News and Events

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.

How did late-nineteenth-century Brazilian thinkers, working within a “Naturalistic Scientism” shaped by positivist and evolutionist theories, represent race and slavery in ways that ranged from claims of Black inferiority to calls for moral reparation, and how did the paternalistic normalization of slavery obscure racial hierarchies and sustain asymmetrical dependencies compared to the more overt racialization seen in the United States?

“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.

What does 50 years of Angolan independence really mean? This lecture revisits Angola’s complex history beyond nationalist or Western narratives, exploring how power, memory, and freedom intertwine. Using Palimpsest and Puzzle as tools, it reimagines Angola’s past and present through multiple perspectives.

What happens when 125,000 Chinese indentured men and enslaved African men and women work side by side on Cuban sugar plantations in the late nineteenth century? Nowhere else in history did these groups of unfree laborers meet in the same time and place. This unique encounter raises questions about race, class, and gender: Were the Chinese considered black or white, slave or free? How did the absence of Chinese women shape relations between Asians and Africans? Ultimately, were the Chinese “coolies” slaves like their black co-workers, or did they move toward freedom? This lecture explores these questions through key Cuban archival documents.

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.

How have African Atlantic artists transformed our understanding of slavery’s legacy? Drawing on Rice’s three decades of experience as an academic and curator, including work with the Whitworth Art Gallery, Lancaster Maritime Museum, and the International Slavery Museum, this lecture explores how artists from the 1950s to the 2020s, such as Althea McNish, Lubaina Himid, Ellen Gallagher, Jade de Montserrat, and Lela Harris, have used their art to interrogate slavery’s history and its aftermath. Alan Rice will show how their radical interventions and acts of guerrilla memorialisation have reshaped museums, challenged dominant narratives, and redefined the field of the Black Atlantic.

Beyond chattel slavery, who really built the global plantation complex? This lecture takes a global, longue durée approach, challenging the assumption that plantations relied solely on chattel slavery. Randy M. Browne reveals that planters were insidiously flexible, extracting labor from a wide variety of coerced workers, including convicts, indentured servants, and nominally free wage laborers across the Americas, the Indian Ocean, and Australia. What united these workers was the shared experience of forced migration, dispossession, and crushing violence.

The workshop is sponsored by the "Transdisciplinary Research Area 5 - Presents Pasts" and the “Bonn Centre for Dependency and Slavery Studies” of the University of Bonn. Funded as part of the Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments. No registration needed for in person attendance

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.

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.

Before transatlantic slavery, European colonial powers used contract workers. After Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807/08, they sought new markets, especially in Latin America, and needed a wage-earning population. By the 1820s–30s, the idea of wage slavery emerged. In 1834, the British introduced the apprenticeship system in their colonies, a compromise with slave owners, until it collapsed in 1838 due to resistance. Still, it inspired the Indentured Labour System, bringing hundreds of thousands of Asian, African, and European contract workers to Caribbean plantations between 1833–1873. This lecture explores how brutal labor systems shaped global market development, focusing on Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Curaçao.

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 purpose of this workshop is to analyse and discuss the underexplored gendered dynamics of asymmetrical dependencies in which Late Antique elite women and their dependents participated. By engaging with material across various types of sources, such as papyri, epigraphy, curse tablets, legal codes, historiography and religious texts, we hope to illuminate how elite women interacted with the large variety of people who depended on them, from enslaved attendants and servants to clients and other beneficiaries of patronage.

This interdisciplinary workshop on body history and experiences explores strong asymmetrical dependencies from the perspective of the body and experience. The workshop will build upon the agenda and insights generated by the existing Working Group "Body History," which was established in March 2024. Through cross-disciplinary perspectives and discussions, during the workshop meetings, we deepened our understanding of how embodied experiences have been shaped by various dependencies throughout history. The aim of the workshop is to build on the established insights and questions in order to expand and deepen the conversation on interdisciplinary approaches to body history and experiences by historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, and other disciplines. Find the program below. Please note: Registration required as there is only limited seating!

