artifacts housed in museums across Europe and the Americas, Ana Lucia Araujo illuminates how luxury objects impacted European–African relations, and how these economic, cultural, and social interactions paved the way for the European conquest and colonization of West Africa and West Central Africa.

This week, BCDSS fellow Rafaël Thiébaut is looking forward to a lively discussion and feedback on his project “Unfree Labour in the Southwest Indian Ocean (17th-19th Centuries).” This talk analyses different forms of bondage labor through the case study of the Southwestern Indian Ocean: Madagascar with Comoros & Mascarenes. Thanks to the use of quantitative and qualitative archival material, Rafaël will place the micro-histories of the individual slave in the larger context of the developments in the Modern Age, especially in relation to a European interference over time and space. This will pave the way to a better understanding of the phenomenon and make it possible to place it in a larger global context.

Don’t miss our third and last film screening this year in cooperation with Kino in der Brotfabrik: PARIS IS BURNING, a landmark documentary from 1990 by Jennie Livingston (USA). Documenting the queer “Ballroom Culture” in New York City in the 1980s, this groundbreaking movie depicts Latinx and Black queer and transgender communities. It explores their struggles with multiple forms of discrimination regarding their race, class, gender, sexual identity long before concepts such as gender fluidity or intersectionality were discussed in society. Stay on after the screening and join the conversion and get-together with free drinks/nibbles! BCDSS Professor Julia Hillner will give a short introduction on the BCDSS’ thematic year with a research focus on Gender (and Intersectionality). Förderverein Filmkultur, the Queer-Referat (AStA Uni Bonn) and BCDSS Professor Pia Wiegmink will kickstart the post-screening conversation.

"One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman," Simone de Beauvoir argues in her famous book The Second Sex, published in 1949. This has come as no surprise to historians since the 1990s, as women's and gender studies have identified numerous examples that argue against historically defined, biological gender roles. In this light, we ask what historically characterized a man or a woman and how were gender identities defined, for which there are long abbreviations today? What definitions and ideas of ‘woman’ and ‘man’ were there in the first place? And: Did this broad variance in gender identities also exist in historical and transcultural comparison? The perhaps surprising answer is: Of course! You will learn more about this with the help of three illustrative contributions on Europe and Asia by researchers from the Bonn Centre for Dependency and Slavery Studies. A short series of three presentations will be held in German and English.

BCDSS PhD Researcher Anas Ansar will lead a post-screening discussion on contemporary slavery / human trafficking at the WOKI Cinema Bonn, on 11 February, 17:30h. Every year, millions of people around the world, mainly women and girls, fall victim to modern-day human trafficking. Over a period of seven long years, Helen Simon researched and listened to people whose stories had previously gone unheard. This documentary by Helen Simon, Germany 2021, will be screened in the original languages (Afrikaans, Arabic, Czech, Dari, English, German, Portuguese, Romanian, Swahili) with German subtitles. Duration: 91 minutes Please note: cinema ticket fees apply. To book tickets in advance see the Woki website below. The discussion will be held in ENGLISH.

Join us for the screening of “Vagrants, Vagabonds, Immorals", a documentary directed by Nina Tedesco and Paulo Terra (Brazil 2024). The film focuses on the dictatorship period (1964-1985) but addresses the connection between the early 20th century and the present. What are the meanings of vagrancy throughout Brazilian history, at least since Abolition? Who was considered a vagrant? What are the possibilities of resistance to attempts at criminalization of vagrancy? The movie tries to answer these questions through the an intersectional lens comprising class, gender, race and sexualities, by engaging in a dialogue about these issues with four female activists: Neusa Maria Pereira, journalist and one of the founders of the Movimento Negro Unificado; Shirley Krenak, Indigenous activist of the Krenak people; Jovanna Baby, founder of the organized movement of transgender people in Brazil; and Nataraj Trinta, historian and organizer of the Slut Walk in Rio de Janeiro. Open to all!

The next reading and discussion will feature Anne Haeming, the author of 'Der gesammelte Joest: Biografie eines Ethnologen,' published by Matthes & Seitz in 2023. Join Pia Wiegmink and Jennifer Leetsch on 15 February 2024 as they query the author on the creative processes involved in writing about Wilhelm Joest, a nineteenth-century German ethnographer and traveller; the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne traces its origins to his private collection of over 3,500 objects. Please note that this an onsite event. However, for remote attendees we are offering a Zoom streaming (with microphones disabled). See below for the link. The discussion will be held in English.

