Challenged by coloniality

Extracted text from Marcus_Grohmann_guest_lecture_13th_Feb._2023.pdf:

Challenged by coloniality: How white people imagine and practice reconciliation in a culturally diverse church in Cape Town Guest Lecture | 13 Feburary 2023 | 18:00–20:00 SAST, 17:00-19:00 CET | online via Zoom Please register with bettina.schoen@hu-berlin.de to receive the link to the video conference.

Panelist

A recently completed PhD project sought to understand how white people in a reformed church congregation in Cape Town worked for the realisation of a multicultural community while they continued to dominate in many areas. The research participants’ understanding of ‘racial’ reconciliation was found to emphasise the increasing of equality and racial integration, both between individuals and groups. White people’s dominance was acknowledged with regard to socio-economic imbalances but contested when it came to language use and how this was entangled with ‘culture’ and theology. In actively striving for reconciliation, white people predominantly defaulted to their own terms which were often taken as universal. A lesser approach recognised that different terms often existed and that the actual giving up of power and control promises more meaningful changes in power dynamics than the often-employed strategies of ‘upliftment’ and ‘inclusion’. This qualitative ethnographic study was complemented by a comparison of three isiXhosa/English term pairs that highlighted the complex nature of translation. The project not only raises questions regarding the adequacy of prevalent reconciliation paradigms for contexts of coloniality. It also draws attention to the risks of ignoring the role of ‘languaculture’ in overcoming interracial divisions and inequalities.

Panelist Marcus Grohmann received his PhD at the Jena Center for Reconciliation Studies, having been cosupervised from Stellenbosch University. Between 2003 and 2010 he studied Social Anthropology and Development Sociology at the University of Bayreuth and the Université de Bordeaux. During that time, he was engaged in reconciliation research in Rwanda and the DR Congo with a particular focus on the role of churches in ethnic conflicts and in conflict resolution. Originally hailing from Dresden, Germany, he has been living in Cape Town with his family since 2016.

Please register with bettina.schoen@hu-berlin.de to receive the link to the video conference.

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