Politics | Society | Science | Economy | Art | Culture
30.5. – 11.6. 2023
African Futures – All Around offers a comprehensive program for all citizens. Over 70 events highlight the complexity, multi-faceted nature, and creativity of modern Africa and its diaspora through lectures, workshops, discussions, and cultural events.
“Afrika braucht Visionäre, die es wagen, große Träume zu träumen.”
Jacque Fresco, Architekt, Designer und Futurist
Jacque Fresco, Architekt, Designer und Futurist
Upcoming events
African Futures illuminates the complexity, multi-faceted nature, and creativity of modern Africa and its diaspora through panels, lectures, workshops, discussions, theater, film, music, literature, art, and performances.
03.06.2023, 20:00 h
"tectonik: Tombwa" by Victor Gama is a multimedia show featuring pieces for Acrux and Toha, instruments from his INSTRMNTS series, and visuals from his field recording project in the Namibe Desert.
08.06.23, 14:00
With the dance performance Opéra du villageois, Zora Snake invites us to discover another world. Around the major debates on the return of cultural property, he lets within the "mask"...
02-30 June 2023, Fri-Sun 2pm-7pm
For centuries, the relationship between Africa and Europe has been determined by a hegemonic system of exploitation in the sense of a Western-influenced capitalist plantation logic.
06/02/2023, 11:30 PM
The OLUZAYO club night, co-hosted by Cologne's nascent international Dope Gal soundsystem, features female artists, MCs and dancers from Africa and the African diaspora.
05.06.23, 17:30
L'Ingérence tells the true story of Jörg Lange, a civil engineer and development aid worker in Burkina Faso, who, after interfering in the affairs of state of former president Blaise Compaoré in 2005
06.06.2023, 21:00
What makes this poet so sad, pessimistic, sarcastic, angry and unhappy? What is he protesting against?
03.06.2023, 18:00-19:30
"Story, Desire, Belonging, Future: Towards Pluri-Africanism?" with Kenyan author and keynote speaker of the ECAS event, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. The author had written this text for and has copyrighted it to Sonnenblumen Community Development Group e.V. in 2021.
01.06.2023, 18:30 (admission 18:15)
With Lord Mayor Henriette Reker. Rector of the University of Cologne Dr. h.c. Axel Freimuth, actors of the regional Afro-diasporic communities. Author Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
African Futures - All Around offers a...
03.06.2023, 16:00-17:30
This round table accompanies the exhibition "b/or/der st/or/ies" (25.05.-25.08.2023 in Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum). It acts as an interface between science...
5.6.23, 9:00 pm
Terrorist as well as state violence shape societies in their daily struggle for survival and dignity. For many artists invited to africologne, theater is a resistant and political practice.
02.06.2023, 15:00-21:30
The program within the framework of African Futures in the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum and in the FORUM Volkshochschule offers two days of information and entertainment on various sections and topics of "African Futures
07.06.23, 20:30
In DIALAW-PROJECT, local residents defend themselves against a mega-neoliberal port construction project near Dakar. In the future, a large part of the....
02.06.2023, 10-16 o'clock
Various facets of successful African-German economic cooperation are discussed.
31.05.-04.06.2023, daily 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Appliqué" is the name of the elaborately crafted tapestries made of fabric in Benin, with which important events were already recorded at the court of the kingdom of Dahomey. This...
10.06.23, 15:00
To swap, English for exchange, swap, trade: the Ghanaian-German project Swap Families transfers these practices to the microcosm of the family.
06/02/2023, 17:30-19:00
The "Decade for People of African Descent" (2015 - 2024) proclaimed by the United Nations commits all member states to promote the rights and recognition of people of African descent and to combat discrimination and racism. Cologne is participating in the implementation and has set itself the goal of coming to terms with the city's (post)colonial heritage
03.06.2023, 12:00-13:30
The craftsmen of the Repair Café in the Clouth neighborhood support a craftsmen's initiative in Madagascar both financially and by providing tools.
05.06. & 06.06.2023, 17-19h
In our online workshop "Critical Whiteness", we address racism as a system of power in society as a whole, in which Black people and people of color* experience structural disadvantage.
05/30/2023, 18:00-20:00
African energy futures face multiple challenges. While there is consensus that electricity generation needs to be expanded to reach 100% electrification and SDG7, it is...
