Decolonisation: not just a buzz word…

Abstract

A creative journey that captures urgent and contentious conversations through nuanced and personal testimonies.

Last year, Bhuchar Boulevard was invited for a residency at SOAS to examine individual and institutional responses to decolonisation through a new piece of work that looked at how SOAS is challenging its founding imperial purpose and delivering its vision to decolonise the education sector.

Decolonisation: not just a buzzword... a headphone verbatim show emerged from capturing campus conversations that wove the compelling narratives shared by interviewees and recorded by the creative team.

This show is now at the Festival of Ideas with an online performance followed by a post-show discussion with invited panellists on 24th October from 5-7pm.

‘‘They speak French because they’re French. We speak French because we’re colonised’

Students on global campuses have demanded the ‘decolonising’ of the physical space, the curriculum and institutional memory in a fight against intersectional oppression. Behind the sensational headlines lie deeply personal and political lived experiences that go beyond the call to remove statues, repatriate artefacts and diversify reading lists.

Verbatim theatre brings to the stage compelling stories into one conversation and invites us to listen deeply. Exploring themes that range from representation, reparation to reflexivity in pedagogy, the voices from the SOAS community are striving for transformative action.

But can the legacies of traumas of the past be addressed within the pillars of institutions?

At a time when society is more fractured than ever, this is an insightful and timely examination of the threads that connect us and the urgent need to unravel them and come together.

‘When you give people history, you give them political value. You’re saying, You matter. The world was constructed because you were in it and people like you.’

Collaborating artists: Sudha Bhuchar, Suman Bhuchar, Neela Doležalová & Kristine Landon-Smith

Directed by Kristine Landon-Smith

Cast: Tunji Falana, Bartel Jespers, Sophie Khan Levy, Anna-Maria Nabirye, Anna Nguyen, Josephine Starte and Ragevan Vasan.

www.bhucharboulevard.com @BhucharBvrd

Click here to register (event link will be emailed to the registered attendees closer to the event date)

Organiser: SOAS Festival of Ideas, Bhuchar Boulevard, Arts Council, SOAS South Asia Institute

Contact email: foi@soas.ac.uk