dialogFORUM of the africologneFESTIVAL 2025
The dialog forum of the africologneFESTIVAL 2025 focuses on the theme of resistance, a multi-layered resistance that is supported by a constellation of actors, including artists and writers. Today, the world is experiencing a series of overlapping crises that leave no region of the planet untouched: debt crises in the countries of the global South, purchasing power crises in the rich countries, as well as climate and environmental crises. In addition, there is a crisis of democracy, which manifests itself in particular in the dwindling trust and growing mistrust of the population towards the ruling elites, who are increasingly pursuing an autonomous agenda in the service of the richest and militaristic interests. Even more serious is the crisis of meaning: the principle of equality of all people, which was denied and disregarded during the colonial era, is now being undermined by processes of dehumanization rooted in racist and supremacist ideologies. At a time when the intensity of high-level conflicts is increasing, resistance is more than a necessity. It is the only way to defend and preserve the most demanding humanist standards.
We are because we are resisting. We will be because we have resisted . Ndongo Samba Sylla
Introduction/Moderation : Boniface Mabanza; Keynote : Glenda Obermuller
11:45-13:15 h Panel I: Resistance to armed conflict
From the wars in countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger against jihadist and separatist groups to the war between the M23 movement and the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the fratricidal struggles dividing Sudan, Africa remains the scene of armed conflicts with catastrophic consequences for the economies and populations of the countries concerned. The causes of military escalation are not only internal. External factors often also play a role. Some countries have been destabilized by external military intervention or even occupation by foreign troops. In other cases, armed conflicts are a kind of proxy war in which each of the warring parties benefits from different levels of external support. Very often, the control of raw materials and strategic positions fade into the background as more or less hidden challenges of armed conflicts. Given that peace and security are the cornerstones of a society that wants to live in harmony, freedom and prosperity, it is important to ask how popular resistance can be organized to put an end to armed conflicts in Africa.
Panelists: Aristide Tarnagda (Artistic Director of the Festival Les Récréâtrales, Burkina Faso) ; Salma Alnour Abdalla Abu Samra (filmmaker, human rights activist, Berlin/Sudan), Momo Sissoko (Cologne/Mali), Théodore Nganzi (DR Congo)
Short film Is it war (6 min) by Timeea Muhamed Ahmed
15.00 -16.15 h Panel II: Resistance to extractivism
Colonialism was above all a paradigm of exploitation. The colonies served their mother country as a reserve of cheap labor and raw materials. In Africa, this international division of labor and its underlying extractivist logic persist more than six decades after the wave of independence in the 1960s. While the beneficiaries of extractivism have expanded to include non-European powers and African ruling classes, the losers are still the same: the populations living in the areas where minerals are extracted, the affected economies and the environment. Paradoxically, the global clean energy transition agenda has given new legitimacy to mineral extraction. Indeed, achieving current green technology production targets will require an unprecedented level of mining activity. The rush for what the European Union (EU) calls “critical minerals” is the cause of severe conflict and contributes to worrying environmental degradation.
Panel guests: Jean-Baptiste Ekaka, Eva-Maria Bertschy (Group 50:50, DR Congo/Switzerland); Israël Nzila (author, DR Congo)
Statement : Yves Ndagano (Artist, Cologne/ DR Congo)
16.30 h -17.45 h : Panel III: Resistance through the arts
In order to realize the harmonious world we desire, it is important to resist the threats that stand in its way and also to provide a glimpse that this other world is possible, that it is an achievable utopia. As an alternative form of expression, the arts have often been a fertile ground for organizing a form of resistance against the intolerable and unacceptable, as well as a laboratory for utopias. In a context where activist art is met with hostility from ruling regimes and/or a drying up of public funding sources, it is necessary to reflect on how artists can continue to live in dignity and complete freedom from their profession. Equally important is the question of how lasting solidarity among activist artists can be organized on a transnational basis. It has been a cornerstone of the Africologne Festival from its inception until today.
Panelists : Étienne Minoungou (artist, Burkina Faso); Zora Snake (artist, Cameroon); Kerstin Ortmeier (Artistic Director africologneFESTIVAL) ; Dorcy Rugamba (artist, Rwanda/Belgium)
CONCEPTION Dr. Ndongo Samba Sylla, Development Economist & Head of Policy and Research for the Africa Region of International Development Economics Associates / IDEAs (Dakar) MODERATION Dr. Boniface Mabanza Bambu, Coordinator of KASA (Heidelberg) COOPERATION Africa Film Festival Cologne
ALTE FEUERWACHE, HALLE June 19,11 a.m.-6 p.m. with lunch break ADMISSION FREE LANGUAGES German, English, French with simultaneous interpretation
As part of the dialogFORUM, we will be showing the film Madaniya. Director: Mohamed Subahi, Sudan, 2024, OmeU, 75 minutes
Madaniya tells the story of three young Sudanese struggling to change their personal lives while grappling with the profound changes brought about by Sudan’s December Revolution. The documentary follows the journey of Django, Esra and Mou’men, three young Sudanese women taking part in the revolution. They resist in their own way, using their individual skills, exploring different means and works and being part of different communities. Despite their diversity, they all share a common goal: MADANIYA – a civilian government.