On 15 and 16 January 2025 the conference AfroDiasporic Circulations: A ‘South-South’ Dialogue across the Atlantic took place. The main purpose was to make visible the existing bridges between West-Africa and South America.
Day 1: Radboud University Nijmegen
We kicked off the day with a guided dialogue between Dr. Joanna Boampong (University of Ghana at Legon) and Prof. Jonathan Echeverri Zuluaga (Universidad de Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia). Pertinent questions touched upon global flows and power hierarchies rooted in a world order based on the legacies of slavery and forced labour, and the solidarity needed to act and speak as a joint force – one that shares a common history of domination. Dr. Joris Schapendonk (Radboud University) reacted to this dialogue with critical questions on the role of a ‘Global North’ (the conference indeed took place in The Netherlands) in a ‘South-South’ dialogue. How can we create pockets of hope? How can we actively practice humble listening in order to truly open up questions of whiteness?
The dialogue was followed by an interactive drumming workshop led by the scholar and artist Dr. Olupemi Oludare (Universiteit van Amsterdam). As the conference took place during the exam period, we were friendly though urgently asked not to make too much sound. Dr. Oludare took on the challenge and improvised a drumming workshop in whispers. Participants were asked to stand around a colourful cloth that was placed on the floor on which he then placed several music instruments. How we utilize space in the university rooms matters. Different settings create different atmospheres that can generate different discussions. As the participants entered the room, Dr. Oludare greeted the audience and explained the importance of being greeted back. (Academic) performances in Nigeria, just like in other West African, cannot take place without the input from its audience. We then turned our attention to the drums. One particular drum, the iconic Yoruba dùndún, also known as the “talking drum”, resonated the tonal nature and declinations of the Yoruba language (high-middle-low), as illustrated hereunder in figure 1.
After this introduction, Dr. Oludare invited the participants to engage by choosing an instrument each – Our Brazilian colleagues were quick to recognize some of the instruments (the Agogo for instance). As we walked and danced around the cloth, talking about Axé, the life energy, in whispers, a bridge between knowledges stemming from Nigeria and Brazil was woven. This beautiful example of cross-Atlantic dialogue had not been programmed beforehand, it just happened. As Dr. Oludare intertwined many of the ideas and concepts of the morning session into his workshop, these were put into practice through gentle clapping and drumming. Together we were weaving knowledge by sharing experiences in an embodied exercise that pushed the limits of what is accepted, or at least usual, inside the walls of the university. While in the first session we came to the agreement that the ‘North’ should take a step back and listen to the ‘South,’ in the second session we were putting words into practice. We critically reflected on what was taking place hoping to draw lessons and messages that could feed our arguments in convincing colleagues of the academic value of this type of exercises.
The last session of the day was a hybrid session in which the students of the Collaborative Online International Learning course (COIL) on Urban Cultures in the AfroDiaspora presented their final projects. After two months of work and Zoom exchanges, the student groups (which brought together students from the University of Lagos, the University of Nigeria/Nsukka, the Universidad de Antioquia and the Lehman College in New York) presented their final projects touching upon the cultural and musical links between Colombia and Nigeria. This session was chaired virtually from Lagos by Prof. Patrick Oloko. The presented themes included Music as Resistance, Champeta rhythms, Afro Music in Daily life, the Oja flute and Music as Cultural Fusion. The jovial mood that characterized our COIL meetings was present during this last session too as we listened with delight to our Nigerian students, among others, presenting on Champeta, a Colombian music style from the Caribbean. Here too a ‘South-South’ dialogue materialized successfully in the virtual space.
Day 2: Day out Amsterdam + Bijlmer
Breaking beyond the university walls, we spent the second day in Amsterdam, and outside the ivory tower of academia. This is no coincidence, but a practice academics can put into action in order to engage with other societal actors. Conversely, it is a way to remind ourselves that knowledge is created within as well as outside of university.
We started with a guided visit to National Maritime Museum, located closely to the Central Station. Here we were welcomed by Dr. Suze Zijlstra, curator of the exhibition “Shadows of the Atlantic” and guided through the exhibition by Marion Goossens, in a very genuine, inquisitive and humble manner.
The purpose of “Shadows of the Atlantic” is to turn the Eurocentric narrative of colonial history upside down and to gaze at it from the perspective of the Subaltern and the colonized. For this purpose, art works are combined with historical accounts: Imagined precolonial maps showing the original names of the Caribbean islands (Boriken for Puerto Rico and Quisqueya for Haïti and Dominican Republic); an altar honouring the ancestors by the Surinamese indigenous artist Manuwi C Tokai, that screams back at the replica of a VOC ship, evoking untold stories of subjugation, and turning the pride of the Dutch Golden Age upside down.
Holding a conference on the AfroDiaspora without engaging with the Dutch AfroDiasporia made little sense, hence we continued the excursion in De Bijlmer, one of peripheral neighbourhoods of Amsterdam. De Bijlmer is not only a central node to the Dutch Afro Surinamese community, but in the last decades has received migrants from Ghana and Nigeria, most notably, who have established their communities there too. Our visit to De Bijlmer started with Surinamese food to practice visceral knowledge and to digest the conversations and exchanges of the morning with nutritious food. The intellect cannot be fed if the body feels hungry.
We concluded the day with a visit to The Black Archives, which is temporarily housed in De Bijlmer. Alicia, our knowledgeable guide, explained its history and the way in which the archives grew out the personal collection of Hermina and Otto Huiswoud (see figure 2). The purpose of the archives is twofold: (1) to collect sources that tell history from a Black perspective and (2) to share this history, one that continues to be absent from standard curricula in The Netherlands, with a wider public.
The take away of these two days? Continue to create room for epistemological practices that weave experiences across ‘South-North’ borders so as to engage with exciting, innovative and insightful conversations beyond the walls of the university.