02.06.2023, 15-19 h / 03.06.2023, 12-19.30 h
TWM Library places a special emphasis on empowering our children, African Future, and all children in general.
08.06.23, 11:00 a.m.
With the dance performance Opéra du villageois, Zora Snake invites us to discover another world. Around the major debates on the return of cultural property, he lets within the "mask"...
04.06.23, 16:00
"For a long time I thought it hurt me that I didn't fit the ideals. Then I understood: the norms of this violent society were not made for me.
03.06.23, 14:00 - 15:30
Community Organizing and Activism - Progress and Challenges. What works? What does not work? In this panel discussion, we would like to ...
07.06.23, 17:00
With the dance performance Opéra du villageois, Zora Snake invites us to discover another world. Around the major debates on the return of cultural property, he lets within the "mask"...
02.06.23, 21:00
In Blick Bassy's Afrofuturistic narrative, the Queen of Nkolmesseng in present-day Cameroon leads a resistance through the centuries to bring the continent...
01.06.2023, 6 pm
Co-laboration and repair, restitution and healing have become commonplace phrases in German museum discourse on how to deal with colonial collections and the colonial past. A student group....
09.06.23, 20:00
In The Ghosts are Returning, GROUP50:50, a collective of artists from Congo, Switzerland and Germany, tells the story of seven so-called 'pygmy' skeletons found by a Swiss doctor in...
05/30/2023, 6:00 PM
Appliqué" is the name of the elaborately crafted tapestries made of fabric in Benin, with which important events were already recorded at the court of the kingdom of Dahomey. This...
04.06.23, 13:00
In the Senegalese village of Yonti, Iman Tierno holds his community together by providing spiritual cohesion.
6.6. & 7.6.23, 1pm-4pm
The performative training focuses on the creative state as well as the inner focus; among others through bodywork, circle singing, concentration and action.
10.06.23, 18:00
In The Ghosts are Returning, GROUP50:50, a collective of artists from Congo, Switzerland and Germany, tells the story of seven so-called 'pygmy' skeletons found by a Swiss doctor in...
02.06.2023, 14 o'clock
The starting point of Lebohang Kganye's exhibition project is a collection of photographs and drawings by the German painter and photographer Marie Pauline Thorbecke, who from 1911 to 1913, together with her husband...
04.06.2023, 18:00 h
Overcoming cultural differences and combining musical languages - this was the idea and challenge that inspired Lukas Ligeti to write his "Suite for Burkina Electric and Orchestra".
06/01/2023, 11:15 AM
"Humans, not places, make memories". Ama Ata Aidoo
We cannot be able to talk about African Futures if we do not speak about the African past and the achievements of those who came before us and set a footprint.
04.06.23, 20:00 hrs
She is already considered by many to be a rising star of the international avant-garde neo-soul scene. Reinel Bakole is a Belgian-Congolese singer, expressionist, composer, dancer and performer.
02.06.2023, 20:00 h
In the past, in Europe as much as in Africa, many museums and their exhibitions were catering to white European publics. In the globalized and postmigrant societies...
08.06.23, 20:00 (premiere)
To swap, English for exchange, swap, trade: the Ghanaian-German project Swap Families transfers these practices to the microcosm of the family.
02.06.2023, 18-21 o'clock
Using rare film, photo and sound archives, Xaraasi Xanne (Crossing Voices) recounts the adventure of Somankidi Coura, an agricultural cooperative founded in 1977 by West African migrant workers in Paris to ...
03.06.23, 19:00
In Blick Bassy's Afrofuturistic narrative, the Queen of Nkolmesseng in present-day Cameroon leads a resistance through the centuries to bring the continent...
09.06.-11-06.2023
Kemey wʕilka! Tigrinya is a Semitic language that is the official language of Eritrea and the mother tongue of a large part of the population in Ethiopia....
05.06.23, 19:00
In Kalep, a town in Sumal controlled by the brutal power of the Islamists, two young adults are executed for entering into a love affair. Resistance fighters:inside try...
03.06.2023, 14-18 o'clock
Together with the University of Cologne, the Jama Nyeta association invites two business experts from West Africa.large-scale entrepreneurship expert Dr. Youssouf Diawara and Abdoulaye Yaro, expert in start-up founding.
03.06.2023, 12:00-13:30
This collective round table experiment on mourning emphasis lays on the possibilities to integrate artisticpractices as tools for decolonization and reconciliation.
