New Commentary on Development and Culture by Karen Lauterbach
Karen Lauterbach, Associate Professor and Director at CAS, shares her reflections on development and culture in a new commentary published in Altinget. She gives a critical perspective on how Danish development and cultural cooperation with Africa are often shaped through a Western lens.
Read excerpts from the commentary here:
When one takes a broad view across the African cultural scenes, there is little sense of a deep longing to better understand Danish or European values. On the contrary.
Art is concerned with freeing itself from the Western or colonial gaze, which also includes what is often referred to as "the development gaze." It engages in criticism of corrupt leaders and of double standards, which often go hand in hand with a highlighting of the legacy of colonialism.
To put it bluntly: African artists do not need to enter into value-based alliances of equality with Danish cultural life in order to learn about participation, freedom, and sustainability. The effects of inequality, both local and global, are felt firsthand. That is what people speak, write, and sing about.
Desires for justice, freedom, and dignity exist everywhere. Free thought and creativity know no borders.
Let art teach us about our own history and about others’ struggles for justice. About pain and dignity, about rhythms we do not know, languages we do not understand, and communities we are not a part of.
The full piece (written in Danish) is available here: Forsker: Afrikanske kunstnere har ikke brug for dansk kulturliv. Danmark bør se afrikansk kunst uden at tænke udviklingsbistand