A biopic of Frantz Fanon and other remarkable new movies are finding success via social media, yet remain invisible at the big film festivalsFrance’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade was historically among the most significant in Europe. Af…
A summer of photography gets under way in the capital, featuring more than 80 contemporary and historical exhibitionsPhotoEspaña, Spain’s premier festival of photography, has opened in Madrid and other locations across the country including Barcelona, …
From locals priced out of homes to visitors shopping at global chains, all of us are cheated in a city hollowed out by tourismProtesters in Barcelona used water pistols to take aim at tourists visiting the Sagrada Familia last month. Residents’ associa…
The European Commission wants to strengthen the link between foreign aid and domestic priorities like energy and migration.
In the weeks before his death, Francis repeated a decade-old plea for a break from both Trumpian greed and the left’s economic rationalism.
Why let penguins have all the fun?
The U.S. president is interested in joining the club of former British colonies, if invited by the king.
As the US rips up its rules-based order and threatens sovereign nations, this is the time to make allies. Reparations might helpImagine this: a continent scarred by centuries of violence and exploitation, now standing united to demand justice. This wee…
Ulla Neergaard, Professor of EU Law, University of Copenhagen
Photo credit: Gordon Leggett, via Wikimedia Commons
*This contribution draws upon Ulla
Neergaard’s forthcoming work, “‘Eurarctic’: Colonialism and EU-Greenland…
Documentary about the Portuguese colonial exhibition of 1934 aims to expose historical prejudice but inadvertently reinforces its racist gaze For a film that grapples with the legacy of colonialism, Marta Pessoa’s documentary begins with a rather provo…
Area known as La Negresse will be renamed after court decides it is demeaning to people of African originA French court has ruled that the seaside city of Biarritz must rename its La Negresse historic district, possibly named after a black woman, after…
Verdict of crimes against humanity for kidnap of mixed-race children could pave way for wider justice, activists sayA historic court ruling that found Belgium guilty of crimes against humanity during its colonial rule of central Africa has been hailed …
Design shows intent to keep control of Faroe Islands and Greenland – which Trump says he would like the US to buyThe Danish king has shocked some historians by changing the royal coat of arms to more prominently feature Greenland and the Faroe Islands …
“It is now time to take the next step for our country,” Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Egede says in hinting at 2025 referendum.
Ras Desta Damtew’s solid gold Imperial Order of the Star of Ethopia failed to sell on auction site this monthThe descendants of a hero of Ethiopia’s resistance against European imperialism are seeking to retrieve a gold medal taken from him by Italian …
Radically transforming the way we live is challenging, experts say, but it’s necessary to address nature destruction as well as social inequity.
Five sets of ancestral remains seized in 19th century handed over by museums in Berlin and Lower SaxonyFive sets of ancestral remains from Australia that have been held in German museum collections since the 19th century have been handed back at a cere…
Court said five women were victims of ‘systematic kidnapping’ by state over forced removal from mothers as small childrenThe Belgian state has been found guilty of crimes against humanity for the forced removal of five mixed-race children from their mo…
President congratulates Kamel Daoud and Gaël Faye for books responding to violence in Algeria and RwandaNovels about wide-scale violence in Algeria and Rwanda have won France’s two most important literary prizes and been hailed as groundbreaking narrat…
Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam, who was ordered to leave podium after refusing to translate speech, attacks ‘racist’ mindsetA Greenlandic MP has accused Copenhagen of “cognitive dissonance” after she was ordered to leave the podium in parliament for refusing to…
Brad Pitt and George Clooney’s new film Wolfs shows that while geopolitical realities have changed, western prejudice hasn’tI recently watched the new bro-flick Wolfs . In my defence: I was sick and therefore lacking in imagination. I didn’t fall for t…
Fifteenth century explorer’s true origins revealed after DNA analysis from samples buried in Seville CathedralThe centuries-old mystery over Christopher Columbus’s nationality has been revealed by scientists in a Spanish TV documentary after using DNA …
Scientists have ‘definitively’ proved identity of remains – with navigator’s precise origins to be revealedScientists in Spain claim to have solved the two lingering mysteries that cling to Christopher Columbus more than five centuries after the explor…
President-elect refuses to invite Spanish king to her inauguration after lack of apology for crimes of conquestA festering diplomatic row between Mexico and Spain has been reopened after the Latin American country’s leftwing president-elect refused to …
Piyush Goyal’s showmanship and negotiating savvy have made him a weapon for India as it takes up its mantle as a global superpower. But is his aggressive approach at risk of backfiring?
The U.N. contends with its own limitations as violence in the Middle East ratchets up amid General Assembly.
