Vital Elements: Post_colonial Flows and Forensics as an Art of Paying Attention

WiSER invites you to the third lecture of our new PUBLIC POSITIONS SERIES Amade M’charek (Department of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam)

Amade M’charek (Department of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam)

Vital Elements: Post_colonial Flows and Forensics as an Art of Paying Attention

In this address I want to narrate several stories that can help us grasp that magnitude of death and dying in the Mediterranean Sea. An attempt to narrate the crisis away, and to attend to the chronicity of Europe’s ongoing (post)colonial involvement on the African continent. In these stories of encounter on the beaches of Zarzis, a harbor town at the southern coast of Tunisia, my entry points are (traces of) bodies that wash ashore. Following material traces, such as, worn-out sneakers, slippers, clothing and toys, I suggest a broadening of the notion of forensics. From a practice of delivering evidence about a single event, to an art of paying attention, to attend to the convoluted and chronic nature of what we are witnessing. The latter is a move towards materiality and the durability of extractive and colonial relations.

Respondent: Hlonipha Mokoena (WiSER)

4^th May 2022

16.00 - 17:30 (SA time)

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