03.06.2023, 15:30-15:50
The performance "Weggefährtin/ Die Dekolonisierung des Denkens" (Companion/ The Decolonization of Thought) by the artist Lysania is about the journey of a figure who explores the facets of his own being through the confrontation with language, the word.
01.06.2023, 20:00 h
KIndigenous traditions and experimental approaches to songwriting, composition and avant-garde electronics. Sibusile Xaba, a charismatic and highly original experimental guitarist and singer combines ....
05/31/2023, 6:15 PM
It seems contradictory, certainly at first sight. Can a European Conference on African Studies wiggle itself loose from the colonial past? Can one claim to offer spaces for encounters, knowledge....
09.06.2023, 7 pm
What kind of society do we want to live in? What is just and how can we achieve more justice? These are questions that supporters of universalism address as well as supporters of identity politics.
09.06.-11-06.2023
Aw ni tile.
Bambara is the largest lingua franca of Mali and is also spoken in eastern Senegal, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, and Gambia.
In Germany, Bambara is mainly...
06/03/2023, 19:35- 19:55
The solo dance project ResisTanzen by Dessa Ganda deals with forms and expressions of resistance.
08.06.23, 15:00
In DIALAW-PROJECT, local residents defend themselves against a mega-neoliberal port construction project near Dakar. In the future, a large part of the....
11.06.2023, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
The legacy of colonialism and slavery - Which aspects are still relevant today? And what implications can be derived from this? In the interactive and participatory workshop we want to deal with the legacy of colonialism and slavery
03.06.2023, 15:30-17:00
This means that every person, regardless of origin, gender, social status, religion, sexual orientation, etc., should have equal access to equal health care.
Prologue: 25.05.2023, 19:30 Clock
His major themes are the decolonization of Africa and the restitution of African art. In his first novel, The Places Where My Dreams Reside (S. Fischer), Felwine Sarr tells of the two completely different
02.06.2023, 15:00-19:00
Queer Black people are underrepresented in Afro-diasporic communities. With this offer we would like to create a space where we can work with all our...
25.5. through 5/28/2023, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., *Thu 6/1. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. / Mon 5.6. closed
b/or/der st/or/ies takes place as an intervention in the permanent exhibition of the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, and deals with the question of "or": because people...
10.06.23, 9:30 pm
You can snatch everything from a person except his dream, his imagination, his mirage. Stories are subject to all kinds of change over time. But how can we remix body, memory, or an opinion?
06/02/2023, 6:00 PM
Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic that incorporates science fiction, history, and fantasy.
combined to represent the diasporic experience and serves as inspiration for a more diverse future.
30.5.-11.06.2023
Learn about research for listening - with our podcast series "Alter Voices - Covid Stories," on display at the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum starting May 31.
03.06.2023, 20:00 h
Celebrating African Futures with a night of modern African music.
09.06.-11-06.2023
Karibuni sana! With more than 200 million speakers, (Ki)swahili is one of the ten most widely spoken languages in the world and the most widely spoken language in Africa.
6.6. & 7.6.23, 1pm-4pm
The performative training focuses on the creative state as well as the inner focus; among others through bodywork, circle singing, concentration and action.
06/10/2023, 4:30 PM
SANKARA - Director: Yohan Malka; France 2021; OmeU; 62 min.
SANKARA is often referred to as the Che Guevara of Africa. Still not well-known enough in this country, he plays...
09.06.23, 11:00 a.m.
To swap, English for exchange, swap, trade: the Ghanaian-German project Swap Families transfers these practices to the microcosm of the family.
09.06.-11-06.2023
Maaha! Twi is one of the official languages in Ghana. Ghanaians form the largest African minority in Germany, soTwi is also spoken in Germany.
“Afrika ist bereit, die nächste große Grenze des menschlichen Fortschritts und Wohlstands zu werden.”
Jim Yong Kim, ehemaliger Präsident der Weltbank
Jim Yong Kim, ehemaliger Präsident der Weltbank
African Futures – All around
Strong together
African Futures – All Around is a project of the City of Cologne in the framework of the European Conference on African Studies (ECAS) hosted by the Global South Studies Center (GSSC, University of Cologne) and in cooperation with Afro-diasporic and other civil society initiatives from Cologne, the Oluzayo Music Festival and the africologneFESTIVAL.
