Opposing Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Turbo-Nationalism

Book excerpt: This volume gathers together reflections on racism and nationalism, empowerment and futurity. It focuses on collective amnesia in regards to traumatic events of the European past and the ways in which memory and history are presented for the future. The essays cover and oppose the seemingly disparate genocides committed during Belgian colonialism, Austrian antisemitism and turbo-nationalism in “Republika Srpska” (Bosnia and Herzegovina), implying by no means a homogenization of the experiences. What connects these historical situations is the fact that, despite available documents, to this very day, nation-states are built on practices of oblivion regarding their past. This volume is indispensable for theoreticians, philosophers, and historians, as well as the general public. It expresses the demand to critically question our inherited knowledge and to rethink the past for a new future of conviviality.