Women’s rights, climate change, colonialism, harassment in school, the war in Ukraine are the topics covered by the three fiction (including an animated feature) and two documentary films that were nominated for the LUX Audience Film Award 2025, on Wed…
Family Albums: Photographs of the African Diaspora is a counter-narrative to its monument home, built to glorify the nation’s former empireIts thousands of images hail from around the world, capturing an empire that spanned from Angola to Cape Verde an…
In July 1974, Colin Smith was the Observer’s correspondent in Cyprus. Five decades on, he recalls paratroopers dropping from the skies and a grand hotel under siegeFree Paphos Radio broadcast it in both Greek and English. “Greetings Greek Cypriots,” he…
Brussels’ AfricaMuseum, founded to glorify a brutal project, faces demands for restitution of exquisite treasures stolen from Belgian CongoFor years, the lustrous copper and glass necklace was on display at the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervur…
Le wokisme, which the French love to hate, traces its intellectual genealogy back to 1960s French intellectuals.
But, says José Maria Neves, this should not stop governments trying to build solutions using diplomatic corridorsCape Verde’s president, José Maria Neves, said the rise of rightwing populism has made it difficult to hold a serious debate over colonial …
Violent protests have erupted in France’s South Pacific archipelago as decades-old tensions come to a head.
State of emergency has been declared in the Pacific Ocean archipelago after four people were killed in the worsening violence.
As new exhibition opens in Amsterdam exploring the settlement of North America, original Manhattanites demand apologyRepresentatives for some of the Lenape people have called for an apology and reparations for the 17th-century Dutch “settling” of New A…
Researchers say more bodies of Herero and Nama people from early 20th century concentration camp could be in waters around portThe Namibian authorities are being urged to halt plans to extend a port on the Shark Island peninsula after the discovery of …
President advocated ‘paying the costs’ of colonial-era crimes but government said focus was deepening international cooperationThe Portuguese government has dismissed suggestions from the country’s president that it should “pay the costs” for slavery a…
Critics of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa say behind remarks is lack of national recognition that slavery should be discussed in schoolsPortugal needs to “pay the costs” of slavery and other colonial-era crimes, the country’s president has said, in a rare ins…
Portugal on Wednesday (25 April) will mark the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, a military coup that put an end to Europe’s longest-lived dictatorship and 13 years of colonial wars in Africa.
Elected on a tide of youth and radicalism, Senegal’s new president Bassirou Diomaye Faye has promised to take the country out of the West African CFA franc — a currency viewed by many as a relic of French colonialism.
From Puerta del Sol plaza in Madrid to the Tuileries Garden in Paris, guides reshape stories continent tells about itselfDodging between throngs of tourists and workers on their lunch breaks in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol plaza, we stop in front of the nea…
Opposition to identity politics isn’t confined to the cultural right.
By failing to publish a report on the nation’s colonial history, Belgium signals it is not yet ready to shake off its past.
Strong pro-Israel consensus among political leaders has led to conflict with Berlin’s diverse cultural sector and a fraught debate over antisemitismTwo weeks after Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, Berlin’s senate for culture commissio…
A strange set of choices for the winners of this year’s Berlinale – but the Golden Bear is merited, with the French-Senegalese director Mati Diop providing a fascinating and multifaceted look at a timely issue centred around the ills of colonialism.
Berlin film festivalMati Diop’s documentary is told partly in the ‘voice’ of one of the looted treasures, in a realist jeu d’esprit about the legacy of plunderFranco-Senegalese actor and film-maker Mati Diop made history in 2019 as the first woman of c…
What do the absence of French observers at Azerbaijan’s February 7 presidential election, a group denouncing “French colonialism” and an online campaign targeting the 2024 Paris Olympics have in common? They are three facets of a new offensive strateg…
Mati Diop, the director of Dahomey, which charts the restitution of 26 objects to Benin, says the tiny number involved is ‘humiliating’The first major return of looted treasures from Europe to Africa in the 21st century has left a lingering feeling of …
West should address ‘colonisation of the present’ and not focus on past, argues David Van ReybrouckCities in the global north that curb their carbon emissions are doing more to address colonial injustices than those who focus their efforts on taking do…
Colonialism is in the spotlight in this exploration of black experience through both contemporary and historic art
Italian leader is to outline her flagship plan for Africa on Monday.
Spain’s socialist-led government vows to fight against arts censorshipSpain’s socialist-led coalition government has announced a review of state-run museums to enable them to “move past a colonial framing” of people and the past, and has pledged to fig…
Three-year €2.1m fund will prioritise former colonies of the two countries and could lead to return of itemsGermany and France will jointly spend €2.1m (£1.8m) to further research the provenance of African heritage objects in their national museums’ co…
Environmental groups have applauded a landmark political agreement reached at EU level last month to ban the export of waste for disposal both inside and outside of Europe, saying it puts an end to “waste colonialism” from rich nations.
