Events - Other

How did the Iranian Constitutional Revolution and the Ottoman Tanzimat reforms reshape slavery across the Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, and Middle East? This talk by Behnaz Mirzai, Professor of Middle Eastern History at Brock University, examines the shared origins of Qajar Iran and the Ottoman Empire—neighboring states with parallel political and cultural structures, including similar slavery systems. It shows how enslaved Africans faced capture, transport, and major identity shifts, and how Ottoman Tanzimat reforms inspired Qajar officials and revolutionaries to pursue abolitionist policies. Through the story of Mahboob Qirvanian, an enslaved African later freed by Constitutional Revolution leaders, the talk highlights both the human experience of Africa–Asia slavery and the political changes that reshaped it. The event ends with a screening of Prof. Mirzai’s award-winning documentary Afro-Iranian Lives.

The BCDSS invites to a screening of Aisha Can't Fly Away (dir. Morad Mostafa, 2025), followed by a panel discussion on migration-related labour exploitation and intersectional dependency. The film follows Aisha, a Sudanese care worker in Cairo, as she navigates racism, extortion, and precarious work conditions after fleeing war in Somalia. The panel will feature BCDSS Research Group Leader Benjamin Etzold and Postdoctoral Researcher Ayesha Hussain.

How can film help us see histories that have long been hidden — from the forced labour on indigo plantations in Haiti to the influence of Christian missions on fashion in Namibia and Jamaica? Beyond documenting the past, film can challenge dominant narratives, unearth silenced voices, and spark new ways of thinking about heritage, memory, and Afro-Indigenous knowledge. We warmly invite you to attend the film screening and public round table with film directors Dr. Joseph S. Jean, Yohannes Mekonnen, as well as curators Dr. Beatrix Hoffmann-Ihde and Jun.-Prof. Dr. Julia Binter. The audience is warmly invited to join the discussion and share drinks at the finissage reception! We will be screening two films by Haitian archaeologist Sony Jean and the Global Heritage Lab’s Visual Anthropology Fellow Yohannes Mulat Mekonnen.

As part of the supporting program of the International Silent Film Festival (7-17 August 2025) in Bonn, we warmly invite you to a lecture and Q&A by cultural scholar Yumin Li. In her talk, Li shares her research on the remarkable international film career of "Show Life" (German: "Song") actress Anna May Wong (1905-1961). Li highlights the importance of the Chinese-American actress as a pioneer in film history. As the first Hollywood star of Chinese heritage, Anna May Wong is today seen a symbol of self-empowerment. To experience Anna May Wong on screen, join us for an open-air screening of her film "Show Life" (German: "Song") the night before, on 15 August 2025 at 22:00 at the Arkadenhof of University of Bonn.

The book talk, organized by the ARC discovery grant project “Unfreedom, Voices, Redress: Plantation Cultures of the Western Pacific” (in cooperation with the GHL), will discuss recent publications by a writer, an artist and a historian. The guests will engage in the question how indenture, blackbirding and other forms of dependency re-ordered the Western Pacific after slavery was abolished in the British Atlantic and in the US. It also wants to pay special attention to not only Pacific but also Pacific women’s voices to shed light on the history of vast numbers of Indian, Pacific and Melanesian peoples displaced through (forced) migration and laboring on plantations that emerged in contexts of British (and German) colonial endeavors. Books discussed: Margaret Mishra, Women, Indenture, and Resistance (Oxford UP, 2026) Kirsten McGavin, Untethered: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Papua New Guinea (Kokomo Ink, 2025). Jasmine Togo-Brisby, Ungeographic (Pâtaka Art + Museum, 2025)

What memories does water hold? Drawing on her own family history, Jasmine Togo-Brisby’s exhibition Liquid Archive explores memory, colonial histories, and healing. Through photographs and the video work Mother Tongue (2020), she creates an immersive experience. The film shows the artist together with her mother and daughter at the wreck of the Don Juan — a ship connected to so-called “blackbirding,” the violent abduction of Pacific Islanders and their forced labour on sugar plantations in Australia. Across generations, histories persist: in the body, in the image, and in the sea as a “liquid archive” in which loss, resistance, and care are embedded. The photographs expand this narrative. Submerged in the sea, the women’s bodies become memorials to colonial violence, while also asserting resilience, survival and healing. The exhibition is part of the research-exhibition project “Knowing Plants. Ecologies of Memory and Practice” at the Global Heritage Lab, University of Bonn.

We invite you to join our five BCDSS pre-doctoral fellows for their joint presentation at Dies Academicus: "Understanding Dependency and Slavery Studies: A Multidisciplinary Approach". They will each give a short talk on what sparked their interest in their research topic, why it matters, and what they hope to achieve. From the industrial heartlands of India to the oral traditions of the Gold Coast, their talks explore the multifaceted nature of strong asymmetrical dependency across time and geography.

Join us at the University of Bonn's Dies Academicus on 14 May, where BCDSS Fellows Evelyn Hu-De Hart, Christine Whyte, and Aleksander Paradziński will provide insights into their current research projects.

The "afterlife of slavery," a concept coined by Saidiya Hartman and rooted in the work of Hazel V. Carby and Hortense Spillers, explores how the legacy of transatlantic slavery continues to shape American life. Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' (1987) is often cited as central to this framework. Yet in 'A Mercy' (2008), Morrison imagines a world outside the constraints of this legacy, set in a time before slavery's full establishment. This lecture examines how Morrison's later novel engages with, or departs from, the afterlife of slavery, focusing on archival materials that reveal her role in shaping its publication. Professor Kinohi Nishikawa teaches African American Literature at Princeton University. He is the author of 'Street Players: Black Pulp Fiction and the Making of a Literary Underground' (University of Chicago Press, 2018), and co-editor of 'Sites of Memory: Toni Morrison and the Archive'. His work has appeared in 'ASAP/Journal', 'American Literary History', and 'Novel'.

