What defines the colonial relationship between Liberia and Germany? What does this relationship tell us about the larger context of Europe strangling Africa and her people for centuries? In this sensorial and multi-layered performance, Colleen Ndemeh invites audiences to do the work of confronting, remembering, and cracking open — hard shells, old wounds, dusty museum vitrines. Using her framework of the 4 r’s: restitution, reparations, revenge, return, she analyzes the past while staying connected to concrete demands for the present and future. She uses her Kpelle roots as a technology for opening pathways towards what comes next.
What comes after centuries of colonial violence?
[60 minutes]
Creation and Performance: Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald
Video editing: Julia Cohen Ribeiro
Sound Design: Nancla
Lighting design: Catalina Fernandez
Video material from: Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald, Pablo Werner Pacheco, Klaus Renkin and Ralph Werner
Mentoring & support: Atabey fka Carlos Maria Romero, hn lyonga, iki yos peña narváez
Photo credit: Alicja Hoppel
Premiered in November 2024 at Uferstudios (Berlin, Germany);
Project created in the frame of the Master’s program MA Solo/Dance/Authorship (SODA) at HZT Berlin, a partner of the University of the Arts Berlin (UdK).