Reviews – DDRN

Do Humor and War Go Together? What The Global South Can Teach Us

Manar Sadkou — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:39:47 +0000

“Buy one, get one free” usually sounds like a good deal. But in one small theatre in London, the offer comes with a twist: the free item is a burial shroud. The audience laughs, then hesitates, then laughs again.

This uneasy laughter is not accidental. It is exactly the reaction Palestinian writer Ahmed Masoud seeks to provoke, and it reflects a broader phenomenon that researchers are only beginning to take seriously: the role of humor in the Global South.

A gap in humor studies

In 2024, the European Journal of Humor Research dedicated a special issue to this topic, featuring contributions from scholars across Asia, Africa, and South America. The issue highlights a striking gap: despite its cultural significance, humor in the Global South remains largely underrepresented in academic research.

Although the term “Global South” is often understood geographically, the editorial “Humor and Conflict in the Global South” offers a broader definition. Authors Diego Hoefel, João Paulo Capelotti, and Rujuta Date argue that it refers not simply to location, but to communities that are politically, economically, or culturally marginalized due to histories of colonialism and global inequality.

These are precisely the contexts in which humor takes on heightened significance. The contributors to the special issue highlight its many roles: as satire used to challenge authoritarian politics in Zimbabwe, as dark comedy emerging from life under siege in Palestine, and even as a political tool in right-wing meme culture among supporters of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro. Taken together, these examples paint a clear picture: humor in the Global South is not peripheral; it is pervasive, political, and deeply embedded in everyday life.

Humor as cultural resistance in Palestine

One particularly striking example of this comes from the work of Natasha W. Vashisht, who examines how black comedy operates as a form of cultural resistance in Palestinian writer Ahmed Masoud’s play The Shroud Maker.

In her analysis, Vashisht argues that humor in the play does more than just entertain. Through Hajja Souad’s cynical voice, she argues that Masoud “confronts the desensitisation of violence against Palestinians,” reclaims control of the narrative, and invites “the audience to consider the harsh reality of Palestinian life in a more digestible way.”

This balance between humor and tragedy is central to the play. Hajja Souad, an elderly shroud maker living in Gaza, uses black comedy to make sense of a life shaped by loss and conflict. Her jokes are unsettling and often inappropriate, but they are deeply intentional. At one point, she remarks that the war is “good for business,” a line that is both shocking and darkly comic.

The joke lands because of its absurdity, but once the laughter fades, it leaves behind a sense of discomfort. Rather than diminishing the tragedy, Masoud’s use of dark humor draws the audience closer to it. It forces them to sit with the violence and pain faced by Palestinians, rather than turning away from it. Dr. Vashisht contends, “laughing in the face of adversity is invaluable in coping with trauma and making life more livable.”

Writer Ahmed Masoud shares this perspective. For him, humor is rooted in everyday life. “Humor is very, very important in our lives,” he explains. “It’s a way to console yourself… and to bring back your humanity.” Growing up under siege in Gaza, he describes humor as something that persists even in the most difficult circumstances. Rather than diminishing suffering, it allows people to endure it. In this sense, humor becomes both a coping mechanism and a form of resilience, insisting on humanity in situations that often strip it away.

He also notes that this sense of humor is shaped by the region. Being geographically and culturally close to Egypt, where comedy has long been central to film and theatre, meant growing up surrounded by it. Even if the style of humor varies, it becomes part of everyday life and something shared across households and generations. It’s a dynamic I found familiar myself, having grown up in a Moroccan household where Egyptian comedies, especially those of Adel Emam, were often playing in the background.

But for Masoud, humor is not only cultural. It is also deeply personal. In recent years, he has lost many family members, including his brother. Writing, he says, has become a way of processing that grief. And while his poetry leans toward raw emotion, humor remains central to his work in theatre, where it allows him to reach audiences differently. As Vashisht’s work shows, this is precisely what allows Masoud to offer “an alternative way of discussing violence and war beyond the dominant Western narrative that marginalises the Palestinian voice.”

In bringing Souad’s character to life, Masoud does something deliberate. He humanises Palestinians in a way that many narratives often fail to do. Hajja Souad is not simply a symbol of suffering. She is sharp, irreverent, flawed, and funny. “Telling the story… is resisting erasure,” he says, describing his work as a way of pushing back against narratives that reduce Palestinians to either victims or stereotypes. Instead, he presents them as complex individuals, shaped by trauma but not defined solely by it.

Beyond resistance: Humour, power, and the politics of representation

Masoud’s work is just one example of what is often overlooked in broader discussions of humor. As the editorial “Humor and Conflict in the Global South” clarifies, the issue is not a lack of humor but a lack of attention to it. Part of this may lie in the discomfort it creates because much of this humor forces audiences, particularly in the Global North, to confront realities they are often distanced from, whether geographically or politically.

Another part of this imbalance lies in the structures that shape whose voices are heard in the first place. As the editorial notes, humor studies remain heavily dominated by work from and about the Global North, leaving many perspectives from the Global South underrepresented. This reflects longer histories of colonialism and inequality that still shape how knowledge is produced today.

At the same time, humor in the Global South cannot be reduced to a single function. While it often operates as a form of resistance or coping, it can also take on more complex and, at times, troubling forms. As the special issue shows, humor is also present in right-wing meme culture, including among supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, who served as Brazil’s president from 2019 to 2023.

In his paper on political humor in Brazil, Viktor Chagas examines how memes circulated among Bolsonaro supporters function within this landscape. A former army captain and long-time congressman, Bolsonaro rose to power on a populist, anti-establishment platform and has been associated with strong nationalist and conservative positions. Over the course of his political career, he has drawn criticism for a number of public statements about women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and minority communities, as well as for his praise of Brazil’s former military dictatorship. His presidency was marked by significant political polarisation, controversies surrounding his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and international concern over rising deforestation in the Amazon.

Within this context, humor also becomes a powerful political tool. Circulating widely on platforms like WhatsApp and social media, memes supporting Bolsonaro often frame political debates in simplified, emotionally charged ways, turning complex issues into easily shareable jokes that reinforce “us versus them” narratives. In doing so, they do not just reflect political divisions but actively contribute to them.

Together, these examples show that humor in the Global South is not secondary or niche; it is part of everyday life. It can help people cope, challenge power, or, in some cases, reinforce it.

And yet, as this special issue of the European Journal of Humor Research makes clear, it remains underrepresented in the very fields that seek to study it. In this contribution, what the authors hope for is a global shift in perspective, one that takes seriously the voices, histories, and lived experiences that shape humor outside of the Global North.

Masoud’s work also shows what is at stake. Through humor, he tells stories that might otherwise be overlooked, and does so on his own terms. Taking that work seriously, alongside the many other forms of humor emerging across the Global South, can help close the gap between what is studied and what is lived.

Manar Sadkou is a Bachelor student in Globalization, Governance, and Law at Karlshochschule International University, and a DDRN Intern.

List of references

Not All Forests Are Equal: Mitigating Climate Change Through Sustainable Forestry

Asta Raae — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 13:33:04 +0000

Our planet is rapidly growing warmer. Initiatives are surfacing to not just adapt to, but actively combat the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Carbon capture technology is in its infancy, but we already have one method of removing CO2 from the atmosphere – trees.
Apart from the multitude of other benefits they bring to the land around them, trees are great at literally drawing CO2 from the air and into their own biomass and then into the soil, a process known as carbon sequestration.
Danish foresters have begun promoting the idea of using wood to replace energy intensive construction materials, such as concrete. Sustainable forestry would mean to not only increase the global forest cover, but to use wood for its most efficient purpose and thus keep CO2 locked within it for longer. From this perspective, it is all the more tragic that Uganda’s total forest cover has shrunk by 90% from 1990 to 2015 and continues to be in peril.

Deforestation in Uganda – a human issue

Uganda’s forest loss is a tragedy on multiple levels. Like deforestation elsewhere, the main driver is human activity. In Uganda, forests are cut down to be used as an energy source, and to increase available land for subsistence farming. The growing construction sector also demands more wood. A shrinking forest means a shrinking basis for existence for the ever-increasing population in Uganda.
Apart from its human cost, the tropical forest is home to the majority of our landbound animal species. The same is not true of European forests: The wealth of life on land in the tropical regions is unmatched. Preserving the remaining forest is a domestic challenge for Uganda, but climate change mitigation is a global effort. A greater forest cover in Uganda is a boon to us all, non-humans included.
The people of Uganda benefit directly from the forest in many ways, but notably as a cheap energy source. Forests provide a mixture of charcoal and fuelwood. Using wood as fuel is its least sustainable function and should be the last step in a cascade of wood usage in a circular economy. At the top of the cascading stairs is the longest-lasting use of wood, with the final step being conversion to energy.
However, most Ugandans have little choice. Electric power is presently too unstable and too expensive to be a legitimate alternative to charcoal. Charcoal making and subsistence farming are many peoples livelihood. To solve Uganda’s problem with deforestation, several social and economic issues must be addressed first. No matter how many tree planting initiatives are set in motion or supported by various institutions and NGOs, trees are disappearing much faster than they can be regrown.

Outsourcing the problem

The management of forests in Uganda does not fall within the purview of the European Commission (EC). With their new forest strategy, the EC emphasizes a circular economy where wood is sourced sustainably yet wishes to expand protected forest areas within the EU. They also acknowledge in the same document that “forest-related challenges are inherently global”.
If the chosen method to mitigate climate change is to expand forest cover, the EU (and other Global North actors) should ensure that part of their strategy involves supporting the planting and management of forests outside of their borders. It is also important to find ways to ensure that Global North businesses do not continue to contribute to deforestation in other countries and will monitor wood to make sure it is sourced sustainably.
Private companies have been criticized for taking advantage of afforestation programs and carbon forestry to make themselves seem more environmentally friendly, while having a negative impact on the local area. In carbon forestry, it does not matter which tree species are selected. Fast-growing, and frequently exotic, species are preferred over endemic trees for their quicker turnover.
While monocultures of exotic trees may be beneficial to the general logging industry, they do not improve conditions for wildlife in the area. Furthermore, the foreign owned companies responsible for these plantations have been accused of preventing local access to the area – sometimes violently. These plantations thus serve little other purpose than to ease corporate consciences, while the forested areas still accessible to Ugandans continues to shrink.
Carbon forestry projects have also been criticized for criminalizing the access to forest that the local population is used to and depend on for their livelihoods. Industrial plantations must be part of the plan to increase wood use, but in the meantime, we cannot outsource our climate change mitigation to already vulnerable areas under the pretense of wanting to plant trees. If the EU succeeds in becoming carbon neutral at the expense of the Global South, nothing has been won.