Draft resolution to European parliament committee is first formal attempt to place reparations for slavery on EU agendaThe European Union should urgently address and reverse the lasting impacts of European colonialism and support a reparations programm…
Correspondence taken from 130 Spanish ships reveal loves, hopes and fears of families separated by migration in the 1700sA letter from a reproachful wife to the husband who abandoned her to emigrate to the Americas, which remained unopened for 300 year…
Indigenous peoples already had their own names for the galaxies named after the 16th-century Portuguese explorerFor centuries Ferdinand Magellan has been accorded a rare privilege. The explorer’s name has been written in the stars. Two satellite galaxi…
Evidence of human rights abuses on the territory of the indigenous Sámi people, and accusations of green colonialism, must prompt EU politicians to amend the law by adding clear provisions on indigenous rights, write Rasmus Kløcker Larsen and Kaisa Rai…
Emmanuel Macron’s European Political Community, launched after Russia invaded Ukraine, is now translating into defense deals.
‘The extent of the Islamist demonstrations in Berlin and other cities in Germany is unacceptable and requires a tough political response,’ says vice chancellor.
Irish support for Palestinian rights stems partly from its own experience of colonialism and violence – but that’s not allUna Mullally is a columnist for the Irish TimesIn recent weeks, leaders from the European Union, the UK and the US have stood shou…
Pensioners sold rare object found in attic for €150 – but campaigners say it must be returned to GabonA retired French couple who sold an African mask to a secondhand goods dealer for €150 (£130) have gone to court for a share of the proceeds after the…
Exhibition aims to establish common ground amid fractious debate over violence in post-independence IndonesiaIts political centre, The Hague, may call itself “the city of peace and justice”. But in few European countries is the process of confronting t…
Millions of tonnes of T-shirts and dresses are dumped or burned every year. Turning old clothes into new ones is possible – the question is whether it is a realistic solutionThe sun is always shining in the Swedish seaside town of Sundsvall, according …
To survive Russia’s neo-imperialism, Europe’s democracies must find a balance between their desire for peace and their own defenceIn 2003, the philosophers Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida published a joint article in Germany’s and France’s leading …
France Unbowed party faces accusations of complacency over antisemitism in recent years, with the latest rift threatening its fragile coalition on the left.
New guidance for U.K. museums suggests resisting political campaigns to remove controversial statues.
European country with longest involvement in the slave trade is coming under pressure to give ‘a real sorry’ for its role One morning towards the end of June, the monolithic hulk of the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, which has loomed over the Tagus River f…
Berlin worked to eliminate the monuments of Hitler’s Third Reich. Rome remains full of reminders of Il Duce.
Attempts to reckon with symbols of colonialism in public spaces have revived a fraught debate about the country’s history.
The explorer is widely thought of as an exploiter today, and didn’t know east from west. But a version of his boastful missive is expected to fetch up to £1.2m at auctionIn 1493, Christopher Columbus wrote a letter that would change the landscape of th…
This visually exquisite, tender film about a boy growing up in a military air base on an former colony is a wonderful watchFilm-maker Robin Campillo has surrendered to the flow of memory and given us this wonderful, personal movie, created with tendern…
European Investment Bank (EIB) president Werner Hoyer highlighted the importance of climate action but warned of the risks of exploitation of the Global South during his speech at the Climate Ambition Summit at the 78th UN General Assembly.
Remains pillaged in colonial era for ‘scientific’ experiments are DNA matched to Tanzanian descendantsResearchers in Berlin have identified living relatives of people whose remains were stolen from Tanzania and taken to Germany for “scientific” experim…
Reaction to the war in Ukraine has revealed that the term was little more than a cover for anti-Americanism.
President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia and the African leaders attending a summit in Saint Petersburg had agreed to promote a multipolar world order and to fight neo-colonialism.
Legal opinion would put pressure on 10 European countries targeted to engage in reparative justiceCaribbean countries are considering approaching the UN’s international court of justice (ICJ) for a legal opinion on demanding compensation from 10 Europe…
Central and Latin American countries threw cold water on the EU’s efforts to rally the continent’s support for Ukraine and called for colonial reparations in a counter-proposal of an upcoming EU summit draft declaration, seen by EURACTIV.
Artefacts taken from Balinese royal palace among items being returned – but do not include prehistoric ‘Java man’The Netherlands is handing back hundreds of valuable artefacts it removed from Indonesia and Sri Lanka during the colonial period, includin…
