ABI and ACT representatives at international conference on colonial legacies and transcultural relations

From 5-7 May 2026, ABI staff member Richard Legay as well as Anika Becher (ACT) took part in an international hybrid conference titled 'Transcultural relations and colonial legacies. Restitution beyond objects, cultural memory and digital mediation' at Zeppelin University.
 

The conference was part of the two years project "Reframing Colonial Legacies", co‑organised by Zeppelin University (Friedrichshafen, Germany) and the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). It was held in cooperation with the Africa Centre for Transregional Studies (ACT). The conference brought together a group of academics and cultural actors from Europe and Africa to share perspectives gained through the project and to open these reflections to dialogue with the wider public, researchers, cultural practitioners and institutions working in related contexts. Through this, it engaged in a critical discussion on transcultural relations and colonial legacies.

Richard Legay took part in a panel titled 'African cultural heritage as a decolonial practice', moderated by Meike Lettau (Zeppelin University). Together with Ernst Wagner (Exploring Visual Cultures) and Harriet Nana Akua Agyapong (University of Ghana), they discussed what it means to implement decolonial stategies in research and practice, and what challenges scholars encounter in doing so. With a focus on international cultural relations and power relations related to the restitution of African cultural heritage, they discussed recent developments in German cultural policy, and how cultural policy priorities are evolving in Ghana and France. The discussion offered an opportunity to reflect on the practical dimensions of academic work and the limits of decolonisation as a project-based process rather than a systemic one. It was a lively and insightful exchange, both between the panelists and with the hybrid audience.

Harriet Nana Akua Agyapong has visited the ABI before in 2023, as part of the Engagement Global ASA University Program, in which students from Germany and Ghana engaged with the question of how to decolonize universities and, in a broader sense, knowledge production. She is currently an aspiring doctoral student at the University of Ghana.