Marrying biodiversity concerns with sustainable forestry

If indeed the ultimate goal is to use more wood and wood products to replace materials that cause greater greenhouse gas emissions, we must also face the fact that not all new forest should be protected. In their 2019 book, ‘Klimaskoven’ (‘The Climate Forest’), Madsen, Nielsen, Madsen and Hilbert suggest that the idea that forests planted for industry are inherently biodiversity deserts does not have to be reality. Instead of planting large swaths of a single species and cut everything down at once, plantations should contain multiple species of different growth rates – what they refer to as mosaic forests. They do acknowledge that this is more labor intensive. However, one of the goals in the ‘New EU Forest Strategy for 2030’ is to create a bigger forestry sector. This more labor-intensive approach could be a solution for the EU’s dual wish to increase both their use of wood as well as improve the biodiversity in forests.
Madsen et al. are not against leaving forested areas untouched for the sake of biodiversity – however, it must be done where it makes the most sense. Where the land is suitable for industrial plantations, there should be sustainably managed plantations. Where it is not, the forest should be left untouched, for example on steep inclines or near exposed water sources. That is how they suggest we ultimately create mosaic forests that can benefit both wildlife and people. Though their research is based on Northern European forests, their ideas for forest management may be applicable around the world, depending on the availability of local expertise.
Exactly because the biodiversity of Uganda is so rich and unique, it is important to choose which areas to protect and which to utilize on a global scale, not just in local mosaics. To help save the forests of Uganda, the Global North must dedicate some effort to helping the country solve its energy crisis and help ensure a stable supply of biomass in the transition period from charcoal to other alternatives. Meanwhile, testing the hypothesis of Madsen et al. in a locale not as dependent on its forests as Uganda could provide more insight on how feasible it is to manage both biodiversity concerns and improve the forestry sector for the benefit of the local economy.

Current limitations

That trees work as carbon sinks is nothing new, but there are some disagreements as to how effective wood is at replacing other materials, particularly in construction. There is also debate on whether old or new forest is more efficient at carbon sequestration. There are currently few clear answers, but there is a benefit to using wood and wood products as a replacement for emissions-intensive material, and we know that forests work as carbon sinks, period.
There is significant uncertainty on just how great a benefit, carbon emissions-wise, it is to substitute concrete and other construction materials for wood. There is also a risk of cross-sector leakage – that is, if concrete becomes cheaper in the Global North because we turn to wood instead, it also becomes more available in the Global South, thus negating any benefit to using wood. Keeping these things in mind, it is understandable if disappointing that the EC delegates the responsibility of getting answers to these questions to the construction and forestry industries.
The Ugandan authorities have multiple initiatives to involve locals in the management of their surrounding forests, albeit with mixed success. One of the main problems in that people are not presented with sufficient or timely enough benefits for them to stop logging and charcoal manufacturing. There is some light at the end of the tunnel, however: Multiple independent businesses have had success with manufacturing charcoal from agricultural waste. Wherever it has been possible to overcome conservative social norms to let women have greater influence on forest management, conservation efforts have seen greater success.

Wrap-up

Forests, especially tropical forests, are referred to as the Earth’s lungs for a very good reason. The immense loss of forest cover in Uganda is an immense issue on multiple levels: Both animal and plant biodiversity suffer, the basis for earning a livelihood for local Ugandans shrinks with every tree felled, and for the rest of the planet, less forest means hotter temperatures and more extreme weather.
Initiatives to address forest loss have tended to use the simple solution and simply plant more trees. But Uganda’s forest cannot recover unless some pervasive economic and social issues are addressed in tandem.
The EU’s strategy to plant 3 billion more trees in Europe by 2030 is an admirable goal, and one to be supported. But even while they openly acknowledge that sustainable forestry should be a global goal, the strategy barely addresses this globality. If we are to achieve sustainable forestry around the world, it is vital and necessary to not just acknowledge, but act on the science that says that not all forests are equal.

Asta Raae is a Master student in International Studies, Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University, DDRN University Intern
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Esben Møller Madsen, Anders Tærø Nielsen, Palle Madsen, Per Hilbert

Further reading
Leskinen et al. ”Substitution effects of wood-based products in climate change mitigation.” European Forest Institute (2018).
Grassi et al. “Brief on the role of the forest-based bioeconomy in mitigating climate change through carbon storage and material substitution.” European Commission (2021).
Nalule, Victoria R. ed. “Energy Transitions and the Future of the African Energy Sector: Law, Policy and Governance.” Springer International Publishing (2021). ISBN 978-3-030-56849-8.

A magnificent and captivating exhibition

Irma Skrijelj — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 13:34:11 +0000

April 21st this year the museum by the name Louisiana that is located in Humlebæk, North of Copenhagen, opened a new exhibition by the artist and cinematographer[1] Arthur Jafa. The exhibition continues until October 31^st2021. The title of the exhibition is “MagnumB” and it plays on the words; “magnum” (greatness) and “numb” (lack of emotion). I went to Louisiana to see it. It had been a couple of years since the last time I had visited Louisiana. So, when I took the trip, I was a bit unsure of what awaited me. Of course, I was not totally clueless as I had read about “MagnumB” beforehand and I got somewhat of an impression of what was to come. But what I actually experienced I did not expect despite of the fact that I already had read about the exhibition.

A memorable focus on history

The first thing that caught my eye as I entered the exhibition was information about the exhibition containing explicit pictures. I was aware of the fact that the exhibition might contain strong images. This had been pointed out as I read about the exhibition. Though I could feel myself taken a bit by surprise, as I read the sign and the thought struck me; what was I to expect? One thing I definitely did not expect was to spend as much time on “MagnumB” as I did – 6 hours. But this says a lot about the exhibition. Jafa captivates you through footage and images in a way that makes it so vivid that it is hard to look away. Already from the start Jafa makes a connection to the dark history in America. This is also something that is expressed in the art piece “The White Album”, where subjects such as white supremacy and black Americans struggling, is addressed. Jafa again plays on a reference to The Beatles album with the same title. With words such as; white, race, fear, dominance, system of white supremacy and black vengeance Jafa goes into the dark past. The theme such as slavery is addressed through a focus on the American history. The focus is made through art pieces such as the chains that is randomly placed throughout the exhibition or the art piece referencing the ex-slave Gordon with scars on his back. In between these dark moments, Jafa shows the hopeful moments for the future through joyful and funny joint experiences. As I walked through the exhibition, I noticed that Jafa had a focus on black history in his art works and that there is a connection to slavery. Jafa especially addresses black Americans’ history and Jafa manages to do this in an interesting way through footage and videos. Seeing the different art pieces served for me as a reminder of the slavery and the impacts it has on today. Jafa tries to create a hope for the future as I see it. This is present in the art work entitled “The White Album”. The thought struck me that maybe Jafa is aware of how discouraging it can be – that the bad maybe in the real world is more present than the good. Jafa creates hope through occasional moments that brings hope for the future, moments that show joy between different races, with humanity and fun in the center instead of race and disagreements. Jafa shows us through this footage both the good and the bad. He shows us something else than, or maybe despite of the history, the bad place America has been and partially still is, that we have come a long way. Through that, he wishes to create hope in the audience. At the same time Jafa portrays the problems that still exist in America today. Through glimpses of hope, he also uses this exhibition to show that America has come a long way. Jafa plays with categories and thereby challenges our view of what can be understood as white and what is black. Jafa addresses the unpleasant things through themes such as racism.

“The white album” vs. Love is the Message, The Message is Death”

Whereas “The White Album” focused on white privilege and the “white” perspective, the white people’s perspective on both black Americans and white people on themselves. In “Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death” Jafa more so pays a homage to black Americans through history that have excelled in one way or the other and things that is associated with black culture such as blues music. In the exhibition it is clear that Jafa is inspired by current political issues in America such as police violence towards black Americans. “Love Is The Message, The Message is Death” is one of the most breathtaking and heartbreaking parts of the exhibition. The art piece contained footage and pictures that leaves you with nothing else but a mixture of emotions from sadness and anger to hope and a little smile on your face. This makes you unavailable of looking away, despite of devastating scenes that also occurred among “Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death”.

Seeing these difficult scenes reminded me of the history and the challenges there has been that effect the current society in America. It is a history with consequences now. The police violence against black Americans that takes place in “Love Is the Message, The Message Is Death” made me conscious of the past and history of the black people in America. I had a sense of Jafa here wanted to reference to the history, as if it was something we cannot overlook. The exhibition showed me that even though the struggle is there, I understood it as a way of having awareness on issues such as systematic racism. One of the aspects that I find most interesting aspects of Jafa’s exhibition is his attention to current issues for our society and his methods of doing this by using footage and videos that contributes to a more impactful experience. The exhibition for me should be seen as a symbol of the relationship between the black Americans and the white supremacy in America in the past and the effect that this past has on the present. The police violence towards black Americans creates a consciousness of the past and history of the black people in America. It gives reference to the history almost as if Jafa wants to point out that we cannot overlook the history. Through his artworks Jafa wants to create awareness on the fact that there are still problems with racism and police violence towards black Americans. Something that we all know but through the footage and pictures Jafa makes this fact memorable.

