8 januari 2024Language is not only an important means of communication, but has also been a crucial tool of imperial and colonial conquest throughout history. Colonialism and imperialism posed, and its legacies continue to pose, an existential threat to indigenous languages. In South Africa, language serves as a double-edged sword: acting as a vehicle of social mobility, but also a means to sever people from their natural and cultural environment.
Date 19 January 2024
Time 16:45 -19:00
Location Bushuis/Oost-Indisch Huis
Room Humanities Lab
This event interweaves academic reflection on language and colonialism in South Africa with various artistic expressions, including film excerpts, music and poetry. Artists, academics,
and community organisers will delve into the role of Dutch (and English) colonialism in the erasure of Khoe and San languages. Some of those are no longer spoken, giving way to new languages.
How have oral traditions fared in this environment? What is the role of archives containing narratives in these languages for present day knowledge production? What does reclaiming an ancestral language mean for one’s identity? And how can artistic expressions contribute to marginalised perspectives being heard?
About the contributors
Judith Westerveld grew up in South Africa and the Netherlands. She studied Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, followed by the Master Artistic Research (cum laude) at the University of Amsterdam. Central to her research-based art practice is the socio-political impact of the colonial past on the present, particularly regarding the history of the Netherlands and South Africa. She uses films, audio-visual installations, photo collages, drawings and performance-based work, to make visible and audible perspectives that are erased and silenced. Judith is based in Amsterdam and is represented by gallery Lumen Travo. Her films are distributed by, and part of the collections of LIMA in Amsterdam and ARGOS in Brussels. Judith’s practice is supported by the Mondriaan Fonds, Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst and Amarte Fonds.
Janine Overmeyer, co-founder of the Blaq Pearl Foundation, holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Linguistics from the University of the Western Cape. She began writing poetry and songs at the age of twelve, with her musical genre being a fusion of Afro, soul, hip hop, jazz and R&B. She is proudly vocal about social issues and is actively involved in programmes for youth development. Janine has been a cast member in two award-winning musical theatre productions, Afrikaaps and A Plekkie in die Son. In 2015, she released her first self-published book, Karadaaa!!!, a collection of poetry, stories and songs written in both English and Afrikaans. In 2016, she completed writing the musical production Krotoa Van Vandag. Her latest production is a one-woman show titled Storie van My Lewe.
Margriet van der Waal holds the endowed chair in South African literature, culture and history at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. She also works as Associate Professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, where she is director of studies of the European Studies Erasmus Mundus Master programme Euroculture. In her work she investigates how culture influences political processes in postcolonial contexts, and specifically how European and South African cultural (colonial and post-colonial) imaginaries form part of the public sphere. Her main concern is how these cultural expressions can be understood as part of the politics of recognition of rights and negotiation of social subject positions. In her research she brings together multiple disciplines and approaches and explicitly seeks collaboration with the cultural sector and social and artistic partners.
The event is moderated by Phaedra Haringsma.
