“Doing property. Histoires of the Kanga and Postcolonial Property"

“Doing property. Histoires of the Kanga and Postcolonial Property"

by Professor Ulrike Bergermann

Thu 23 July 2020 12-14, Zoom Meeting

Abstract

First, there was the story of the Zanzibari women, who at the end of the 19th century had taken a special good from the Portuguese traders and appropriated it to their own use: the kanga, a garment derived from cotton handkerchiefs and designed anew. How is this story told, who produces the knowledge of the textile history? The history of slavery is much more at the core of the history of the kanga as has been acknowledged - and slavery itself needs to be taken into account when reflecting the history of our notions of property and ownership.