An exhibition that addresses religion

As I looked at “The Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death” with Kanye West’s song Ultralight Beam playing in the background, I could not help but think that it was chosen with a purpose. The gospel choir from Ultralight Baam, filling the room during alternatively heartbreaking and heartwarming scenes taking place, I realized what the purpose was with Jafa’s choice of Ultralight Beam as I sat through the next piece of art. Which brings me to the next theme that is present in Jafa’s exhibition; religion. The next art piece was a 1 hour and 45 minutes footage showing videos from different Christian channels and a gospel choir. As I sat down through the 1 hour and 45 minutes, I realized that this footage testifies to the fact that religion and choir has played an important role for the black Americans in America, from the times when they were in the cotton fields singing together during slavery. And the relevance of Ultralight Beam laid in the fact that there is a big piece of Ultralight Beam where there is a choir, a gospel choir some would say, which is connected to black Americans that are Christians in America. So, at first glance I got tempted to believe that the footage is about religion but as I watched all of the footages in this art piece, I realized that religion was not the main point with this art piece. It was about more than that. Something else. And then I realized it was about community. This is where they find a sense of belonging, find joy on the good day and comfort on the dark days. So even though Jafa’s exhibition might seem fragmented, through more in depth occupation with the art pieces, I realized that it is not since there is themes that Jafa returns to and ties it all together.

The relevance of religion and videotapes

A big part of his exhibition “MagnumB” has a focus on videos and images, but it is not until the end of the exhibition that I understood why. In the last part of “MagnumB” there were shown interviews with Jafa. These interviews made me realize that Jafa uses these incidents, the devastating realities and transforms it into art, he uses it for something that makes you wonder. Considering that Jafa has a background in film cinemagraphy where he has produced music videos for artists it is no wonder that Jafa uses footage and pictures as the center of his art. These interviews also made me realize why religion has played a part in “MagnumB” – in the interviews he addresses religion and churches and his own background is marked by churches considering that his grandmother was a member of a Baptist church and served as a verger there.

Overall, this is one of the most exciting exhibitions at Louisiana right now, if not the most exciting one at the moment. The recommendation from here is definitely that you should go. Yes, it is worth it. It is more than worth it.

“MagnumB” is available at Louisiana until October 31^st 2021

[1] https://mcachicago.org/About/Who-We-Are/Artists/Arthur-Jafa

Irma Skrijelj is Master of Cross-Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen, DDRN Editor

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Photo: Robert Hammacher

Arthur Jafa Photo: Robert Hammacher

Arthur Jafa on:

Barasch Carmel Family Collection

Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death

Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, N.Y. and Brussels

REVIEW: Veronica Velasco’s Nuuk at the Copenhagen Asian Film Festival (CAFF)

Nicklas Kirchert — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 19:42:37 +0000

At DDRN we disseminate Global South researchers’ scientific contribution towards UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). So why this film review all of a sudden? Well, as the SDG’s is an agreement between members of The United Nations to work towards the 17 goals, the pathway towards these goals is obviously one of progress. In realizing sustainable solutions, scientific research and technology plays a vital role in putting these solutions to work. While technology works towards providing the solution, art has always enlightened and investigated the problems. One can say that art is a special type of research.

In terms of making progress towards the SDGs, attention to global social issues is essential, and while the solution to these social issues are of a political nature, reflecting our lived experience is no lesser political gesture. Art has always awakened the collective perception of social issues and made special impetus to political sentiments. It is fair to believe that art will play its usual enlightening and critical role in the quest for social progress and justice, which all SDGs adhere to.

By that token, I will tell you about a new Danish Asian film festival in Copenhagen that promotes Asian cinema and give you my thoughts on the film Nuuk by the Filipino director Veronica Velasco.

Copenhagen Asian Film Festival

Copenhagen Asian Film Festival (CAFF) is the first Scandinavian pan-Asian film festival. Running for one week (February 10^th-16^th, 2020) with screenings at multiple Copenhagen theaters, the non-profit festival presented 28 pictures from 7 different Asian countries (South Korea: 10, China: 8, Japan: 5, Philippines: 2, Vietnam: 1, Malaysia: 1, Thailand: 1). CAFF’s program payed special tribute to South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho and the festival obviously benefitted from the director’s significant acclaim at the year’s Academy Awards, where Joon-Ho received 4 statuettes for his film Parasite (2019) (best picture, best director, best original screenplay, best international feature film).

Besides CAFF’s Bong Joon-Ho retrospective, CAFF displayed several themes on distinguished Asian film genres (Japanese Pinku, Manga, Female Revenge Films) and payed special homage to Chinese actor and martial arts legend, Gordon Liu, and the historical Hong Kong production company Shaw Brothers, famous for its Kung Fu movies. On the festival’s homepage, CAFF explains its cultural vision “to contribute to the diversifications of the representation of Asian Movies in Denmark [and] to bring wide audience (and critical) attention to both New & Classic Asian cinema”.

Nuuk

Among CAFF’s two Filipino movies was Veronica Velasco’s Nuuk (2019). Velasco’s movie has been described elsewhere as “The Filipino Take on a Nordic Noir Film”. To what extend this claim plays a role in choosing Nuuk for CAFF’s “Closing Gala Film” has not been expounded. However, a picture on Filipino immigrant diaspora in the Danish postcolonial region, is definitely a well-chosen theme to give special attention to. In addition to the obvious Danish related theme, there are a few more links between this Pinoy picture and Denmark. Nuuk is co-produced by The Embassy of Denmark in the Philippines, and the first screening took place as the opening film for the annual 5^th Danish Film Festival in Manilla, October 2019. CAFF’s Sunday-night-screening of Nuuk was the first to take place outside the Philippines.

Filipino diaspora in Greenland

Nuuk is the first Filipino film shot in Greenland. Nevertheless, it is not the first time Velasco explores the cinematic and dramatic potential of the North Atlantic scenery. Velasco’s Through Night and Day (2018) takes place in Iceland. While Through Night and Day is a romantic comedy, Nuuk has been described by the director herself as an attempt to “make an intelligent film” (Eugenio 2019). Whether the intelligent achievement necessitates a departure from the ‘romcom format’ is outside my scope, however, Nuuk is not a romantic comedy. Love, romance and drama motivates the storyline, but Nuuk does not want you to laugh. Instead, Nuuk wants its viewer to experience depression, desolation and alienation. I will be focusing on what Nuuk offers the viewer in respect of cultural insight and knowledge on Filipino immigrant culture in Greenland and how the movie aesthetically reflects these themes. I find the film’s force to be its approach to the meeting of two cultures, that are immensely different, but which both share a violent history.

The story unfolds as we meet the recently widowed Elaisa Svendsen, played by the Filipino-American actress and former model and beauty queen Alice Dixson. Suffering from depression over her deceased husband, she lives a desolated life with heavy consumption of both Prozac and vodka. One day, while Elaisa’s trip to the local pharmacy, she meets Mark Alvarez (Aga Muhlach), a fellow Pinoy sailor. Elaisa and Mark engage in a friendship that later evolves into romance (Casting Dixson and Muhlach as co-protagonist can be seen as a pop-cultural reference/reunion, the two of them having co-stared in the 1992 Pinoy melodrama Sinungaling Mong Puso).

Elaisa has difficulties with her son Karl (played by the Greenlandic filmmaker and actor Ujarneq Fleischer). Karl is a young man wild at heart. He drinks heavily and engages in non-committing relationships with various young women. Karl is particularly marked by what has been called Greenland’s ‘suicide culture’, as his late girlfriend killed herself. This worries Elaisa, who finds the Greenlandic youth culture to be excessively oriented towards casual sex and alcohol. She evaluates Karl’s life as a young Greenlander compared to her youth in the Philippines which gives her regrets and melancholia about her life in Greenland. Elaisa is worried that Karl will die from one of his drunken nights out. Specifically, that an eventual intoxicated blackout in the Arctic sub-zero will freeze him to death.

Both Elaisa and Mark are appalled by the high suicide rate among Greenland’s youth. While they both experience the psychological toll of the Arctic winters, they cannot grasp how a welfare state can allow its youth to self-extinguish. Through the love story of Elaisa and Mark, the film unfolds themes of homesickness and cultural disorientation. By these means, the film succeeds to some extend in reflecting the abstruse feelings of migrant cultures in the Arctic countries. It is a shame though that the film does not develop more on these themes. Nuuk is foremost concerned with its dramatic story which regretfully may seem as a contrived way to adapt the cultural and political themes into mainstream entertainment. Consequently, Velasco is running a big risk of letting the slightly unconvincing drama overshadow the more original aspects of her movie.

The cross and Hans Egede

As Filipino migration has seen a remarkable rise among people who seek professional opportunities in Greenland’s restaurant and hotel businesses, a new intercultural experience arises in the arctic society. Filipinos are in fact the biggest minority in Greenland. Statistics of 2018 showed that in 2017 out 970 immigrates living in Greenland, 215 were Filipinos (Statistics Greenland 2018).

Nuuk’s original contribution is how it reflects the complex migrant experiences thought juxtaposed aesthetics. Counterpoints of life in the North Atlantic unfolds when we see Elaisa and Mark walk a Nuuk cemetery in the vast tundra landscape. Endless rows of cemetery crosses that face the grey-blue ocean, mountain and sky, exhibit a sublimity that escapes any fixed impression. Beauty, sorrow, violence, coldness, tenderness and tropical memories coexist in this scene. One could well imagine how the grey and cold scenery might reflect the sometimes-alienating experience of the Filipino immigrant.

Beauty and mythic appeal emit when director Velasco make use of Inuit folklore, tales and chants. These elements work very well in complementing the dramatic storyline. By creating this aesthetic tension of Greenland’s indigenous culture and its stunningly beautiful while rough and merciless tundra, Velasco has proved an original refection of a new Filipino reality in the Arctic.

Overlooking the city of Nuuk stands a big statue of the Dano-Norwegian priest and missionary Hans Egede. The statue is a famous monument in the city and commemorates Egede’s colonial contribution in Christianizing the Innuits and founding the city of Nuuk. As the ‘founder’ of Nuuk, Egede symbolizes the transition from a pre-Christian and self-sustainable region to a modern, Euro-Lutheran and commercial city.

