32° East 32° East

This teach-in, produced together with Makerere Institute for Social Research, was led by Palestinian community organiser Haneen Maikey who joined us in person in Kampala.



Maikey is the founder and former director of Al-Qaws, a civil society organisation disrupting gender-based oppression and transforming perspectives on marginalised groups. Maikey spoke on Palestine, decolonisation and patriarchy and invited the audience to consider certain questions on these topics such as: what is our individual positioning within patriarchy? How is gender politics used as a tool of colonialism? And is patriarchy the extension of colonialism?



As with previous teach-ins this was a hybrid event, with an in-person and online audience. You can find recordings of our teach-ins with Ora Wise and Amanny Ahmed, Baha Hilo, Anselm Kizza-Besigye and Yahya Sseremba on our Spotify for Podcasters channel



*the recording started after Haneen had already been introduced and started speaking

This first teach -in at 32 was hosted by artists, organisers, chefs and activists Amanny Ahmad and Ora Wise, who are offering a space for questions, for learning and for building solidarity. This session will be a moment for artists and community members to bring basic questions about what is happening in Gaza, and to learn more about the urgent need for solidarity at this moment.

Video screened: Is Israel guilty of Apartheid Against Palestinians. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MknerYjob0w

Teach-in with Baha HiloAs an educator, Baha runs “To Be There” an initiative that offers educational programs about the history and culture of Palestine, including the annual Olive Harvest, Palestinian Land Day, Christmas in Palestine, and more. For this session, Baha will speak about the process of colonizing Palestine, and political, social and economic Apartheid.

Here are the two links Fouad shared in the chat (thank you Fouad!)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahiya_doctrine

Peled-Elhanan: Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education, https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/163293

For our final teach-in of the year, we look at connections between Gaza, Uganda and beyond.Researcher Anselm Kizza-Besigye (online) will take us through Uganda's historical and present relationship with the Israeli state; and Makerere Institute of Social Research Fellow Dr. Yahya Sseremba (in-person) will talk to us about the fundamental logic of the nation state, in Uganda and as a root of Zionist violence.


Links and References from Anselm:

Why Not Uganda?

Gidron, Y. (2020). Israel in Africa : security, migration, interstate politics. Zed.Rovner, A. L. (2014). In the Shadow of Zion : Promised Lands Before Israel. New York University Press.

Sofia was Co-curator of the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo Incerteza Viva; Academic Curator at MUAC (Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo – UNAM) in Mexico City, 2014–15; Research Curatorial Fellow at Independent Curators International, 2011; and Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program, 2010. She received her BFA with honors from La Esmeralda National School of Fine Arts. In 2012, she was Workshop Clinics Director at International Symposium of Contemporary Art Theory and, from 2007 to 2010, Head of Education and Public Programs at Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, both in Mexico City. Sofia is a member of Another Roadmap for Arts Education, of Red de Conceptualismos del Sur, and has contributed in specific events with the network Arts Collaboratory. Her project, Between Utopia and Disenchantment (Entre utopía y desencanto), critically assesses the collective memory and genealogies stemming from intentional community models developed in Mexico in recent decades, addressing the ideas developed by Ivan Illich at the Centro Intercultural de Documentación (CIDOC) and its extended influence to Mexican and international thinkers.



Sophia was one of the  co-investigator at the KLA ART Labs Making Things Public lab sessions. This is a presentation she had during one of the sessions where she spoke about her practice, curation, spaces, unlearning and alternative education.

Ericka’s work takes the form of performative exhibitions, public programs, and publications. As part of her curatorial work she has written and performed what she calls “danceable lectures” in which she uses her experience of listening and dancing to salsa music to explore how the experience of rhythm helps to understand -in a bodily way- the notion of antagonism and how this enriches our notion of otherness. Her texts are published in different catalogues in Colombia and abroad, and also in mediums such as Revista Errata, Arcadia, Terremoto: arte contemporáneo en las Américas, and the USB Map Initiative of the Guggenheim Museum. Her interest in art and education led her to start with colleagues(Mónica Restrepo, Herlyng Ferla and Hernán Barón) La Nocturna, a platform to experiment on discursive and pedagogical formats. As part of her exploration on how we learn through our bodies and what a new education of the senses could be, she created (together with artist Herlyng Ferla) an experimental afterschool for kids and family where she designs a curriculum of art and transdisciplinarity.

Ericka was one of the co-investigator at the KLA ART Labs Making Things Public lab sessions. This is a presentation she had during one of the sessions where she details the thinking behind her practice and projects she has worked on.