This lecture uses a range of printed materials and analytical methods to address the vocabulary of slavery in England during the long seventeenth century and traces what was an important process of vernacularisation. Moreover, it aims at identifying the kinds of socio-economic, gendered relations and tensions, that the language of slavery was used to characterise, as well as the semantic stability (or not) of the vocabulary over time. In so doing, the lecture also begins to assess the impact of colonial developments on vernacular discussions of the social order: not least the institutionalisation of indentured service and racist chattel slavery in the Caribbean and American seaboard.

How has Western morality reshaped Indian ideas of the body and performance? This research explores how colonial and postcolonial ideologies impacted Indian expressions of gender and sexuality, especially through dance and performance. Focusing on gay Indian dancer Ram Gopal, my recent book (2024) traces how he navigated cultural tensions in mid-20th-century Europe. Colonial rule and later nationalism imposed Victorian ideals, marginalizing traditions like devadāsīs, hijras, and folk performers, creating a "double dependency" on both colonial and postcolonial norms. Today, artists are reclaiming these forms through performance, film, and cross-disciplinary work, drawing on mythological figures like ardhanārīśvara and Bahuchara Mata. This lecture examines these efforts and the enduring power dynamics shaping memory, identity, and cultural expression.

How did issues of intimacy, like sexuality, pregnancy, coercion, and family, shaped enslaved women’s decisions to resist during slave rebellions in the Caribbean and U.S. South? This lecture explores how reproductive autonomy, kinship, and sacred knowledge influenced enslaved women’s resistance, often overlooked in historical archives and scholarship. From ending pregnancies to escaping with children or forming maroon communities, women resisted both bondage and the exploitation of their bodies. This work-in-progress highlights how family and intimacy were central, not peripheral, to the politics of rebellion and the fight to undermine the capitalist logic of Atlantic slavery.

Geliebte Sklavinnen. Deutsche Kaufleute und ihre versklavten Frauen in der Second Slavery Noch bis um 1860 spielte sich die breite globale Wirtschaftsdynamik des globalen Kapitalismus vor allem in Kolonien oder ehemaligen Kolonien ab. Viele deutschsprachige Männer drängten damals in diese "Erste Welt" des Wirtschaftswachstums, der Modernität und des Profits. Diese jungen Männer konnten, falls sie nicht durch Sklavenhandel reich geworden waren, nicht in die traditionelle Land- und Sklavenbesitzerelite einheiraten, weil sie dort als Emporkömmlinge galten. So lebten sie meist mit "Sklavinnen-Geliebten" zusammen. Diese Sklavinnen waren fast immer sehr jung und überlebten ihre "geliebten Eigentümer". Die meisten dieser Sklavinnen wurden von ihrem Eigentümer nach dessen Tod testamentarisch frei gelassen und bekamen einen Teil des Erbes - mit dem sie selbst wiedeurm SklavInnen kauften und zu SklavenhalterInnen sowie zu Führungsfiguren einer jeweils lokalen farbigen Sklavenhalterelite wurden.

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.

Gemeinsam mit renommierten Expert*innen aus Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft gehen wir im Semester wöchentlich auf eine DenkReise zu wünschenswerten Zukünften unterschiedlicher Lebensbereiche. Unsere Gäste stellen ihre Forschung vor und diskutieren mit Studierenden, Nachwuchswissenschaftler*innen und der interessierten Öffentlichkeit. Am Ende des Semesters folgt nach den Reisen im Denken eine gemeinsame Reise als Exkursion zu einem thematisch einschlägigen Ort.

This workshop will bring together a diverse group of scholars to consider the family in the Islamicate world as a locus for understanding coexisting and at times overlapping forms of dependency. Far from thinking of the family as a monolithic, static entity, this workshop seeks to create a comparative space for mapping out the variable and ever-changing ideas, practices, and processes that formed the family in distinct historical contexts, while also attending to common threads such as legal frameworks and elite female seclusion. Thinking in terms of frames including the conjugal family and the household, lineage and descent, and broader kinship networks, participants will consider how family relations could both limit as well as provide opportunities for agency, alongside shaping senses of affiliation, belonging, and identity. Registration by 30 May via ekalb@uni-bonn.de or bbayrakt@uni-bonn.de.

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

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

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.

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

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!

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'.