Statistic indicators show that the suicide rate surged in the 1960’s approximately 10 years after the modernizing Greenland Commission was established (Nørgaard 2019). The French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858-1917) wrote in his book Le Suicide from 1897 on four different kinds of suicides. One type is what Durkheim terms the ‘Anomic Suicide’. Anomic means ‘without norm’. Durkheim coins the term to changing societies when dramatic economic and social upheaval takes place, for example, in the modernization and industrialization of a society. Such social and economic changes cause social confusion as the members of society are forced to leave their traditional metaphysics, morals and ethics. Colonization and modernization have not only exploited Greenland for its natural resources, it has concurrently imposed Western morals and ethics on the indigenous people. While modernization have brought economic wealth and medical health to some, this imposition has made an unequivocal contribution to social, cultural and societal disorientation for people in contemporary Greenland. Having no clear indications of purpose in the society one lives in, fails in keeping communal solidary. This is but one sociological aspect that motivates the anomic suicide in the modern world, according to Durkheim.

Even though Velasco’s movie is drama based and generally omits moral engagement, the colonial tokens cannot but give connotations to the historical consequences that are now leading these Filipino workers to the Arctic region. Nuuk draws attention to young people’s suicide in Greenland and the violent past and presence of the Philippines. In doing so, it juxtaposes the postcolonial experience of both island nations (The Philippines was a Spanish colony from 1565-1898 and an American colony from 1898-1946).

The challenges of all postcolonial countries are complex and manifold, but they all share a common coping with the history of imperialism. In history, imperialism has generally been considered as ‘progress’ through the pleasing narrative of enlightenment, Christianity and economic wealth. Today, it is important to ask the question, if we have left the imperialistic ideology altogether? Even more crucial, is acknowledging that the present unequal economic and social situation, is a real consequence of this ideology and its history. So what political solution is needed for leaving the imperialists world order altogether?

Coming back to art’s role in the SDG. When we evaluate the path of progress towards a more sustainable, just and healthier world, we should re-evaluate our historical notion of progress. We must pay critical awareness to the history of a once sustainable world, that has taken its toll for what was once perceived as progress.

Nicklas Alexander Kirchert is Master of Modern Culture and Cultural Dissemination, UCPH, and DDRN Culture Editor

NUUK CINEMA TRAILER 2019

Director Veronica Velasco

References

Durkheim, Émile [1897] (2005). Suicide. Routledge

Eugenio, Anne Marielle (2019). ”Nuuk Highlights The Pilipino Take on a Nordic Noir Film,” Inside Manilla. October 8^th 2019. Accessed March 16^th, 2020.

Nørgaard, Cathrine Marie (2019). “For unge i Grønland er selvmod blevet en kultur,” Kristeligt Dagblad. November 24^th, 2018, updated March 24^th, 2019. Accessed March 16^th, 2020.

Statistics Greenland (2018). “2018 Population”. (immigration)

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Uganda’s Unique Refugee-Hosting Model: Between Reciprocal Innovation and Challenges

Lasse Juhl Morthorst — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 11:50:44 +0000

While mixed migration to the industrialised world captures most media and political attention, the reality is that approximately 85 percent of the worlds refugees and asylum seekers are hosted in so-called developing countries.

Uganda is, as a low-income nation at the size of the UK, hosting more than any other African country. Uganda, further has the world’s third largest refugee population, after Turkey and Pakistan, with more than 1.3 million refugees by September 2019, of which more than one million has arrived since 2017.

Under continuous disruptive regional circumstances, Uganda’s open and generous refugee-hosting policies represent a tendency, which contrary to contemporary externalising, security, and deterrence approaches to migration, has drawn vast inspirational global attention from the UNHCR, the European Union, and other major governing entities.

Already by 2016, academia and the international society, appointed Uganda as a pioneer nation, regarding efficient and humane migration management and governance – an approach that could possibly circumvent insufficient and inhumane refugee responses globally.

Professor in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from Oxford University, Alexander Betts, wrote that: “Uganda has become a go-to example of the success of refugees’ right to work and for the viability of market-based approaches. It shows that another approach – beyond dehumanising encampment or urban destitution – is possible” (The Conversation 2017).

A tumultuous and conflicted neighbourhood, with the civil war in South Sudan and ethnic conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), are the most significant determinants of the present refugee situation in Uganda.

It is further the result of a set of policies, which have been praised by for instance the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Fillipo Grandi, since it permits refugees to obtain employment, allow them freedom of movement, and to cultivate a plot of land handed over by the Ugandan state upon arrival. Rights, which are rarely seen granted in any other host country, since refugees are commonly seen as threats to domestic security, internal competition on jobs and resources. Refugees in Uganda are also granted access to primary education and state-provided health care.

The Context

In an interview with Professor in History, Dr. Agatha Alidri from Gulu University in Northern Uganda, in October 2017, she stated:

“Given our historical conflicts, at one time we were also refugees. And given that experience, we know exactly what it means to be a refugee. When a group arise as refugees, you fast reflect on your own life in exile. That makes you develop empathy for them. We have also been hosted as refugees, and our peace in Uganda is volatile. The peace is fragile. Any time, anything can happen. If you mistreat refugees, what will you expect in any case of breakdown in the political stability?”.

Dr. Alidri has spent the past many years researching within migration in the Great Lakes region, and she is here making it clear, how the Ugandan approach towards refugees, is a product of history, mutual regional reciprocity, and an ever-present uncertain socio-political future.

Displacement is not distant in the collective memory for a large part of the Ugandan population. From 1971-1979, under the rule of President Idi Amin, between 300.000 and 600.000 people, were internally displaced. In the beginning of the 2000s, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and its leader Joseph Kony, made devastating wreckage in the Northern part of the country. In 2005, when the conflict was peaking, more than 1.8 million people had been displaced internally.

Uganda has been hosting refugees already since the 1930s, and the country’s first Act on refugees – the Control of Alien Refugees Act (CARA) – was commenced in 1960. During the late 1990s, a new policy initiative, the innovative Self-Reliance-Strategy (SRS), which sees refugees as economic contributors and not just as stateless passive clients, was implemented.

The Refugees Act, passed in 2006, is clearly acknowledging that earlier experiences of domestic displacement, were inspiring Uganda’s generous refugee policies. On the World Refugee Day in June 2018, The Ugandan Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, said that: “Today, it is them, tomorrow, it could be any one of us”.

Self-Reliance Strategy and The Humanitarian-Development Nexus

The UNHCR, has since the 1960s, been developing the SRS, as a durable solution, in order to circumvent protracted refugee situations, and to increase social and economic links with local communities.

The foundation of the strategy, is a strive to establish refugee settlements, based on small-scale agricultural production, which will allow refugees to become self-sufficient over time. The concept is exploring individual refugee’s abilities to provide for themselves, and thereby promote local economic participation, and enhance livelihoods, in order to create sustainable long-term solutions.

Uganda, which for decades has been working on SRS-like initiatives itself, officially launched a new policy between 1998 and 1999, in collaboration with the UNHCR. Initially it was sought implemented as a settlement strategy, with a main focus on Northern Uganda, mainly the West Nile districts; Mojo, Adjumani and Arua, which primarily, and still, host Sudanese refugees.

The aim was to increase and improve self-sufficiency regarding food, and to enhance refugees’ and host communities’ use of social services, along with improvement and support for local governments to generally deliver better to refugees and host communities.

Policymakers and scholars have, since the launch of the policy, been documenting the positive effects of the SRS in Uganda. Despite draughts and environmental vulnerability, UNHCR has claimed that food self-sufficiency has been achieved by the main part of the refugees, and that the policy has been fruitful.

The Ugandan refugee policies have all been described as a global paradigm shift, as emphasised in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to move away from solely humanitarian emergency responses, to long-term development outcomes.

Denmark-Uganda Partnership

Uganda has for more than 30 years been one of Denmark’s key partners in Africa, and further the country, which has received the most financial support from Denmark over the years. The Danish International Development Agency (Danida), is in the 2018-2022 Country Programme for Uganda that, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2040 Vision for Uganda, aims at contributing to poverty reduction through inclusive and sustainable development, promote democracy, good governance and human rights, and to support Uganda’s stabilising role in the region. Denmark has earmarked 945 million DKK of investment, for the four-year period.

“With Uganda being a poor but stable country situated in an increasingly unstable region and being the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, Denmark has a clear interest in a continued Danish-Ugandan partnership”.

The so-called European refugee crisis has, however, drastically changed the political landscape and thereby also the focus of Danish development aid. Danish development aid to Africa decreased by almost 40 percent, in the period from 2013-2018, while the support to Turkey increased throughout 2018 to 248 million DKK. In the same year, Uganda received 236 million DKK.

Challenges

Despite many international positive appraisals of the ideas within the Self-Reliance Strategy, the implementation, structure, and long-term effects, leaves a lot still to be achieved. The immense and continuous refugee influx to Uganda, along with insufficient funding and lack of resources have further made the generous Ugandan ‘open-door’ policies waver.

Since the implementation of the refugee initiatives, the Ugandan GDP has been growing steadily, with an annual rate of around six percent. Uganda is, however still ranking low on the Human Development Index.

The National Household Survey 2016/17 was pointing at challenges with an informal labour sector surpassing the formal sector, high unemployment rates among the youth, and fast evolving and possibly challenging, demographic growth. The Northern parts of the country, which has the highest concentration of refugees, is further severely affected by chronic and isolated poverty.

In 2016, Uganda launched the Settlement Transformative Agenda (STA), to facilitate sustainable livelihoods in host communities and for the refugees. The STA is a part of Uganda’s Second National Development Plan, with a goal of making Uganda a middle-income country by 2040. Refugees are, however, only accounting for three percent of the overall contributing population.

Pragmatic and logistic challenges, such as lack of donor support, inadequate resources, poor sanitation and water conditions, food shortages, ethnic tensions, and bureaucratic restrictions on the rights granted to refugees, are also dominating the contemporary landscape. Although urgent initiatives to mitigate long-term challenges, such as STA and the Refugee and Host Population Framework (ReHoPE), have been sought implemented, the open-door policies are facing serious risks of failing.

