We are delighted to be a part of the Race, Rights & Sovereignty event held by the Glasgow School of Arts together with the Glasgow School of Arts Students’ Association on 23/11/2021 from 19:00pm- 20:30pm EAT.
The Race, Rights & Sovereignty series is a free programme of public lectures, workshops and other events delivered by The Glasgow School of Art and the Art School: GSA’S Students’ Association.
Our director, Chao Tayiana Maina is privileged to be giving an online lecture on, “Participatory history as Restorative history: Mapping the history of British colonial camps in Kenya.”
This lecture will explore the healing and restorative aspects of participatory work through the experience of the Museum of British Colonialism (MBC) team members in Kenya. For 4 years MBC has been documenting the sites and structures of detention camps set up by the British colonial government during the state of emergency (1952 – 1960).
Today, some physical remains of these camps are present in Kenya. Since independence in 1963, however, little has been done to preserve and understand this era. Children are educated in classrooms that were once detention cells and torture chambers but have no idea about this history. Memory of these detention camps has also been systemically erased through the British colonial government’s program – ‘Operation Legacy’ – which saw the deliberate destruction of archival records to conceal this past.
Documenting and preserving the memory of these centres is not only important in raising historical awareness it is also a reclamation of narrative and a chance to come to terms with open wounds that are at the core of Kenya’s national identity.
For more information visit: www.racerightssovereignty.com