"Enslaved Females in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century North America: Examining the Fugitive Slave Archive" Through an examination of the fugitive slave archive and other sources, this lecture seeks to fill some of the scholarly gaps on the experiences of enslaved females of African descent in Canada. More specifically, it will offer some distinctions between the lives and experiences of enslaved females in slave minority (temperate) and slave majority (tropical) sites in the British transatlantic world.

Continuing our commitment to thought-provoking cinema and dialogue, we kick off our 2024 series with an exclusive preview of the Afrika Film Festival Köln, due this September. We are lucky to be able to feature a pre-launch Screening & Discussion of five Festival films: LIONS by Beru Tessema (2022) OUSMANE by Jorge Camarotti (2021) P.D.O. (PROTECTED DESIGNATION OF ORIGIN) by Sammy Sidali (2021) FLOWERS by Dumas Haddad (2022) SÈT LAM by Vincent Fontano (2023) Join us for our post-screening talk and get-together with BCDSS members: Malik Ade, Mary Aderonke Afolabi-Adelou and Luvena Kopp (moderation) Please register by 2nd May, noon, via: registration@dependency.uni-bonn.de

Competing Memories: The Politics of Remembering Enslavement, Emancipation and Indentureship in the Caribbean

"Global Voyages, Local Sites: The Long Shadow of Atlantic Slavery in the Anglo-American and German Pacific" workshop brings together renowned scholars working in the fields of Slavery Studies, Labor Studies, Colonialism and Museum Studies. It explores the legacies of Atlantic slavery through the British Empire’s movement of people, money, and expertise from the Caribbean to Queensland, the American movement west to the islands of Samoa, and how these processes interacted with German colonial endeavors in the Pacific. It intends to form a framework with which to expand the disciplinary boundaries of slavery studies and rethink the legacies and impacts of U.S. and Caribbean practices of slaving and processes of racialization that emerged in the context of imperial endeavors in the Pacific. In addition to historians’ approaches, we would also like to address how the topics and discourses outlined above impact contemporary attempts of decolonizing museums and collections.

Join the workshop "Beyond Slavery and Freedom in the Ancient Near East", organized by BCDSS Postdoctoral Researcher Vitali Bartash at the 68th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, University of Leiden. The workshop addresses the social groups in the ancient Near East that were not slaves but whose freedom was strongly restricted by law, economic conditions, patronage, religious institutions and other factors. Contributions highlight the differences between these groups from citizens with full rights, on the one hand, and from slaves, on the other. Why, how, and on whom were they strongly dependent? Finally, the papers find out if there were ways out of these dependent statuses.

In the early modern period, forced labour went hand in hand with imprisonment and had an inherent punitive logic: the publicly performed labour of prisoners was supposed to have a deterrent effect and act preventively, similar to rituals of corporal punishment. In the context of the centralisation of absolutist power for the "state of common good", a complementary view of the work of imprisoned delinquents emerged: it had to be increasingly conveyed as a means of human improvement. The police objectives were combined with the reformatory purposes. Work became the antithesis of idleness, and in the penitentiaries of Europe the convicts not only had to be made to work for fiscal purposes, but the poor also had to be (re)educated to work. The planned workshop brings together case studies from different cultural contexts and will ask about the genealogy of the discourse of labour and the possible transfers and retransfers of the concept of penal labour as a means of correction.

The workshop is organized by the German-Australian DAAD-UA collaborative project "Child Slaveries in the Early Modern World: Gender, Trauma, and Trafficking in Transcultural Perspectives (1500-1800)" of early career researchers from the Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, and the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies and hosted by the BCDSS History and Theory Working Group. We explore historical dimensions of child slavery, dependency, gender and emotions in multiple world regions, with research grounded in archival and visual narratives.

Monumentality in Southern Central America: Complexity, Inequality, Dependency? Perspectives on Human and other-than-human Relationships A Hybrid Collaborative Conference by the University of Bonn and Leiden University, supported through NWO-VICI grant (VI.C.221.093), Principal Investigator Dr. Alexander Geurds" Monumentality in archaeology serves as a descriptive and interpretative term. It characterizes notable objects and structures in landscapes and theorizes societal organization. This workshop explores monumentality in southern Central America through landscape transformations using enduring materials like stone. Monumentality, viewed as a product of human-nature relationships, doesn't signify social stratification but instead an effort to establish dependency on the natural world.