To make things worse, a severe case of fraud with funds allocated to refugee initiatives, was discovered in February 2018. Funding from the EU and the United States was hereby jeopardised, and UNHCR replaced some of Uganda’s largest donors, as the sole country representative. While the European Trust Fund for Africa’s (EUTF) funding to Uganda’s refugee initiatives is counting for 44 million euros for the 2016-2020 period, the EU’s primary attention has recently been targeted towards bilateral agreements with Libya, Turkey, and the nations in the Sahel Region.

Inspired by the Ugandan approach, the UNHCR-mediated Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) enshrined in the New York Declaration (2016), was unanimously settled by all UN signatories. The EU is however increasingly fragmenting regarding agreements on migration policies, and open hostility and distrust towards the new Global Compact for Migration and Refugees (2018) – the successor of the CRRF – makes common sustainable migration governance, seem unlikely in any near future. None of the above-mentioned initiatives have, to this date, been practically implemented yet.

Looking Forward

After 32-years of presidency and with a tumultuous internal political situation, the future resignation of the 74 years-old Yoweri Museveni, might be causing political upheavals and turmoil, which makes the refugee situation vastly vulnerable. Uganda has never experienced a peaceful change of power, and with an increasingly frustrated population, a calm future transition is not to be taken for granted.

For Uganda to be able to maintain its generous refugee-hosting model, the country will need to be able to provide sustainable livelihood assistance to the continuous influx of refugees, and to re-shape a better long-term commitment for its donors. In the most recent Refugee Response Report, Uganda is requesting 869 million dollars, which has to cover both refugees and national development in the future – a need, which presently is far from being covered.

Lasse Juhl Morthorst is a DDRN correspondent based in Berlin, Germany

Lasse Juhl Morthorst

Oryema, the Woman of the Wild Plants

William Odinga Balikuddembe — Mon, 22 Apr 2019 19:57:49 +0000

In 2010 Christine Oryema set out to do her PhD. She was, through the process, to find and document the diversity, uses and nutrient composition of indigenous edible fruit trees of northern Uganda, particularly in Gulu and Amuru districts. Although she later narrowed her study site to just six sub counties of Gulu, she found more disturbing questions beneath the answers she sought, leading her to conclude: “I think I have just brought out this area. It has not been studied.”
The PhD, conferred upon her in 2014, enabled her get promoted from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer, then to Acting Deputy Director of the Institute of Research and Graduate Studies (IRGS), and later to Acting Director of the institute, the position she has occupied since May 2018. As we sit in her cool office at Gulu University this hot February afternoon Oryema tell me she is leaving this job soon. “I need to resume my research,” she says.
The thesis of her PhD is titled: Ethno-Botanical Importance and Nutritional Compositions of Edible Wild Fruit Species in Gulu District. You have to hear Oryema speak or see her facial expression and gesticulations to understand how passionate she is about her research area.
“You can come this side,” she invites me to stand beside her and face her laptop screen: “These are some of the most mentioned and most preferred by the community,” she tells me as she points at pictures of fruits from the Shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa), the African fan palm tree (Borassus Aethiopum) and Tamarind (Tamarindus indica).
“I documented 60 tree species from the areas where I conducted the study. There are some striking fruit trees like the Shea tree, the African fan palm tree, so many interests are on them – timber, charcoal – I thought I would study them in detail because if I brought out their uses people would be able to appreciate and think much more of conserving them, rather than destroying them,” Oryema tells me.

Basis of the research
Oryema’s study came after an armed conflict in northern Uganda that stretched over two decades from the early 1980s. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and forced to live live in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps as government forces battled with those of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
Oryema had been born in this area and remembered so well how, when they were young, they used to enjoy fruits of indigenous trees whose careless destruction she was now witnessing. When the chance came to her for a PhD sponsorship, funded by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) through the Enhancement of Research Capacity (ENRECA) programme, she took it with excitement. She jointly would be supervised by professors in Uganda and Denmark through collaboration between Gulu University and the University of Copenhagen.
“What ignited my feeling to do this research was the rate of destruction of indigenous fruit trees especially around the camps. There were places called Juka, which means no-go zone. All your activities had to be enclosed in the camp. But people would sneak into these places, cut whichever trees they could find, and sell the firewood or charcoal in nearby towns. This kind of behaviour built in their mind and spirit that when you cut trees you get money, irrespective of whichever tree they would just cut,” Oryema tells me.
“Secondly I wanted to find out whether there was still knowledge of the various trees and their importance. I had experienced this life. Before the war we would sit at a campfire with elders who would tell us stories and also answer our questions. We ask ‘what type of food is this’ and they tell us. ‘Did the elders have the opportunity to pass on information while in the camp?’ We realised that opportunity was not there, the major reason we attach to the rate of destruction of those trees,” Oryema adds.
A typical IDP camp was, indeed, far from an ideal home to raise a child in. There were hundreds of families from different backgrounds camped in a few square metres and sheltering under temporary structures. Everyone in the camp was almost sure to go to bed hungry if relief food was delayed. Many who grew up in the camps had limited schooling opportunities, were exposed to early childhood sex, and even married when they were young. Survival of family members was dependent almost entirely on relief aid and the surrounding natural resources.
Another thing Oryema wanted to find out with her research was the nutrient composition of the indigenous fruits. She wanted to make a nutritional case for them. People who were eating them had their own claims such as; a certain fruit adds energy to the body, but this required scientific proof. Oryema wanted to document this.

Findings and more questions
Although she was able to document 60 tree species, her main attention was drawn to five – which were the most mentioned as eaten and accessible by the local people. These included the Shea tree, the African fan palm, Tamarind, the African custard-apple (Annona senegalensis) and the Black plum (Vitex doniana).
She takes me through some of her findings: “From the African palm we get the fruit which is yellow. It is eaten. The seeds are gathered together and covered. When the first root (hypocotyl) grows they dig it out, boil and eat it. Even the endosperm, they crack the seed and feed their children on it. I got a diversity of what is got from a particular tree which may not be known by other people,” Oryema tells me.
It is, however, with the Shea nut fruit, that Oryema found the most bothering questions. When the fruit ripens it falls. People collect the fruits and cover them in pits where the pulp rotes. Their target is the seeds, to produce shea butter, popular in many local cuisines.
“Why should the pulp be destroyed in order to get the seed for oil?” Questions started to linger in Oryema’s mind. “But if the pulp was useless why is the child eating it?”
Oreyema found that some people had started to make cake from the shea nut pulp, on a very small scale though. The main target still remained the shea butter. “Do we get a lot more oil from the fermented seed other than the direct extraction? Is there any way we can improve the production of this cake, and commercialise it?” Oryema continues to wonder.
“What puzzles me is why are people interested in fermented seeds to use for oil than getting the technology to remove the pulp first and then use the seeds? I keep thinking about how we can check the quantity and quality of the oil, which should benefit this woman, and even the pulp,” Oryema tells me.

Are wild fruits that important?
Oryema’s study started four years after government had declared the armed conflict over. People had been allowed to leave the official camps and return to their homes. But many still feared for their lives. They instead set up satellite camps. Access to garden fruits was difficult. Even now, rural areas in northern Uganda rank among the poorest – directly reliant on natural resources.
“You don’t have the food, no money. You cannot get pineapple, you can’t get oranges, the only fall back for you to get nutrients is the wild fruits,” Oryema says. “I tested them dry and fresh. I found significant amounts of macro minerals. I tested them for Zinc, Iron and all that. And, however minute the minerals may be, they are important in the body,” Oryema tells me. “Even now there are people who don’t have a single tree of exotic fruit or pineapple but these things are free wherever you move in the bush and they have been eaten now and again.”
Oryema feels her study is relevant to three of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which Uganda subscribes to and has incorporated into its development programmes: Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages; Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, and Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
Beyond the PhD and publishing some papers Oryema feels she needs to communicate further her findings. Currently she is applying the research in her plant taxonomy classes. She has also presented it at a conference in Spain, at Makerere University, and four times at Gulu University’s annual conference.
“People know me as a woman of plants. For my masters I worked on medicinal plants. They call me the indigenous plants woman,” Oryema says. “When I present people like it. Many students are now working on those indigenous plants because they heard me talk about them. I think it used to be a virgin area. I plan to derive policy briefs as well which I can share widely and may be they can bring more attention to these things. In the long term we expect a change and I feel I should be part of it. I feel my work is already inspiring people.”

The Danish study experience
By now we have talked for more than an hour but Oryema is still happy to go on. I ask her about the difference between her study experience in Uganda and Denmark and she sums it up in four words: “Everything there [in Denmark] was good.”
“When you are at home you can’t concentrate. There are many things you can’t ignore. They are calling you for parties, funerals; you have no access to internet so you can’t access certain things, generally everything here is hard,” she narrates.
“In Denmark I had a peaceful environment where I could work. Internet was even in the room where I slept. Sometimes I felt homesick but generally the reading environment was OK, and there you get committed supervisors. I appreciate ENRECA so much for their support,” Oryema adds.
Does she feel any significant change in the study environment at her home university? Not much. “Institutionally finance is a problem. There is a little change but it cannot warrant a full PhD study if you don’t bring in personal resources.”

Read more about Christine Oryema’s PhD study stay in Denmark: “This is work in progress. I feel I just opened the door”

William Odinga Balikuddembe is a science journalist based in Kampala, Uganda

Christine Oryema in her office at Gulu University

Christine Oryema on Linkedin

Children and elderly lady eat shea nut pulp in Otuke, northern Uganda

Elderly lady with shea nuts for oil production i Otuke, northern Uganda

Dr. Oryema stands by the African fan palm tree within Gulu University

Christine Oryema in:

William Odinga Balikuddembe

Constructive Journalism: Positively Correct News

Daniel Stabler — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 10:44:30 +0000

One damp Friday morning, enthusiastic volunteers disperse free copies of ‘Verdens Bedste Nyheder’, to sleepy commuters. With bright eyes, and wide smiles, the volunteers counteract the dour mood of passer-bys on their way to work. There is a sense of affirmed positivity around the work they are committed to. This annual event, in which volunteers across the whole of Denmark distribute a copy of the paper and a chocolate, in early September, is emblematic of the realm of journalism that ‘Verdens Bedste Nyheder’ expresses, constructive journalism.

