Ofuatey-Alazard, Nadja
Current Project:
Ein lebendiges Archiv afrikanisch(-diasporisch)er dekolonialer In(ter)ventionen: Kulturproduktion, Akademie und aktivistische Kulturvermittlung
European expansion and hegemony since 1492 has constituted a profoundly consequential event – both for the history of Europe/the West and that of the nations of the “global South” formerly subjected to European colonial rule. This historically unique process, given its global scope and duration, has had formative influences on the social, political and economic systems, and has thus influenced the areas of science, culture, literature and philosophy of the formerly colonised societies. Pursuing the question of how Africans and People of African descent used literary practices and theoretical discourse to respond to the European master narrative of modernity, civilisation and progress aimed at legitimising colonialism and racism will open up a heretofore negated perspective of Europe and raise awareness for the entangled (his)stories of the two continents. My research interest goes beyond a simple revision of the perspective that views Africans and people of African descent in Europe and the Americas merely as colonised or discriminated passive participants of European modernity: Viewing Europe through the prism of African and African-diasporic authors and theorists also makes it possible to see the many positions towards and interpretations of modernity which originated in Africa and its diasporas themselves, and how these have contributed to modernity in the West.