Decolonial Gazing and Hermeneutic Resistance: Black German Challenges to White German Cultural Hegemony in the Museum

In this article, I highlight the ways that Black Europeans challenge universalizing notions of cultural heritage to emphasize decolonial possibilities. Focusing on the German context, I show how Black artists, intellectuals and activists interrogate the collection, display and spectatorship of museum objects in majority-white contexts using the strategies of decolonial gazing and hermeneutic resistance. I use the Berlin Ethnological Museum in its former and current iterations as a representative example of debates about collecting and looking at museums, showing how scholars like Fatima El-Tayeb and initiatives like No Humboldt21! challenge universalizing discourses and reflect the gaze back on whiteness. Finally, I offer a reading of a literary challenge to white hegemony within and beyond the museum in Sharon Dodua Otoo's 2021 novel Adas Raum [Ada's Realm].

Automated summary

This article discusses how Black Europeans challenge universalizing notions of cultural heritage, emphasizing the potential for decolonization. Using Germany as a case study, Black artists, intellectuals, and activists interrogate the collection, display, and spectatorship of museum objects in majority-white contexts through decolonial gazing and hermeneutic resistance. They challenge dominant discourses and reflect the gaze back on whiteness. The article also explores a literary challenge to white hegemony within and beyond museums in Sharon Dodua Otoo's novel "Ada's Realm" published in 2021.