Concept

Constructive journalism is an emerging domain which involves communication based around reporting solution-focused news, instead of revolving only around negative and conflict-based stories. Constructive journalism aims to give stories more context and make the consumer of the news more intelligent.

Although constructive journalism is a relatively new concept, it is rooted in social responsibility theory. The theory started from Europe and took shape with the Commission on the Freedom of Press that occurred in the US in 1949. The theory is taken to be for the people and society. This requires the press is to make a code of conduct and to develop a standard within journalism, to improve upon the domain. This way, the facts provided by the press are analysed and interpreted so that the people get true information and understandable news. This, supposedly, helps maintain social harmony by revealing social evils like corruption and discouraging other bad conducts (McIntyre & Gyldensted, 2017).

Since the social responsibility theory of the press was established, various forms of journalism have expressed a commitment to society’s well-being. Constructive journalism is one of these, along with other domains such as civic journalism. These approaches require journalists to take a more active, participatory approach.

Within Scandinavia the domain has been evolving since 2007. In December 2007 the editor-in-chief and CEO of Danish Media corporation Berlingske Media, Lisbeth Knudsen, wrote an editorial where she reflected on the natural but also detrimental effects of journalism’s negativity bias, and called for more positive and constructive story ideas. Since, other Scandinavian media and broadcasting organisations have worked with constructive journalism in their news department, such as Danish Broadcaster TV2 News, who have launched a special format they have coined ‘Yes We can Stories’ in their nightly news format.

Proponents

Verdens Bedste Nyheder began in 2010 as an awareness campaign. Backing the initiative was the Danish International Development Cooperation (DANIDA), and the UN. The purpose of the campaign was to inform the Danes in a simple and constructive manner about global progress, the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, and Danish development cooperation. By 2016, Verdens Bedste Nyheder was founded as an independent association of actors from different areas: the UN, the Danish development organizations and the private sector. It is a non-profit organization, and the funds come primarily from Danida, membership contributions, EU funds, and private contributions.

Verdens Bedste Nyheder use constructive journalism to write news stories on global development. They regularly publish news on their website, as well as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Every Friday you can read the articles in the free newspaper MetroXpress. Every week, they also deliver three ultra-short news telegrams that are displayed on the info screens of the Copenhagen commuter trains.

Additionally, every year, a morning in September, this year Friday 7th, Verdens Bedste Nyheder greets the whole of Denmark with a newspaper telling about progress and solutions to the challenges of the planet. Verdens bedste morgen, brings in thousands of volunteers at stations and street corners throughout the country to say good morning to people on the go, with a copy of Verdens Bedste Nyheder.

Positioned within the heart of the constructive journalism movement is also organisations and institutions such as the Constructive Institute, and the constructive journalism project. The Constructive Institute is an independent organisation that helps news organisations apply constructive reporting in their daily work through providing access to a best practices portal, a world class fellowship programme, relevant training curricula, and imitating whilst also initiating independent academic research.

The Constructive Journalism Project’s core services include delivering training programmes, providing consultancy to media organisations, and supporting research and education regarding the impact of journalism.

Factfulness

When meeting with the Director of Verdens Bedste Nyheder, Thomas Ravn Pedersen, he reflected on the origins of the organization, and his own journalistic convictions, implying that constructive journalism and Verdens Bedste Nyheder was not motivated entirely by only reporting positive news. Constructive journalism is more inherently interesting in reporting factually correct news and subverting over-hyped sensationalised negative news.

Hans Rosling, in his book ‘Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things are Better Than You Think’, suggests the majority of human beings are wrong about the state of the world (Rosling, 2018). He states that most people think the world is poorer, less healthy, and more dangerous than it is.

A key proponent of Rosling’s approach is Bill Gates. Gates states that “If you don’t believe the world has improved, you’re more likely to look at tragedy and think nothing can be done.”

Crucial to Rosling’s arguments is the perceived frameworks for how we think about the world. Specifically, Rosling critiques the widely used framework of dividing the world into ‘developing’ and developed’. Rosling describes these as ‘outdated’ and ‘meaningless’. Rosling offers a new framework for how to think about the world. He proposes four income groups, with the largest number of people living on level 2.

The reason this is so important to global development perceptions, is because it is hard to pick up on progress if you divide the world into rich countries and poor countries. When those are the only two options, you’re more likely to think that anyone who doesn’t have a certain quality of life is ‘poor’.

The bulk of the book is devoted to ten instincts that keep us from seeing the world factfully. These range from the fear instinct (we pay more attention to scary things) to the size instinct (standalone numbers often look more impressive than they really are) to the gap instinct (most people fall between two extremes).

Rosling’s book outlines how, with rare exceptions, most of the miracles of humankind are long-term, constructed things. Progress comes bit by bit. We’ve cut the number of people living in extreme poverty by half over the last twenty years, but there was never a morning when “Poverty Rates Drop Incrementally” dominated newspaper headlines (Gates, 2018).

Evidently, applicants of constructive journalism would argue that the domain is not solely focused upon spinning news in a positive slant, but representing the world in a factually accurate framework, with Rosling’s ideas central to this.

Applications

Practitioners of constructive journalism have not agreed on a single definition of constructive journalism. The term has been used to reference different types of news forms. Journalists have also not agreed on how to implement this new approach. Researchers face complexity in conceptualising and operationalising constructive journalism given the inconsistency of the terms and techniques used in the industry.

In an effort to create productive and engaging coverage, while holding true to journalism’s core functions, researchers and users of constructive journalism apply positive psychology techniques. McIntyre and Gyldensted (2017) identify four branches of constructive journalism, reflecting on their psychological techniques: Solutions journalism, prospective journalism, peace journalism, and restorative narrative.

There are also a number of techniques by which constructive journalism can be practiced and the theory-based psychological frameworks that support their use. These techniques can be applied to several stages of the news process, including story generation, information gathering, and production, and some news organizations are already applying them.

Gyldensted (2017) supposes that journalists who wish to work more constructively should aim for more balanced coverage in terms of positive and negative events and information. The positive psychology concept refers to the so-called well-being model of the world. Positive psychology scholars generally refer to the world of well-being as what they seek to uncover, explore and measure. The well-being model of the world contrasts with the disease model of the world, which is made up of negative matters such as negative emotions, bad relationships, conflict, dissent, post-traumatic stress, and victimizing. Contrarily, the well-being model of the world is made up of positive matters such as accomplishment, growth, meaning, good relationships, engagement, positive emotions, post-traumatic growth, and resilience. Accordingly, reporters traditionally focus on items that represent the disease model, and in doing so they misrepresent the world by inducing prejudice through their choice of questions.

Effects

McIntyre’s 2015 study found that evoking positive emotions in news stories can minimize harm by causing individuals to feel positive and intend to engage in pro-social behaviours. Including effective solution information can also cause readers to feel more positive, in general and about the news article. However, as Mcintyre outlines, to make robust claims about the effectiveness of more constructive news stories, more academic work is needed.

McIntyre’s research did, however, find that there was no clear relationship between solutions based information and reader’s behaviour. However, this could have been to do with the story topic. This means that journalists can leave their audiences feeling positive by writing solutions-focused stories, but although these stories might leave readers feeling good, they might not inspire action. Therefore, reporters should think critically about the goals of their stories. If a story is meant to leave readers feeling satisfied so they will have positive attitudes about the story, a solution-based story could be effective. But if a story is meant to leave readers feeling satisfied in order to provoke action, a solution-based story might not be the most effective angle. Nevertheless, more academic attention and research needs to be conducted before robust claims can be made about the impact of solution-focused news stories.

Implications

Taking constructive journalism forward, practitioners of both international development and journalism should come to the understanding of the role of affect in journalistic storytelling. With constructive journalism in mind, media professionals remain committed to journalism’s core functions, whilst leaving their audiences feeling positive because positive emotions cause people to feel energized, open, optimistic and ready to engage. More specifically, research from scholars such as McIntyre (2015) revealed that reporters should include information that causes individuals to feel happy, hopeful, proud joyful, and elevated. Reporters can, and should, do this even (or especially) if the topic of the news story is inherently negative. This means reporters need to generate story angles, ask questions and choose information and quotes that evoke positive emotions.

With the domain of constructive journalism on the rise, specifically within Scandinavia but also at an international level, further academic research into the effects, efficiency of methods, and journalistic implications is entirely necessary. With an increasing appetite from consumers for news which leaves them with a positive outlook on the world, and an increasing amount of volunteers willing to wake up early and distribute this news on a cold, blustery morning, to consumers, constructive journalism does not look like it is slowing down any time soon. We should therefore expect the research and thinking on the domain to develop with it.

Daniel Stabler on Linkedin

Thomas Ravn-Pedersen

Thomas Ravn-Pedersen, Director of VBN

Ulrik Haagerup, Director

Ulrik Haagerup, Director of Constructive Institute

Hans Rosling often points to child mortality rates to present the progress of humankind, as opposed to negative sensationalised news

Literature

Bro P (2018) ‘Constructive Journalism: Proponents, Precedents, and Principles’ Journalism 1-16, Sage Publications

Flueckiger S (2018) ‘Making a case for constructive journalism’ World News Publishing Focus,

Galante L (2017) ‘Constructive Journalism: A New Journalist Culture or Wishful Mindset?’ Jutland Station

Gates B (2018) ‘Why I won’t stop talking about the ‘developing’ world’ Gates notes, April 3 2018

Haagerup U (2017) ‘Constructive News: How to Save the Media and Democracy with Journalism of Tomorrow: Revised Second Edition’ Aarhus University Press

McIntyre K & Gyldensted C (2017) “Constructive Journalism: Applying Positive Psychology Techniques to News Production” The Journal of Media Innovations 4.2, 20-34

McIntyre K (2015) ‘Constructive Journalism: The Effects of Positive Emotions and Solution Information in News Stories’, Dissertation submitted to University of North Carolina

Rosling, H (2018) “Factfulness: How To Really Understand The Modern World” Hodder & Soughton General Division

The Economist (2017) “The world has made great progress in eradicating extreme poverty”, The Economist March 30th print edition”

Climbing the social ladder or making a difference?

