The sound and feel of lived history
Memory Biwa imagines decolonised education in contemporary music and voices from the archives
While most of the coverage of the student protests in 2016 focused on their demand for free education and their violence, little attention was paid to their often misunderstood demand for decolonisation of the curriculum. A new initiative is tackling this issue creatively by staging a free history class to imagine the decolonised school. The history curriculum is a good starting point to understand the calls across the world for the decolonisation of learning. Students are taught about wars, with few lessons about simple moments in the past that provide a taste, smell or sound of lived history. There is an emphasis on the European perspective, telling of the Second World War or the white settlers’ version of events in Africa. Memory Biwa is a new kind of historian, appearing at the International Live Art Festival in Cape Town recently alongside award-winning artists and dancers. Accompanied by a Zimbabwean artist and sound equipment that would make any DJ proud, she came from Namibi...
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