The International Workshop on Romani Asymmetrical Dependencies is dedicated to exploring asymmetrical relations and understanding co-dependencies between Romani populations and host societies within European socio-political context, in the long period between the 14th century and present day. In utilizing the formula ‘Romani Asymmetrical Dependencies’, the workshop intends to examine (in)effective mechanisms of social incorporation of the Roma, with a special interest and attention to the assessment and interpretation of their influence in local cultures as well as their role in the formation of collective identities (social, religious, political, national). Key topics of this event concern the societal, occupational and symbolic circumstances which have shaped the experiences of one of the oldest transnational minorities in the continent.

The conference will focus in the larger household organizations, including the private households of the military, political and economic elites, but also, for example, plantations, private companies, haciendas and estates. All can be considered as households where the head wields extensive if not absolute power over its members. All these households represented labour regimes which were based on an asymmetrically dependent work force consisting of servants, peasants, enslaved and other coerced labourers. We will address the following issues: How do we define the household? How do people enter and exit the household? Who belongs to the household? What is the division of labour? How does it function as a unit of production and/or economic unit? What are the mechanisms of control within the household? All in all, we would like to test the idea that “household” can be developed into an analytical tool to analyze strong asymmetrical dependencies in societies.

Machtausübung geschieht in Judentum und Christentum auf vielfältige Weise, ohne dass dabei auf rohe Gewalt zurückgegriffen wird. Über Jahrhunderte hinweg haben sich in beiden Religionen Hierarchien und asymmetrische Abhängigkeiten entwickelt, die teilweise sogar als konstitutiv für jüdische und christliche Gemeinschaften angesehen werden. Dabei wurden Prozesse etabliert, um Autorität zu sichern und die Ausübung, Verteilung und Weitergabe von „sanfter“ Macht zu regeln. Bei dieser Tagung steht die Frage im Mittelpunkt, wie sich diese Formen von Autorität und Macht in unterschiedlicher Weise institutionell manifestieren, beispielsweise in Ritualen, disziplinären Systemen oder synodalen Entscheidungen. Darüber hinaus fragen wir auch danach, wie religiöse Autoritätspersonen (Lehrende, Amtsträger und - trägerinnen) die Anhänger der jeweiligen Religion auch individuell, zum Beispiel mittels Charisma, Bildung und Tradition, beeinflusst und auch manipuliert haben.

As co-organizers, we are delighted to announce an upcoming workshop that delves into the intricate theme of "Forms of Freedom during Slavery in Latin America: History, Approaches, and Archives." The workshop is a collaboration between the BCDSS and former BCDSS fellow Prof. Dr. Carolina González. This event brings together historians to share their experiences and research inquiries on the enslavement of people of African and indigenous origin in Latin America from the 17th to the 19th centuries, with a focus on various forms of freedom in different contexts. The discussion will be structured around three themes: History, Approaches, and Archives.

"Hermeneutics of Restitution, Reparation, and Redress: The Case of Cultural Property" This conference aims to explore the – seminal – question of how to react adequately to the damages from dependency relations, in order to repair and overcome them, with a view to a better, post-dependency future, if not reconciliation. If you're interested, please register by March 30, via email to Jan Hörber (events@dependency.uni-bonn.de)

The BCDSS invites all interested to this Bilingual International Colloquium. Participants will discuss the multiple ways in which written, visual, audiovisual archives and, of course, art that emanate from the contexts of imperial, slave and colonial expansion, can not only be the object of postcolonial litigation, both academically and politically, but they are also, paradoxically, devices for the construction of new dialogues between academia, society and the State and its public policies in order to imagine actions built collectively with communities, public and private sectors, through the use of archives as exceptional primary sources for the study of African, African American, Latin American, Asian and African societies even European ones for the sake of their signification, appreciation and dissemination.

