Colonial Injustices: Insights into Cape Town's Forgotten Women

Colonial Injustices: Insights into Cape Town's Forgotten Women

An international research team led by Dr. Dries Lyna from Radboud University Nijmegen, Dr. Eva Marie Lehner from the University of Bonn and Dr. Wouter Ryckbosch from the University of Ghent examines social affiliations and trust in Cape Town during the 17th and 18th centuries. This time-limited study aims to shed light on the realities of life of the urban underclass and to analyze their strategic positioning in informal networks and formal institutions. Loud uni-bonn.de Cape Town has particular historical significance as a port city in the Indian Ocean that hosted a diverse population with members of various groups, including soldiers, sailors and enslaved people.

A central element of the research work is the digitization of historical sources in order to analyze, among other things, loans, witness statements and godparents. A sub-project entitled “In God We Trust?” focuses specifically on the support networks of single women who lived in a special legal and social situation. In this context, it is important to note that enslaved women in colonial Cape Town did not have the opportunity to marry officially, which made their lives particularly complicated. The aim of the project is to make the social networks of these women visible and to examine their positioning within different communities as well as their strategies towards social dynamics and power structures.

Expanding the discourse in social work

Current debates on German colonial history and their impact on the present are also reflected in the traveling exhibition “De-Colonize it!” illuminated, which was designed by a team of students from RheinMain University of Applied Sciences. This exhibition critically examines topics such as “White Saviourism” and “Voluntourism”. The aim is to show how colonial power relations continue to be reproduced in today's society. Loud hs-rm.de The exhibition is made accessible primarily to schools, universities, teachers and social work professionals as well as other interested parties.

The student project, which is created as part of the teaching research project “Social Work as a Colonial Knowledge Archive”, is led by Prof. Dr. Wiebke Dierkes and aims to promote reflexive and racism-critical approaches to socio-political issues. It is supported by a group of committed students who plan and implement the exhibition. A report about the project was published in the Wiesbadener Kurier.

Contextualizing postcolonial research

In addition to research on the colonial past, special attention is also paid to postcolonial practices beyond classic Anglophone media. Projects such as “Minor Cosmopolitanisms” examine literature, media and everyday practices in collaboration with several international partner institutions. These topics are dealt with by the Humboldt University in Berlin, as shown on hu-berlin.de reported.

Projects that address issues of diversity, power and justice expand the justice debate to include alternative traditions from the global south and engage with the discourse on Ubuntu in South Africa. Such research broadens the view of the postcolonial discussion and offers valuable insights into the impact of colonialism and its legacy on today's social practices and theories.