Preliminary Programme

Wed 12 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 13 April
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    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Fri 14 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Sat 15 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00

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Saturday 15 April 2023 11.00 - 13.00
J-14 WOR07 Contributions to the History of Decolonization
B44 (Z)
Network: Global History Chair: Holger Weiss
Organizers: - Discussants: -
Norbert Götz : Civil Society without Boundaries: Nordic Humanitarianism facing the Biafra Crisis
This paper sheds new light on the Biafra Crisis (1967–70), a turning point in twentieth century history that transformed civil societies in the Global North, especially in the humanitarian sector. It seeks to understand how this emergency called forth public engagement and a new humanitarian system in the Nordic countries ... (Show more)
This paper sheds new light on the Biafra Crisis (1967–70), a turning point in twentieth century history that transformed civil societies in the Global North, especially in the humanitarian sector. It seeks to understand how this emergency called forth public engagement and a new humanitarian system in the Nordic countries based on an expanding globally oriented civil society, closely entangled with the media, and in arm’s-length interaction with the state. The paper pays special attention to different types of interaction, interrelated discourses, and varieties of meaning-making ethics across societal sectors and borders. It draws on postcolonial, intersectional, and altruism theories while applying historical methods to analyse largely unexplored archival sources (church aid organisations, Red Cross, foreign ministries) and media (press, TV) on Biafran distress and relief efforts in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Although the Biafra Crisis has been a trending topic in international research, this is one of the first explorations of the high-profile Nordic participation in this relief effort. This is all the more significant as the Biafra Crisis is a formative moment in the history of the Nordic aid sector, raising fundamental ethical issues that continue to be relevant to global civil society today. (Show less)

John Hennessey, Michelle Gordon : Popular Imperialism and Genocide Studies: Multidisciplinary Methods for Understanding the Political Underpinnings of Colonial Violence
The study of popular imperialism, or the extent to which the ordinary citizens of an imperial metropole (‘metropolitans’) were aware of and supported their country’s imperial expansion, provides a crucial empirical basis for evaluating the causes of and responsibility for colonial aggression: how did ordinary citizens perceive the violence that ... (Show more)
The study of popular imperialism, or the extent to which the ordinary citizens of an imperial metropole (‘metropolitans’) were aware of and supported their country’s imperial expansion, provides a crucial empirical basis for evaluating the causes of and responsibility for colonial aggression: how did ordinary citizens perceive the violence that underpinned the colonial enterprise, violence undertaken in their name? This topic has received considerably less attention than subjects like fascism, genocide or nationalism, despite its contemporary importance as imperial apologists increasingly seek to rehabilitate heroic histories of empire in former aggressor nations. Involving collaboration between a historian of empire (John Hennessey) and a genocide studies scholar (Michelle Gordon), this paper will show how insights and methods from both disciplines stand to further our knowledge of the political underpinnings of colonial violence.
Historians have clearly demonstrated the relationship between colonialism and genocide and there are of course many examples of colonial genocides, from the British on Tasmania to the Germans in Namibia. Even in cases where colonial violence did not reach a comparable scale, however, genocide studies offers valuable tools for investigating the role of the metropolitan citizenry of the aggressor nation in encouraging or at least failing to stop colonial injustices. In particular, Holocaust studies has investigated the role of ‘ordinary’ Germans in systematic mass violence from numerous perspectives. Comparable studies of metropolitan participation in colonialism promise to make a valuable contribution to existing studies of imperial violence and exploitation in the colonies. As a critical and multidisciplinary field drawing broadly from the humanities and social sciences, genocide studies employs theories and methods which are seldom used by historians but are highly relevant to popular imperialism studies, such as psychology. Genocide studies must take mass murder from a large variety of geographical and social contexts into account and seeks to understand the workings of the processes of mass violence; the field is therefore inherently comparative. The comparative tools used to tackle these problems and the models of collaboration between scholars of different geographical areas are well suited to the study of colonial injustices and atrocities perpetrated unevenly across diverse colonial territories within individual empires and in different empires.
This research aims to bring together such approaches from imperial history and studies of mass violence, which have previously had little engagement, to answer important questions: Was mass violence in colonial settings facilitated by the geographical distance between colony and metropole, making it easy to ignore or obscure in metropolitan news channels? Or did metropolitan adherence to the basic tenets of imperialist ideology, especially the ‘scientific’ racism of the time (including concepts like ‘extinction theory’, the ‘civilising mission’ and the ‘civilised’ versus ‘barbaric’ dichotomy) make colonial violence against racialized ‘others’ acceptable or relatively non-controversial? How was the violence of colonial warfare and everyday violence presented to European audiences and what reactions did this elicit? Combining perspectives from history and genocide studies will lead to new insights about causality and responsibility regarding colonial mass violence. (Show less)