Arne Wangel — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 19:23:03 +0000

During several decades, DANIDA funded research capacity building at universities in a few main recipient countries has engaged a significant number of Danish and South academics. Long term relationships have been built; field visits and study stays have crisscrossed continents, and dilemmas are quite clear.

North/South asymmetries in terms of resources and access to scientific communities are obvious. So is the eradication of indigenous knowledge by colonial science, which leaves little alternative to alignment with Western dominated institutions in knowledge production and publication. Difference in agendas is often voiced by Danish scientists as problematic. In Denmark, university management is urging faculty to acquire external funding. The expectation now goes beyond simple gap-filling. At the same time, scientific performance as measured by peer-reviewed publications defines career path/who is on the line in times of staff reduction or restructuring. These pressures make it less attractive to work for research capacity development with South colleagues. Rather, top-notch academics are sought for international cooperation. At some South institutions, e.g. selection of PhD candidates may not be fully merit-based. Opportunistic behavior in research focus adds to the irritation of North researchers. In addition, an overload of commitments with other donor-funded projects may burden South researchers to the extent that it prohibits any meaningful cooperation. Such cooperation may – by the way – already have been compromised by the fact that these projects have overlapping objectives; nonetheless, no coordination is initiated.

Completion and evaluation reports are duly written at the end of a research capacity-building project to check on compliance with the logframe of that project. This research, however, by Lasse Møller-Jensen and Lene Møller Madsen, is based on individual narratives covering a longer time span after being conferred the PhD degree.

The two authors have chosen a quite narrow focus: Nine narrative interviews with former PhD students from University of Ghana, who became part of the Enhancement of Research Capacity (ENRECA) programme 1989-2009. The objective is to assess the academic professional ‘in relation to his or her individual experiences and ability to pursue an academic career while the specific research topics chosen and their societal relevance will be touched upon only indirectly’. The nine PhD students, all male, conducted their studies 1993-2004, and they were affiliated with three ENRECA programmes, all within fields of technical and natural sciences

A general finding is that the respondents all started their PhD project at an older age than in Denmark. This corresponds to the age limit of 40 years set in the subsequent Building Stronger Universities program to make a PhD scholarship meaningful as contributing to research capacity building, considering the earlier retirement age compared to that of Denmark. Also, the different practicalities of daily life having spouse and children, a poor transport infrastructure and the extended family system implying a broader set of obligations beyond studying on the Ghanaian PhD student are important factors. At the university, the relations between the PhD student and the senior colleagues are influenced by three factors, which holds the potential for some form of exploitation: (1) a ‘traditional’ system of obligations towards seniors, (2) a desire to avoid confrontation both in general and specifically within the location of an attractive, potential employer, and (3) a higher level of computer skills compared to the senior staff at that time. The PhD students were given no promise of future employment by the university. Again, this is contrary to the effort by the subsequent Building Stronger Universities program of granting PhD scholarships to candidates already employed by the university, thus increasing the likelihood of research capacity building.

From the narratives of the nine male students, four main approaches of being an academic scholar in Ghana were identified in the analysis:

Being an academic in terms of being a researcher and pursuing goals as a researcher, i.e. writing scientific publications, becoming a professor, and applying for scholarships abroad.

Making things possible: The opportunity of doing a PhD turns up through a relation to a person, and the PhD candidate first worked in one setting, then in another setting with new subjects coming up. His target was moving, changes made along the way, and it was accepted.

Belonging to the academic community: Holding a PhD is seen as a necessity for belonging to the academic group or class, which means an empowerment of the PhD holder in terms of status in his current job.

Being a teacher: A strong dedication to teaching constitutes the primary identification.

The article profiles perceptions of academic identities and career paths in the context of a donor funded effort to enhance research capacity in Ghana. The North/South divide in original research provides a strong argument for research capacity building. Looking back, Africa and also Asia have been a place for North researchers, including aspiring North PhD students, to collect empirical data for analysis and further theory development. In the Danish context, the ENRECA programme is often heralded as a golden era of research capacity development. The study presented in the article opens a discussion, which is much needed to inform current North-South research cooperation. However, a wider scope is called for, e.g. in terms of tracer studies covering all involved PhD students, their career paths, application of knowledge gained, and the long term impact in their respective area of research. Personal fulfillment in climbing the social ladder may be at play, however, outcomes of applying public funded academic research aremore interesting.

DDRN will soon review:

Adriansen, Hanne Kirstine, Lene Møller Madsen, and Stig Jensen. 2016. Higher education and capacity building in Africa: the geography and power of knowledge. New York, NY: Routledge.

Citation:

Lasse Møller-Jensen & Lene Møller Madsen (2015) Becoming and Being an African Scholar: A 15-Year Perspective on Capacity-Building Projects in Ghana, Forum for Development Studies, 42:2, 245-264, DOI:10.1080/08039410.2015.1017601

Literature on research capacity development funded by Denmark

Danmark. Commission on Development-Related Research., Danida. 2001. Partnerships at the Leading Edge : A Danish Vision for Knowledge, Research and Development : Report of the Commission on Development-Related Research. Copenhagen: Danida.

Gaardhøje Hansen, Jens Aa.,, Thulstrup, Erik W.,Danske Unesco-Nationalkommission., Jens Jørgen. 2006. “Capacity Building in Higher Education and Research on a Global Scale : Proceedings of the International Workshop 17-18 May 2005 at the Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen : How Can Manpower Needs in Knowledge Based Economies Be Satisfied in a Balanced Way?” In . [Copenhagen]: Danish National Commission for UNESCO.

Hjortsø, Carsten Nico, and Henrik Meilby. 2013. “Balancing Research and Organizational Capacity Building in Front-End Project Design: Experiences from Danida’s Enreca Programme.” Public Administration and Development 33 (3): 205–20. doi:10.1002/pad.1649.

Sørensen ,Danish Development Research Network., Anne. 2011. Producing Knowledge for Development Together : Lessons from the Danish Development Research Network. [Kbh.]: Danish Development Research Network.

Thulstrup , Erik Waaben. 1992. Improving the Quality of Research in Developing Country Universities. [Washington, D.C.]: Education and Employment Division, Population and Human Resources Dept., the World Bank.

Thulstrup , Thulstrup,Hans D., Erik Waaben. 1996. Research Training for Development : Proceedings of a Conference on Research Training for Countries with Limited Research Capacity. Frederiksberg C., Denmark: Roskilde University Press.

Thulstrup Danmarks Lærerhøjskole., Unesco.,International Network on Chemical Education., Erik W. 1988. Teaching Chemistry at Low Cost : A UNESCO Workshop : Proceedings March 17-20, 1988 Karlslunde Strand, Denmark. Kbh.: Danmarks Lærerhøjskole].

Communicating Africa: Need to know – Nice to know

Arne Wangel — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 15:21:31 +0000

In Spring 2017, Center of African Studies (CAS), University of Copenhagen organised a seminar to discuss how Africa is represented by media and non-governmental organisations.

Among the speakers was Søren Bendixen, Africa Correspondent, Danish Broadcasting Cooperation (DR). He is the first Africa Correspondent with DR and strangely enough he is not based in Africa, but on Amager – the island South of Copenhagen. Søren Bendixen told about the enormous task he is facing covering a whole continent and contributing to all platforms of DR – video clips on dr.dk, sound bites for P4 Radio, P1 Radio News, and reports on DR1 TV News. In delivering only short segments to these platforms, except for DR1 TV News, he is struggling with the question: How much can I simplify without making it untrue? Other speakers raised similar concerns when describing examples of their communication activities on Africa.

Stig Jensen, who is an Associate Professor at CAS and frequently appearing in media on African issues, shared his research findings on the media coverage in Denmark under the heading: Does Danish media prefer news from Africa that confirms a pessimistic perspective and what might be some of the reasons for this?

In summary, Stig Jensen draws a line between the period before 2001 and after, when a new right wing government took over and introduced severe cutbacks in development aid.

In the early days, the perspective of the state was one of expanding Scandinavian model through development aid. Being a small state, it is important for Denmark to participate in international development cooperation. Key words were altruism, equal partnership, and empowerment. NGOs enjoyed the substantial funding available. Donors were more important than the members. New NGOs were mushrooming; they were active in advocacy and quality assurance of policies. Media had a clear idea about what to communicate targeting: How can we influence the attitude. According to Stig Jensen, an epistemic community emerged including researchers and experts linking up with development journalists. There was an openness and a lot of time to explain in discussions with politicians, experts, and with NGOs, all subscribing to a consensus that ‘aid is good, and more aid is better’.

After 2001, everything changed, and apathy set in. The focus became a perspective of white man’s burden, what is good for us, e.g. in terms of national security and job creation. There was a Minister for Freedom and for Rights, however aid should benefit ourselves from the perspective of the state. Now, NGOs had to face an unfriendly state, and competition among NGOs sharpened. ‘Sugar Daddy’ had left, NGOs were now looking into their own survival. Having members was considered most relevant, and the priority on policy debates faded. Stig Jensen quoted one comedian: ‘Information doubles every day, at the same time our wisdom is cut in half every day’. What is being communicated about Africa is what is nice to know; before the focus was on need to know. Afro pessimism is growing. Peaceful government transitions, the work of ECOWAS etc. are not covered in the media. Only cases like the Gambian president clinging on to power hit the headlines. The approach to Africa is segmented, there is little analysis. In the past, the sentiment was one of we can make a change. Now, the media coverage is fragmented with an Africa pessimistic undertone, concluded Stig Jensen.

At a different location in Copenhagen at The Danish Society of Engineers (IDA), its section on Global Development organized debate around the same time, in which veteran journalist Knud Vilby made similar observations. He criticized the NGOs for becoming complacent with regard to the development in Danish aid and aid policies. One reason is the change of the donor support to civil society organisations. Danish NGOs now have to engage in a sort of tender exercise. According to Knud Vilby, a shift of paradigm is taking place, which could imply a farewell to an independent civil society. ‘It is a kind of paradox, because DANIDA claims civil society is important in developing countries. However, in Denmark, it seems that DANIDA does not realize that the civil society organisations have a lot to offer due to their history and diverse competences. There is a significant risk that the independence of civil society is about to disappear’, Knud Vilby said.

