Human vs. Thing: Reflections on Theory and Practice
"We are talking theoretically. I am very angry.
Are we going to talk theoretically, while people are dying?" -- Napuli
Paul Langa
It's been a few weeks now since BE.BOP 2016 was held
both in Berlin and here in Copenhagen and it's almost impossible for me to
cover the deep and engaging content that I was privy too. There is one
presentation however, which I feel to be timely, given the recent goings-on not
only in my own life, but in the world at large. The presentation was by Napuli
Paul Langa, the featured activist in the film, Napuli's Tree by
Yoel Diaz Vazquez. The film captures the events of April 2014, when activists
in 14 German cities organized protests, marches and creative actions in
response to the "Refugee crisis."
BE.BOP 2016 Black Europe Body Politics: Call &Response catalogue reads, "In an act of contemporary marronage, refugee
and activist Napuli Langa took action by climbing a sycamore tree on
Oranienplatz. She remained there for five days, without food and defying
the wind and weather in order to challenge the racist German asylum practices.
Napili's protest which calls to mind the maroons' refuge to the mountains,
stimulated a critical revision of numerous violent practices of German asylum
policies, many of which are being re-thought and adapted. This vidoeart project
honors Napuli Langa's spirit and vision by mirroring in the actual sycamore
tree occupied by this Black warrior for 5 days, the struggles of today's
colonially, equal to countless maroon rebellions."
 |
| Napoli Paul Langa speaks at Be.Bop 2016 w/ Gbenakpon E. Christel Gbaguidi looking on photo courtesy of Miguel Gomez |
During the presentation in Berlin, Napuli Paul Langa
declared, “No one talks about Africa in the right way.” Her presence and words
spoke about the particular violence towards Black people and who is
arming/fueling this violence. She spoke
about the criminality that has been embedded in Blackness. “Where do we go?”
She asked. “To another planet?” Was her guess, determined by the refugee narrative
here in Europe thus far.
Now let me remind you, dear reader of the unfortunate
incident that took place on June 1st, 2016 in Berlin. Quartz Africa reports:
Kenyan author and outspoken gay rights
advocate Binyavanga
Wainaina took to Facebook
today (June 1) to detail an attack he says he suffered at the hands of a taxi
driver in Berlin. In his characteristic stream-of-consciousness style, the
author of One Day I will Write About This Place and the famous essay “How to Write About Africa”
says he came to blows with a cabbie before a flight to Tanzania to see his
“inlove.”
So while we gathered at BE.BOP 2016, in
the very city where we congregated, where there were some of the world’s best
minds in areas of decoloniality, arts, performance – a Kenyan writer was
attacked while in Berlin while being on one of the most prestigious literary
awards in the world.
Do Things Talk? New Materialism meets with Decoloniality
The following day there was an all-day workshop
entitled, "New Materialism & Decoloniality: A Conversation" and
included Lisa Tilley, University of Warwick, Anna Agathangelou, York University,
Mark Jackson, University of Bristol and Kai Koddenbrok of Aachen University
among others.
The experience was enriching and I certainly came away
with a lot to think about. It was inspiring to be around academics and to have
some insight (albeit a small one) into the "walls of privilege."
I liked that the arrangers wanted to bring two schools of thought
together- that of New Materiality and Decoloniality, together, in dialogue. I
especially appreciated having to read some of the papers for the workshop. I
was introduced to the work of Syvia Wynter, Lisa Tilley, Jessica Schmidt, Zoe
Todd, Angela Last just to name a few.
"At the time, they viewed the skulls not as human
remains but as material with which to investigate and classify race," the
Charité spokeswoman said. "There was injustice. From today's standards,
this was not right. Period." Dr. Andreas Winkelmann, a lecturer in anatomy
It was interesting to see two schools of thought
engaged in dialogue. Although not
familiar with the term ‘new materialism” from before, it made sense to me that
there would be a discipline, within academia that would set out to look
critically on anthropocentrism, or the idea that
human beings, collectively, are the main character in the narrative of the
world and beyond. However, it was quite suspect – especially since history did
not seem to make the cut in all things to consider when considering a thing.
One of the essays, Jessica Schmidt’s Can
a Thing Speak? Was interesting to me given the context, for I couldn’t help
but think about the thousands of skulls and other artifacts that have been
taken from wherever it is that European empire had found itself. It is true
that there is a culture of things, collecting and ordering things. It is true
that it is a culture that perhaps too often, invests more importance to things
than to people—so I must wonder if
this discipline of New Materialism is not but a symptom of our deification of
the thing as opposed to any sincere endeavor to understand humanity anymore.
What complicates this for me even more, is that when the word “human” is used
in Western culture, what is the picture that is being reproduced and heralded
as ‘human’. I found Sylvia Wynter’s
“Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Truth/Freedom: Twards the Human, after
Man, Its overrepresentation Argument” to be especially refreshing in this
light.
When the word ‘human’ is used in the
West, tell me, who do you see?
Who is this universal ‘human’?
These questions become even more
pressing when we look out on the theatre of reality. For although I am
privileged for that moment, as I sit in this workshop in Duisburg, and am
invited to read in-depth papers about things and theories, while I hear about
concepts such as a “new racialization’ (umh, there is nothing new about Race);
or questions that are centered around the probability that groups like Pegida
are similar to decolonial groups (umh, no) the campaign of slander continues –
not just in the U.S. but around the world, against Black people, indigenous
people, Muslim people, any people that get in the way of this seemingly
unquestioned experiment into ‘modernity’ – and from what I can tell, this
‘modernity’ is very rarely ever taken into a historical context, for it seems
to do so would, for the moment, make some people uncomfortable. There's the current violence in the U.S. - merely a continuation of its historical violence in the name of conquest and subjugation; the continued violence and criminalization of others based on countries of origin that we are faced with here in Europe- migrations often influenced by manufactured poverty, war and the perils of climate that, whatever your reasoning is for it, is happening.
"We are talking theoretically. I am very angry. Are we going to talk theoretically, while people are dying?" -- Napuli Paul Langa
"We are talking theoretically. I am very angry. Are we going to talk theoretically, while people are dying?" -- Napuli Paul Langa
And this is why decoloniality must be
given more space in the intellectual arena, despite the discomfort that it may
cause. This discomfort, on the part of those who have benefitted from the
dehumanization of the majority of the world’s population, must be confronted
and dealt with for it is this discomfort that is getting in the way of any real
dialogue and comfort is the enemy on the road to liberation.
A special thank you to sister Olivia U. Rutazibwa for inviting me for this unforgettable and influential event. I am inspired.
