140 years of the Berlin Africa Conference: Imperialism yesterday and today. Comic Launch: Episodes From a Colonial Present

140 years ago, European colonial powers met in Berlin to negotiate the division of the African continent among themselves. While only a fraction of Africa was under colonial rule a few years before the conference, by the end of the 19th century almost the entire continent had been divided up between Great Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Belgium and Spain. The Berlin Africa Conference of 1884/1885 is emblematic of this race for Africa and is regarded as the peak phase of European imperialism. Rather than being a historically closed phenomenon, imperial relations continue to have an impact today in many different ways or appear in a new guise.

With this series of events, we, the Department of Development Policy and Postcolonial Studies, want to trace and discuss the diverse political, economic and epistemic connections between imperialism then and now.

The first part of the event will focus on German colonial rule in Togo and Namibia. In the second part, we will look at colonial continuities in the global political economy and discuss current forms of energy colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism. Finally, we will show the documentary film "Walter Rodney: What They Don't Want You to Know".

The entire series of events has been produced in collaboration with Kassel postkolonial, BUKO, Medico International, Forensic Architecture, the Walter Rodney Foundation and the Ameena Gafoor Institute. All events are open to the public.

We also welcome active participation from people who have nothing to do with the university in their everyday lives!