On Sunday 13 December, Beyond Walls, Framer Framed and Read My World organize a public program around the recently published and already much discussed book REVOLUSI by David Van Reybrouck.
Wim Manuhutu will moderate a talk between David Van Reybrouck, Goenawan Mohamad & Sadiah Boonstra (both via zoom from Jakarta) and Amanda Pinatih. Our previous guest Jazzy Taihuttu could not attend due to health circumstances. With a multimedia performance Manual for the Displaced by Robin Block and Jeremy Flohr.
Date: December 13 2020
Time: 2pm. - 4pm.
Location: Facebook Livestream (link tbc)
The colonial past of the Netherlands and Indonesia is often presented as a chapter of national history. Stories about heroes, perpetrators and victims, embedded in a predominant national historiography about their own role, isolated from the rest of the world. In Revolusi, the Flemish author David Van Reybrouck puts an end to this: “the time is right to let go of that national focus and see the global dimension of the decolonization process.”
On this afternoon we will dive deeper into the motivation of the author and the results of his research with Van Reybrouck and guests. To what extent is Revolusi relevant for both Indonesia and the current postcolonial diaspora communities in the Netherlands? How does it contribute to a critical discourse about the role of the Netherlands in colonial world history? Why and for whom did he write this work? And how do fellow writers in Indonesia, (international) researchers, the post-colonial diaspora in the Netherlands react to the appearance of this work at a time when decolonization is high on the agenda everywhere?
David Van Reybrouck (1971, Bruges, Belgium) is a cultural historian, archaeologist and writer of non-fiction, theater and poetry. He achieved his greatest success with Congo. A history that was awarded the Libris History Prize 2010, the AKO Literature Prize 2010 and the Prix Médicis 2012. His essay Plea for Populism earned him the Jan Hanlo Essay Prize 2009 and the Flemish Culture Prize Criticism and Essay 2009. In 2014 he received the Gouden Ganzenveer and his pamphlet Against elections was awarded the Henriëtte Roland Holst Prize. This pamphlet was praised by Kofi Annan. He also wrote the theater monologue Para (2016) and A jihad of love, for which he was awarded the Flemish Community's Badge of Honor together with Mohamed El Bachiri in 2017. In the same year, the essay Peace can be learned (together with Thomas d'Ansembourg) was also published. Van Reybrouck's Boekenweekessay Zink was awarded Prix du livre européen. His work is published in more than twenty languages.
credits photo: Frank Ruiter
Goenawan Mohamad (1941, Batang, Java) is an Indonesian poet, editor and man of letters. Mohamad has been a crusader for press freedom in Indonesia since his university days. Working in a dictatorial system in which the press was controlled by threats, intimidations, and banning, Goenawan Mohamad was the most consistent and visible voice for freedom of the press in the country for two decades.
He is the founder and editor of Tempo (Time) magazine in Indonesia. Tempo was banned in 1994 by the Suharto’s New Order administration because of its vocal criticism of the authoritarian regime. Rather than leave the country Mohamad chose to stay and to continue to work to broaden freedom in Indonesia. He still published an Internet version of Tempo and he formed the Alliance of Independent Journalists to continue pushing for press freedom. In 1995 Mohamad initiated the Institute for the Study of Free Information Flow. Goenawan Mohamad is also one of the world’s leading voices of moderate Islam and contributors to the creating of the national language of Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia. Mohamad has received various awards, such as the first Professor Teeuw Award of the University of Leiden in 2002 and in 2006 he received the Dan David Prize award. In 1999, Mohamad was named International Editor of the Year by World Press Review magazine. In 1998, he was one of four winners of the CPJ International Press Freedom Awards.
Dr Sadiah Boonstra is a Historian and Curator and is active in a broad cultural field. Sadiah combines her academic expertise with curating, producing and programming. Living and working in Jakarta, Sadiah is also an Asia Scholar at Melbourne University. She obtained her PhD in History from the VU University in Amsterdam in 2014. She is interested in the entanglement and legacy of colonial history, heritage, art and culture in contemporary Indonesia.
photo credits: Maarten Nauw / Framer Framed