During this event, we would like to explore the nature and significance of manumission of enslaved people from a global perspective. Drawing on a variety of sources, especially judicial and notarial ones, we will gain insights into the different types of manumission, their procedures, and outcomes. The main question we are interested in and therefore want to focus on is not only the act of manumission itself, but also the period after manumission. What were the conditions and steps for manumission? What did emancipation really mean? What happened to the slaves after manumission? Did manumission lead to freedom or to a different kind of relationship of dependence? How did the relationship between slaves and slave owners develop after the manumission? What role did manumission play in social life and in the shaping of society? What information can we find in our sources on these aspects? What epistemological and methodological approaches do we use to overcome silences in the records?

Hybrid Workshop: Recent cataclysms prove glaringly the importance of continuously discussing and analyzing asymmetrical dependencies in premodern inner Eurasian connecting spaces north and east of the great mountain ranges, now in large parts claimed by Russia. The Research Network Premodern East Slavic Europe is committed to convene historians studying periods up to the long 18th century for scientific exchange and dialogue, to overcome the current marginalization of these fields in scientific and public perception. The conference invites to grapple with the concepts of dependency and (inter-)agency in these areas. It focuses, on the one hand, on exploring the approaches to asymmetrical social dependencies. On the other hand, crossconnections with fields of inquiry in political and (trans-) imperial history with a view to asymmetrical interethnic and resource dependencies as well as environmental history will be examined.

Organized by the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, this conference aims to address gaps in the study of slavery, bondage, coerced labor, and forced displacement across Asia. We invite scholars from various disciplines to contribute to a better understanding of the history, historiography, legacies, and current forms of these dependencies from an Asian perspective. We seek innovative historical case studies and contributions on topics like emic terminologies, memory, archival practices, and digital approaches. The conference will also explore the value and implications of adopting an "Asian perspective" in advancing scholarly dialogue and interdisciplinarity. Please send an email to asiaconference@dependency.uni-bonn.de in order to register for the event.

*****************UPDATE: Unfortunately this lecture had to be cancelled.********************************** Can postcolonial capitalism's global development reveal a standard, and what are its political implications? Explore this with scholars like Lowe, Roediger, and Chakrabarty, and then delve into Du Bois and Fanon's insights on the interplay of colonialism, race, and capitalism. Analyze the "black radical tradition" and its impact on understanding primitive capital accumulation. Conclude by questioning how Du Bois and Fanon's racial and colonial insights resonate in contemporary metropolitan centers.

How did an alleged sodomy case in 1648 on an English East India Company ship shape social dynamics and attitudes towards homosexuality? Examining the events and aftermath, this Lecture sheds light on relations among crewmembers, attitudes towards homosexual acts, and the company's interaction with the Mughal Empire.

How did Jainism rise and decline in Karnataka? Originating in East India in the sixth century BCE, Jainism reached Karnataka by the second century CE. By the fifth century CE, it gained supremacy, peaking from the eighth to eleventh centuries CE. However, by the twelfth century, its influence rapidly diminished, leading to severe dependency. This presentation explores the reasons for both the rise and fall, spanning religious, social, political, and economic factors

How did Islamic law change the status of slave mothers and their children? While granting certain protections, such as freedom upon the owner's death and inheritance rights for their children, the integration of slave women into families as sexual partners wasn't always smooth. This talk examines the implications of slave concubinage on family dynamics, as depicted in medieval Arabic literature, particularly in three erotic manuals spanning from the tenth to the early fourteenth centuries. These texts grapple with justifying and defending sexual slavery while navigating the delicate balance between satisfying desires and maintaining family harmony.

How did late antique households influence wider social organization and the Roman state? They served as microcosms of society, shaping social hierarchies and relationships. Within these spaces, residents negotiated various dynamics, including those between free and slave, parent and child, and citizen and foreigner. The vulnerability of slaves to sexual exploitation and the politics of desire significantly influenced daily interactions, impacting the social status of all involved. This paper examines these dynamics and their impact on late Roman attitudes during a transformative era often dubbed the 'Age of Anxiety.'

How did late Romans experience disasters and military conflicts? Many scholars argue that these events contributed to the Empire's decline. However, this presentation offers a different perspective, focusing on how disasters affected individuals and their relationships. How did disasters impact social networks and force people into new dependencies? The talk will explore these questions and suggest that outcomes for survivors were often influenced by emerging structures of dependency, such as the ransom market.

