Can Europe come to terms with its colonial past?

Student-produced zines on colonial memory politics.

Africa, colonialism, Europe, history, Memory

About this project:

Over the last few years, several European powers and actors have increasingly engaged with political acts of remembering colonial violence, wars, and crimes committed in Africa in their name. Among other examples, Berlin renamed some of its streets which were honouring colonial figures, French President Emmanuel Macron commissioned an official report on the memory of the colonisation and war in Algeria, and some British universities and cultural institutions returned looted Benin Bronzes to Nigeria. But can this truly lead to ‘coming to terms’ with its colonial past? Can reparations, restitutions, apologies, and other symbolic acts ‘fix’ the damage of decades of European colonialism? Who has a voice or who does not in these debates? These are the questions my students and I discussed in a seminar entitled ‘Can Europe Come to Terms with its Colonial Past in Africa?’ taught in Liberal Arts & Sciences at University College Freiburg in the Winter semester 2024/25. These questions were also at the heart of the zines they produced as a final assignment, which are presented in this intervention, showing how creative practices can be used by students to engage with difficult topics of colonial memory.

Richard Legay

Richard Legay is a historian working at the crossroad of media, memory, and Europe’s colonial past. He is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Göttingen, a Teaching Fellow at University College Freiburg, and an Associated Member at the Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institut.

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Acknowledgements

Warm thanks to Freiburg-based artist Sophie Wohlgemuth, for providing students with her hands-on knowledge on zine-making, and to Dr. Ryan Plumley, course coordinator in History & Culture at University College Freiburg, for his unwavering support in implementing such activities.

As many other lecturers, I often feel a sense of contradiction when assigning my students a traditional, and rather restrictive assignment, like the essay, while expecting them to apply critical thinking, engage with new perspectives, and work with intellectually and emotionally challenging topics. While essays are a staple of academic studies for a reason, they are also a death sentence for creativity, offering no space for anything else than the written word, itself smothered by academic style. How can we ask students to think outside the box and then ask them to write with such a restrictive format? This was a particularly strong feeling when teaching on colonial violence, collective memory, and the (lack of) efforts to ‘come to terms with it’ by European societies. As a way to engage differently with the topic, I invited students to produce zines instead.

Why zines? Zines are self-published, non-commercial, and informal publications of small distribution, which are rooted in underground political and social activism and various forms of counter-cultures. Therefore, they were the ideal format to explore reflections on colonial memory and deepen students’ critical thinking regarding topics such as the restitution of cultural heritage, the issue of reparations, postcolonial theories, resistance, privileges, etc. The nature of this medium offers a great opportunity for students to explore new ways to convey information by mixing text and images, and working with editing and formatting in creative ways, balancing academic rigour with aesthetics and science communication.

The zines available in this entry are only a selection from the works produced by students. Those who wished to do so were invited to produce either digital or analog zines as a final assignment, opening space for them to reflect on topics of their choice in a more ‘hands-on’ manner. Connecting academic reflection with a creative process of zine-making turned out to be quite successful, since ⅔ of the students picked the option and the results were particularly good. Among other things, the format of the zine allowed for a more personal take, favoured deeper engagement by students, and allowed them to work with different material to construct their assignment.

Implementing zines in my seminar was a rewarding task, but not an easy one. It was made possible by the organisation of a workshop led by Freiburg-based artist Sophie Wohlgemuth, who introduced the students to the medium, its history and characteristics, before producing some with them. This workshop generated strong motivation from the students to work with this format and gave them the confidence and skills to choose the option for their final assignment.

Nefertiti

The bust of Nefertiti from the 14th century BC, one of the world’s most famous exhibits, has occasioned controversial debates since its discovery; in particular these have centred on the question of ownership. However, the focus on legal disputes has stalled the debate. Restitution is such a complex issue that economic and, above all, identity-related factors also play a role. This zine suggests that the question of ownership is actually preceded by a much more fundamental question, namely the question of identity. So let us discover: Who are you, Nefertiti?

Franziska Bergert

Franziska Bergert is a student of Liberal Arts and Sciences in Freiburg, majoring in the humanities track Culture and History. She’s interested in questions of international as well as intellectual history. The complex circumstances of Nefertiti’s journey and the disputes surrounding her ownership particularly awakened Franziska’s interest. Nefertiti’s story sheds light on the complicated colonial situation in the Egyptian territory, as well as on intellectual visions of modernity in the Weimar Republic. Furthermore, tracing the cultural appropriation of Nefertiti’s figure offers insights into both the history of 20th-century popular culture and contemporary conflicts.

Public use of the zine is permitted with attribution to the author © Franziska Bergert 2025.

Who must be grateful?

A zine on colonialism and debt.