Silvia Pizzirani, Pasquale Menditto : Rise and Fall of a Myth. The Change in Perception of the Vietnam War in Italian Popular Culture (1973-1979)
Guido Crainz wrote that the crisis of vietnamese "boat people" (1978-1979) disrupted the uplifting narrative surrounding the Vietnam War, which was popular especially among the left wing movements. The aim of this paper is to analyse the shift in the narratives concerning the Vietnam War in Italian popular culture between ... (Show more)
Guido Crainz wrote that the crisis of vietnamese "boat people" (1978-1979) disrupted the uplifting narrative surrounding the Vietnam War, which was popular especially among the left wing movements. The aim of this paper is to analyse the shift in the narratives concerning the Vietnam War in Italian popular culture between the last years of the conflict (1973) and the boat people crisis (1979). In particular the paper will problematize the construction of different imaginaries produced by various media (namely: magazines, newspaper and movies), highlighting the political intents behind them. The aim is to show how these conflicting narratives shaped and re-shaped the reception and understanding of a specific historical event in the Italian context. (Show less)

Bill Sharman : A German Village for Biafran Children in Gabon: a Microhistory of Global Humanitarianism, 1968-1975
During the Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967-70, the German Protestant and Catholic Churches were among Biafra’s most important humanitarian allies, especially after a Nigerian blockade cut Biafra off from the outside world and caused a devastating famine. While the history of international aid to Biafra is well established in scholarship on ... (Show more)
During the Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967-70, the German Protestant and Catholic Churches were among Biafra’s most important humanitarian allies, especially after a Nigerian blockade cut Biafra off from the outside world and caused a devastating famine. While the history of international aid to Biafra is well established in scholarship on the war, this paper examines a less-familiar aspect of the relief effort: the evacuation of malnourished and diseased Biafran children to Gabon for emergency medical treatment. My paper draws on archival sources from the German churches and the UN High Commission for Refugees in Geneva, as well as archived reports and publications by Biafran doctors and Gabonese political leaders involved in administering the children’s village. These sources reveal that the German churches sponsored the evacuation of some 3,000 Biafran children to a specially constructed medical village outside of Libreville. The evacuations were unprecedented: no such effort had ever been carried out within Africa before. The village itself was also exceptional: the German churches invested in state-of-the-art medical treatment facilities for Biafran children, but Gabonese were turned away — despite the fact that several hundred Gabonese laborers were indispensable to the everyday operation of the village.

This paper analyzes the significance of this German village for Biafran children in Gabon. It refers to scholarly debates about sovereignty, health, refugees, and humanitarian aid in decolonizing Africa, as well as to new research on Germany's relation to independent Africa in the 1960s and 1970s.

By combining methods in global history and micro-history, I make two broader arguments. First, all of the actors involved in this humanitarian effort had ulterior motives above and beyond saving the lives of children. Biafran authorities used the evacuations as a propaganda tool in their quest for international support; the Gabonese state welcomed children to Libreville because doing so promised foreign aid and capital for social and economic development; and the German churches sought to demonstrate their moral legitimacy and political relevance by rescuing children from a war that was widely considered a genocide. Second, the individuals who worked in the village — Biafran health professionals and teachers, German doctors, and Gabonese laborers — attempted to treat, care for, and educate these children in the name of a universal humanity. Their efforts did not always succeed, and the village became a social world unto itself that was defined by power inequalities and hierarchies. Yet there were some notable examples of solidarity: for example, European and African staff protested against low wages paid to the Biafran and Gabonese employees, and their efforts succeeded. But when the Nigeria-Biafra war ended in 1970, the children were repatriated to Nigeria. Gabonese President Omar Bongo tried to keep the German churches in Gabon and to turn the village into a major medical center. But the German churches had only come to Gabon to save Biafran children. By 1975, they abandoned the project and left. (Show less)

Donatella Strangio, Francesca Fauri : Migration between Italy and Africa (and Vice Versa) in the Long Run (1861-1970)
The migratory phenomenon can only be told by intertwining stories and numbers of those leaving and stories and numbers of those arriving. Free and forced emigration, regular and irregular immigration, double absences and double presences (also through benefits to the host economy and remittances to the abandoned economy). Why Africa ... (Show more)
The migratory phenomenon can only be told by intertwining stories and numbers of those leaving and stories and numbers of those arriving. Free and forced emigration, regular and irregular immigration, double absences and double presences (also through benefits to the host economy and remittances to the abandoned economy). Why Africa and Italy? Due to its complex and at the same time rich history, the African continent is a precious object of study: colonialism, decolonization, are themes closely linked to the migratory phenomenon from Italy to Africa in a particular historical period since the Italian unification (1861) from the birth of the empire (1936) to decolonization up to the 1970s. It will be important to examine, in the light of documentary sources, reconstruct and examine the intertwining of deep economic and social relations with some regions of this continent (Show less)



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