New photo exhibition by ethnologist and geologist Christoph Antweiler Today, there is no place on earth that has not been touched by humans. Man-made change goes far beyond climate change. It also affects soils, oceans, plants, animals, and geochemical cycles. In short, we humans have become a significant geological factor. We humans have an impact as powerful as that of natural forces such as volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. Our actions today will have repercussions far into the geological future. That is why we talk about a new geological epoch, the “Anthropocene.” According to current research, this new epoch began in the middle of the twentieth century. In this photographic exhibition, ethnologist and geologist Christoph Antweiler from the university's Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies (IOA) shows the causes and consequences of this problematic development.

The event is being held in cooperation with the Academy for International Affairs NRW and the Bonn Center for Reconciliation Studies. As Europe rethinks its foreign policy amidst shifting global political relations, one question remains central: Can cooperation succeed without confronting colonial history? This panel takes Germany’s first genocide of the 20th century in Namibia as a starting point to explore how colonial legacies continue to shape today’s global crises, from geopolitics and inequality to diplomacy and democracy. What does the “past in the present” mean for justice claims and Europe’s future role in the world? With experts Henning Melber, Katharina Hacker, and Julia Manek, moderated by Heloise Weber, the discussion will connect postcolonial perspectives with today’s political challenges, including the rise of authoritarian populism as well as transnational efforts aimed at building relations of solidarity and ‘just repair’.

Hybrid Workshop: What can we learn by rethinking plantations beyond the Atlantic world? From the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, plantations in the Caribbean, South America, and the U.S. South shaped the Atlantic economy and influenced extractive systems worldwide. While the fall of Caribbean slave-based regimes and their links to modern commodity frontiers are well known, this workshop revisits the origins, structures, and global implications of plantation systems. In this coming hybrid workshop, early-career scholars will join established researchers in moderated panel discussions designed to spark productive, in-depth dialogue.

"Nachorious: The Nach Gyal as Post Indenture Caribbean Feminist Jouvay Mas" This mas commemorates 180 years of the Indian ‘nautch girl’ – dancer, courtesan, tawa’if, devadasi, widow, bazaar woman, and rand or randi prostitute or sex worker – escaping British imperialism, dispossession, criminalization, evangelism, political punishment and impoverishment through the journey of indenture. Stereotyped as notoriously immoral and sexually loose, the indentured Indian woman was considered a threat to the system itself. Remembered through the character of the nach gyal, Nachorious, she still dances in the spirit of freedom and resistance. This Jouvay mas is made with indenture records from 1867, text from Mahadai Das poetry and scholarship on the nautch girl, a nach gyal figure whose spinning in the air will be a dance of life, and ghungroos to sonically memorialize this history as it became ours in the Caribbean. To register, please go to the link below.

Christian missionaries pressured women in colonial contact zones to dress more ‘appropriately’ according to European understandings of Christian modesty. At the same time, access to new material goods was one of the attractions to convert. New converts and missionaries actively negotiated the re-composition of local and European fashion styles and, related to this, new forms of body and gender norms and identities. The recomposed forms of dress evolved constantly, gradually acquiring the status of ‘traditional’ dress and becoming materialisations of cultural identity and belonging. Yet, against the backdrop of postcolonial critique and the latest decolonization movements worldwide, the perception of these on-going fashions is currently shifting and being questioned as part of colonial legacies. Given these historical processes, how can we rethink dress and fashion not only as cultural expressions but also as archives of lived experiences, contestations, and resistances?

Tuli Mekondjo’s performance "Saara Omulaule/Black Saara" (2023) was improvised & inspired by Kari Miettinen’s book "On the Way to Whiteness – Christianization, Conflict, and Change in Colonial Owamboland, 1910-1965". The Finnish Sunday school song about “Black Saara – the little Negro girl” prompted a visceral response and an avenue of questioning for Mekondjo. She asks: “What made my ancestors (Aawambo people) convert to Christianity during the period 1910-1965?” The artwork evokes the need for ritual practices on living bodies as an attempt to awaken their souls from spiritual death in order to connect to our ancestors. This practice insists on the imperative performative action carried forward by ancestors, whose remains are still kept in the bondage of colonially created museums and missionary-made cemeteries. Mekondjo’s use of food, ritual and medicinal items to install the performance video are a way to connect ancestral spirits with the digital manifestation. PW: olukonda