The 1874 painting 'The Acrobats' offers a glimpse into the lives of children performing in the circus 150 years ago. But does it also tell us something about the vulnerability of 'children in entertainment' and 'child performers' in general, both then and now? Find out more at the BCDSS station at this year's Uni Bonn Science Rallye!

On 15 May 2025, two exhibitions will open in the Global Heritage Lab, P26, at the University of Bonn. The exhibition "Dressing Resistance. Fashion and the Heritage of Mission" explores the question of how Christian missionisation has influenced fashion in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and how fashion designers and artists deal with this legacy today. It builds on an international conference with academics and cultural practitioners at the Global Heritage Lab. The exhibition "Enmeshed and Entwined - Fabrics of Dependency" by the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) and the Bonn Center for Digital Humanities (BCDH) discusses the social entanglements and asymmetrical dependency relationships inherent in one of our oldest cultural assets. Opening hours of the exhibitions: 16.05.2025-12.10.2025, Wednesday-Sunday, 2-6 pm, Global Heritage Lab, Poststraße 26, 53111 Bonn

During Heritage Week, various institutes of the University of Bonn are inviting scholars to participate in open conversations and critical reflections on a range of approaches to heritage in a global context. The proposed agenda includes the following topics for discussion: the relationship between nature and culture, the concept of sustainability, the indigenous heritage of the Americas and Africa, and the coloniality of statues and monuments.

This lecture commemorates Juneteenth as a living tradition of freedom and memory. Professor Tsitsi Jaji traces collaborations between Black poets and concert musicians — from the Jubilee Singers to Grammy-nominated contemporary works — to show how art carries the history of enslavement into collective memory. The event bridges historical fugitive slave advertisements and modern musical settings, culminating in a communal singing of Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing.

Palm oil can be found in nearly half of all supermarket products and is also used as a biofuel. Indonesia and Malaysia supply about 80 % of the world’s demand. Although promoted as a tool for reducing CO₂ emissions, palm oil cultivation drives deforestation, biodiversity loss, and deep social inequalities in Southeast Asia. Kristina Großmann, Investigator at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies and Professor of Southeast Asian Anthropology at the University of Bonn, will explore whether certification programs and the idea of a “Just Transition” can help resolve this dilemma.

This November, the WHO'S GOT THE POWER Film and Discussion Series continues in collaboration with the Förderverein Filmkultur at Kino in der Brotfabrik in Bonn. On 6 November 2025 at 19:00, we will be screening and discussing Sugar Island, a hybrid documentary fiction film by Johanné Gómez Terrero (Dominican Republic/Spain, 2024, 91 min). Sugar Island explores identity, memory, and the enduring legacies of colonialism — weaving together family struggles, Afro-Dominican spirituality, and collective resistance against exploitation. In addition, Sugar Island is also part of this year's Cinescuela Film Festival.

Public discussion: "From Streets to Front Pages: The Media Stories of Contested Statues of enslavers and colonial figures since 2020" Presenter: Sophia Labadia Discussant: Julia Binter

3:40–4:00 pm: Book promotion "Every Monument Will Fall: a story of remembering and forgetting" 4:00–6:00 pm: Presentation and discussion "'Crumbling is not an Instant's Act': thoughts on monumentality, endurance, and public memory" Presenter: Dan Hicks Discussants: Julia Binter and Sophia Labadi

Join us on Monday, 2 June, when we screen and discuss two short documentary movies from West Africa, both linked by the themes of (social media) activism, slavery, violent repression, and the fight for visibility and recognition of rights, dignity and freedom: - Ganbanaaxu Fedde: A Transnational Anti-Slavery Movement (2024) by Lotte Pelckmans - 3 Stolen Cameras (2017) by RåFILM and Equipe Media The event is part of our film and discussion series WHO'S GOT THE POWER, jointly organized by the BCDSS and Förderverein Filmkultur Bonn.

“Whose Prayers did God hear?” / “Wessen Gebete hat Gott erhört?” This question, raised by a pastor reflecting on churches built for Europeans inside the very castles where enslaved Africans were held on the Gold Coast, highlights the deep historical entanglement of Christianity and slavery. The Schlosskirche, in cooperation with the BCDSS, invites you on Dies Academicus to an evening of shared reflection. We will first hear from Prof. Dr. Markus Saur (Exegesis and Theology of the Old Testament) and Prof. Dr. Michael Schulz (Philosophy and Theory of Religions), both from the UoB. Afterwards, the Rev. Prof. Dr. Roderick Hewitt, President of the International University of the Caribbean, will introduce the Council for World Mission’s Onesimus Project, which addresses the legacies of slavery and modern slavery and promotes ecumenical education and advocacy. Prof. Dr. Pia Wiegmink and Rev. David Brandon Smith will guide the discussions. No registration required.

Join us for the first event in our new DEPENDENCY TALKSHOP series, taking place on Wednesday, 6 May, 18:00-19:30, in cooperation with the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (bicc) and Volkshochschule (VHS) Bonn. A panel of academics and practitioners from five organisations will engage the audience in a discussion on „Overcoming Violence: Coping Strategies and Support for Refugee Women.“