Goethe-Institut announces Burden of Memory Project Fund recipients

The announcement follows a May call for artists and cultural practitioners from all art disciplines in Burundi, Cameroon, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Togo to apply for the fund.

The fun is aimed at artists and cultural practitioners who are working on the confrontation with Germany's colonial past in their countries through various artistic forms. The winning projects were selected based on innovative approaches, artistic quality, cross-border aspects and proof of feasibility under restricted travel conditions.

The selected applicants are as follows:

• Trixie Munyama (Namibia/Cameroon) – Hidden (music, theatre and performance).
• Koffi Mawoutour (Togo/Cameroon) – Racontons la colonisation pour construire le présent et le future (fairy-tale show).
• Tejeutsa Zobel Raoul (Cameroon/Togo) – Les masques tombent (dance and visual art).
• Steven Mfuko (Tanzania/Burundi) – Everyday Germanness in Two Cities (theatre and performance).
• Kivumbi King (Rwanda/Burundu) – More about Richard Kandt (video, music and performance).
• Do Kokou (Togo) and Philip Kojo Metz (Germany) – Graines de Réconciliation (Installation, visual art).

The jury, which comprised Chantal Djedje, Jepokrir Rose Kiptum and Jay Pather, says the selected works present artistic collaborations among the six countries that share a history of German colonialism in Africa.

“As we continue to acknowledge that the current economic, political and cultural scenarios are residue of coloniality that influence lived experiences, how do we resolve, restore or reinvent the consciousness of various peoples and remake the resultant contours on the land?” the jury said. “Beyond highlighting the entanglements, hidden narrations, dramas and tragedies, the artists interpret and render prisms from which the traces, memories, echoes, fragments, and feelings around the historical events and ongoing realities can be articulated.”

The jury say the selected productions explore innovative means to democratise access and engagement with the topic of colonialism as well as providing a common room for both new and young voices to be with established artists from Burundi, Cameroon, Rwanda, Namibia, Tanzania, Togo and the African diaspora communities in Germany, France and Belgium. "This was duly also considered, especially at this time when the spread of the global COVID-19 pandemic has changed many parameters for artistic practice and life itself.”