This zine, inspired by a speech held by the French president Emmanuel Macron in January 2025, asks the question of gratitude. In the context of postcolonial economic relations, migration politics and so-called development aid, who is economically – and morally – indebted to whom? As the author tries to show, this question is largely one of memory politics and public remembrance.

Miriam Haverkamp

Miriam Haverkamp is currently finishing her Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University College Freiburg. When she was a child, she remembers asking her mother: “Why are the kids in Africa so poor, and why is our church always collecting money for them?” She made this zine because of this question. She noticed that there is a huge knowledge gap even amongst well-educated people in Germany regarding the state of inequality in the world and the historical reasons behind it. To counter narratives of unilateral “aid”, she wanted to highlight how much of the Global North’s abundant wealth has been built and is continuing to be built through unequal economic relations to the Global South.

Public use of the zine is permitted with attribution to the author © Miriam Haverkamp 2025.

The forgotten genocide.

Why Germany doesn’t remember the Maji-Maji War.

This zine presents the factors that have contributed to the erasure of the Maji-Maji War from Germany’s collective memory. Although multiple scholars have classified the war as a genocide, it surprisingly seems to play no significant role in the German public memory. The aim of this zine is to understand why the war has been absent from Germany’s collective memory and to create awareness of the atrocities Germany committed during its colonial period. To this end, commemorative practices, educational curricula, and remembrance in the public sphere have been examined and are presented in chronological order.

Julie Mackensen

Julie Mackensen is a Liberal Arts and Sciences student at University College Freiburg, majoring in Environmental and Sustainability Sciences with research interests in environmental justice, political ecology, and (green) colonialism. While researching Germany’s colonial rule of German East Africa Julie came across the Maji-Maji War and was surprised by the lack of public commemoration for a genocide committed by Germany. She hopes that this zine can contribute to including the war in the collective memory and shed light on this dark chapter of German history.

Public use of the zine is permitted with attribution to the author © Julie Mackensen 2025.

Restitution: NO[W]!

Many African countries are still fighting for the restitution of artefacts and human remains looted by Europe in the colonial period. Giving those back is not only important to do justice and show historical accountability but is also imperative to the healing process of descendants. With the reluctance of museums and universities to give back those objects, restitution became a controversial issue slowly gaining visibility but mostly remaining in the academic sphere. Outside of this realm, people not related to this topic usually do not know much about the issues faced with restitution or why it is an issue at all.

Thus, Cheyenne Moeser explores the topic of restitution of African heritage by combining data, literature, news and art in the zine “Restitution: NO(W)!” in order to provide an overview of the diversity of this topic and the century-long injustices connected to it. Topics engaged with are a.o. the Benin Bronzes, the Tendaguru Dinosaurs, the Hawass Request, and the Rosetta Stone.

Through this, the zine criticises European institutions who do not restitute looted objects, ignore the dialogue and spread insufficient information but also highlights small steps taken by countries as silver linings in a long and frustrating history. It aims to contribute to a better understanding of restitution and why Europe needs to make proactive, immediate and effective efforts to restitute.

Cheyenne Moeser

Cheyenne Moeser is a Liberal Arts and Sciences student at the University College Freiburg. Majoring in “Culture and History”, she is interested in the interconnections of cultures and especially drawn to topics of gender and media studies. In a seminar on memory politics she realised how the public’s and school’s neglect of restitution contributed to her own knowledge gaps. Frustrated by this, she decided to explore restitution in her zine to close gaps and contribute to the discussion.

Rhymes of Resistance

Black British Rap: can Europe really come to terms with its colonial past in Africa?

Emma Nightingale

Acknowledgements

possibly – zine workshop maybe?

Classic Approaches to Security

Traditionally, only states were actors of security in security research. This meant that states were seen as the ones who act and who were capable of performing security in the international arena, at least in the eyes of International Relations canon and particularly in terms of military security (Morgenthau, 1954; Waltz, 2001, 2010). However, after the end of the Cold War and the subsequent widening of the security agenda, new research laid more emphasis on the social construction of security (Katzenstein, 1996), and since the development of these new approaches to security the field has made substantial progress in understanding, conceptualising and utilising empirical and conceptual insights in the dynamics of producing, ordering and maintaining security within and beyond the state’s framework. These further developments range from security communities (Adler & Barnett, 1996, 2008) to the various constructions, controversies and (re-)negotiation of security and order in public-private relations (Abrahamsen & Williams, 2009, 2010) and hybrid security governance (Schröder, Chappuis, & Kocak, 2014).

How to cite this entry:

Ketzmerick-Calandrino 2024: “Security. Speaking with Fanon?”. Virtual Encyclopaedia – Rewriting Peace and Conflict. 08.10.2024. https://rewritingpeaceandconflict.net/security-speaking-with-fanon/.