The Funambulist | No 54 Colonial Continuums

The 54th issue of The Funambulist examines the durability of colonial structures in western and northern European societies: Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Portugal and Italy. The colonial continuum undeniably creates bridges between geographies, temporalities and peoples. This is demonstrated by Adam Elliott-Cooper‘s colonial genealogy of the British police, which he weaves between Ireland, Palestine, Malaysia, Kenya and immigrant communities of Great Britain. It’s not easy to reclaim these bridges to solidarity. As we discuss with Lis Camelia and Fayo Said in this issue, what kind of common ground can be found between the Dutch Caribbean Black communities in the Netherlands and the Melanesian Papuans in their relationship to Dutch colonialism, anti-Blackness and Indigeneity? Could this be a common ground similar to that which the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste found in the Algerian Revolution (Léopold Lambert)? How can the ghosts of the German genocide of the Nama and Ovaherero peoples manifest their presence in contemporary Germany (Fatou Sillah and Abdur Rehman Zafar), and how can we map these colonial and anti-colonial forces (Moses März)? What can the Italian anti-fascist movement learn from anti-colonial resistance in Libya and Ethiopia (Amalie Elfallah with Maaza Mengiste and Alessandro Spina)? How can the Spanish state pay its debts to the Sahrawi people (Inma Naïma Zanoguera)? What does the Portuguese revolution owe to the Guinean, Cape Verdean, Angolan and Mozambican anti-colonial struggles and their legacy in the diasporas (Ana Naomi de Sousa)? What archives for the anti-racist struggles of North African diasporas in Belgium (Mustapha Bentaleb and Joachim Ben Yakoub)? These are just some of the questions we pose in the pages of this issue. The cover was designed by Nidhal Chamekh for this issue.