Research at CAS revolves around three thematically distinct yet interconnected research platforms:

Sovereignties and Citizenship

Religion, State and Society

Environment and Change

Individually and in combination, these platforms are concerned with the complex realities and core challenges and possibilities of a simultaneously localized and globalised Africa. At the same time, the aim is to generate knowledge and theory that is from the study of Africa but not necessarily always or simply about Africa.

While permanent CAS/Faculty staff will generate research projects and programmes that may include PhD and post-doctoral positions, we equally welcome proposals from independently funded scholars interested in working with CAS on relevant projects.

Research principles

Several principles inform research at CAS:

a strong commitment to combining theoretically and empirically grounded work
a strong commitment to interdisciplinarity and to cross-fertilisation between themes
a strong commitment to knowledge and insights produced within Africa/by Africans
a strong commitment to deepening the links between research and teaching at CAS

Stig Eduard Breitenstein Jensen, Associate Professor

Monuments, enquiry and research

Arne Wangel — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 10:41:44 +0000

The year 2017 marks the centenary of the sale of three West Indian Islands by the Danish Government to the United States of America. A non-binding national referendum in 1916 – the first of its kind in Denmark and the first in which women had the right to vote – had come out in favour. The islanders themselves were not asked. The West Indian Islands were the last of the few overseas territories, which Denmark held during its reign as a colonial power. The US Government paid USD 25 mill. in gold to the Danish government for the now renamed US Virgin Islands.

The first island St. Thomas was colonised in 1672. The Danish West Indian islands became part of the triangular trade; slaves brought from West Africa – primarily Ghana – worked in sugar plantations and sugar mills producing sugar and rum. Danes are aware about this chapter of slave trade in national history. The centennial encouraged media, museums and science to document and reflect upon life and work of the African slaves and their Danish masters. It may have caught some Danes by surprise learning how profits from slave labour are very visible in the cityscape of central Copenhagen. The splendour of the royal palace and that of neighbouring mansions are testimony to the wealth accumulated from the products of slave labour. While guided city walks in Frederiksstaden added a new dimension to the tourist attractions of Wonderful Copenhagen, visiting representatives for present day citizens of the US Virgin islands toured the media asking for an apology from Denmark. Virgin Islanders question the celebration of the transfer from one colonial power to another. They only got US citizenship by the mid-1930s, and even today, their rights are not those of full citizenship.

The authorities in Denmark routinely reject to offer apologies in cases of abuse on the premise that this could establish a legal claim for compensation. The Prime Minister, Mr. Lars Løkke Rasmussen, did travel to the islands in April to attend a Centennial event. In his speech, Mr. Rasmussen announced a new five-year scholarship program with the University of the Virgin Islands for young people to study in Denmark.

When young Virgin Islanders travel to Denmark, they may want to visit Øregaard Museum in Gentofte north of Copenhagen. The building dates from 1806. A wealthy merchant and ship-owner, Johannes Søbøtker, born on St. Croix in 1777, hired the French architect, Joseph-Jacques Ramée, to design a classicistic summer residence with a 27 acres park in extravagant elegance. Johannes Søbøtker was the son of a plantation owner; in fact, he was the fourth generation of plantation owners.

Johannes Søbøtker Painting by Jens Juel

Furthermore, he and his father established a shipping company servicing the trade with the West Indian Islands. Søbøtker had several appointments as governor for St. Jan and St. Thomas. He made a fortune from his activities in the triangular trade prior to the Napolean wars. Later, his business declined, and in 1821, Søbøtker sold Øregaard. For the next one hundred years, wealthy merchants and bankers owned the house as a convenient get-a way from the congested Copenhagen city. In 1921, the Municipality of Gentofte acquired the property and made it into a museum with a public park.

Citizen X – Human, Nature, and Robot Rights

In the spring of 2017, Øregaard Museum presented the exhibition Citizen X – Human, Nature, and Robot Rights with a direct reference to the museum’s historical origin:

‘The exhibition brings the Enlightenment debate over slavery into the present day, where continued discussion of citizen and human rights are increasingly entwined with questions about nature and technology…seven contemporary artists introduce new and diverse voices into the present day marked by globalised modes of dominance, exploitation, inclusion and exclusion’.

The exhibition provokes reflections on Western values about identity, citizenship, rights and ethics, since Aristoteles wrote about the ‘free’ and the ‘slave’. During colonial time, the social hierarchy in colonial time between people, nature and technology was distinct. In present day, these demarcations are being dissolved. The seven artists raise curious and critical questions. The original connotation of the term ‘robot’ is ‘forced labour’ or ‘slave’. Today, as artificial intelligence progresses, one may ask: Who will dominate whom: Man or robot? Do robots have rights?

Spaces, Borders, Bodies. A Postcolonial Inquiry into Danish Politics on Forced Migration

At Aalborg University, a new research project entitled Spaces, Borders, Bodies. A Postcolonial Inquiry into Danish Politics on Forced Migration was launched in early 2017. It run for three years funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research, Humanities, with a grant of DKK 1,946.504. The approach of project is multi-disciplinary and comparative across time and space. The overall objective is to trace activities and understandings on forced migration in Danish colonial rule, focussing on the Danish Gold Coast (Ghana) between 1754-1850 and the Danish West Indies between 1754-1917, and then to compare these with current Danish and EU asylum and border externalization policies.

The research project is based at Global Refugee Studies (GRS), Department of Culture and Global Studies, Aalborg University, headed by Assistant Professor Dr. Martin Lemberg-Pedersen. It is carried out jointly with three partners forming a triangle not unlike the flows of European colonialism in Africa:

Department of History and Political Studies, College of Humanities and Social Sciences Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
Virgin Islands Caribbean Cultural Center, University of the Virgin Islands
Nijmegen Centre for Border Research, Nijmegen School of Management, Radboud University, Netherlands

The project addresses these specific research questions:

Which continuities and ruptures exist between current and colonial Danish politics on forced migration in terms of spatiality, border control, sovereignty and bio politics?
What impact has the colonial encounter had on current Danish governance rationalities concerning spaces, borders and bodies in the context of non-members’ mobility?
Which moral arguments characterize the administrative and political discourses surrounding and resisting, respectively, the colonial and current Danish mobility regimes and their enforcement?

Contributions from critical geography, political philosophy and post colonialism forms the theoretical basis. In terms of methodology, genealogical inquiry, discursive and normative analyses are used to explore to what extent current Danish forced migration politics echo and differ in certain geo- and bio political interests and the production of spatialities, and in terms of normative-political justifications of colonial Danish practices. This exploration will involve archival searches in Denmark, Ghana, U.S. Virgin Isles, Netherlands and Washington.

The outcome is expected to add historical and moral depth to Danish and European debates on the rationalities of borders and others.

Extract of the speech by the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mr. Lars Løkke Rasmussen, on 1 April 2017:

‘…On this exact day – a hundred years ago – the Stars and Stripes of America replaced the Danish Dannebrog as the official flag for the Virgin Islands. A hundred years. It is a long time ago. But the preceding years under the Danish flag are not forgotten. Neither in Denmark nor at the Virgin Islands…

But although we share a common past – we have not always shared the same story about that past. When I was a child – the popular Danish story about the West Indies, was a romantic one. Exotic islands. Peaceful coexistence. I even remember the tales of the Danish king, who was the first in the world to ban slave trade. A pioneer of humanity, we were told. A hero. But most of you were told and lived a different story. The true story. A story of how slavery continued after the ban. How too often conditions only improved on paper. And of how many of your ancestors continued to suffer. The true heroes were the men and women who stood up to the injustice…

There is no justification – what so ever – for the exploitation of men, women and children that took place in these islands under Danish flag. There is no justification for slavery. It is unforgiveable. Unforgiveable. It is a dark and disgraceful part of Danish history. So when I search my heart. My mind. There is no doubt: The true heroes of the past are the men and women of the Virgin Islands who defied suppression. They were not given their freedom. They took it back. Led by brave souls. Who risked their own lives to set their fellow countrymen free. Men like General Buddhoe. Who led the rebellion of 1848. Riding on a white horse. Fighting for emancipation. Imprisoned. Deported. But at the end successful – fulfilling his mission. Fierce women like Queen Mary, Queen Agnes and Queen Mathilda. Who rebelled against the appalling living conditions, healthcare, education and wages. Imprisoned in Denmark, right next to the Danish parliament!
Patriots like David Hamilton Jackson. A teacher and idealist. Who dedicated his life to improve the conditions for the people of St. Croix. By peaceful but passionate means…’

Exhibition at Øregaard Museum

03/03 2017 – 11/06 2017 Citizen X – Human, Nature, and Robot Rights

Participating artists Ajay Kurian (f. 1984), USA; Albert Eckhout (ca. 1610-1665), NL; C.W. Eckersberg (1783-1853), DK; Christopher Kulendran Thomas (f. 1979), UK; DIS (2010), USA; Jens Juel (1745-1802), DK; Masar Sohail (f. 1982), DK/IQ; Veit Laurent Kurz (f. 1985), D; Pedro Neves Marques (f.1985), PR and Tabita Rezaire, (f. 1989), FR/DK/SA.

The exhibition was curated by Toke Lykkeberg in collaboration with Lotte Nishanthi Winther.

Spaces, Borders, Bodies. A Postcolonial Inquiry into Danish Politics on Forced Migration

Grant size: DKK 1,946.504; Danish Council for Independent Research, Humanities.
Time period: February 1st 2017 – January 31st 2020

Dr. Martin Lemberg-Pedersen, Assistant Professor
GRS – Global Refugee Studies, Department of Culture and Global Studies, Aalborg University

Partners:

Department of History and Political Studies, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Accra, Ghana

Virgin Islands Caribbean Cultural Center, University of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix. U.S. Virgin Islands

Nijmegen Centre for Border Research, Nijmegen School of Management, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands