Presentation of the 100th issue of the magazine Africa e Mediterraneo

and of the project

Decolonizing the Gaze: The Colonial Heritage of Italian and International Fashion Design and Its Impact on the Collective Imagination

If the asymmetric cultural relations of colonialism led to the plundering of cultural objects, how did we construct colonial devices? How do they still act today? How should we deconstruct our gaze to denaturalize them and denaturalize their impact on our contemporary societies? How can we repair it? These are some of the questions posed by Lucrezia Cippitelli and Donatien Dibwe dia Mwembu, curators of the dossier issue 100 of Africa e Mediterraneo dedicated to the issue of restitutions.

Challenged by African countries since the independence struggles of the 50s and 60s, then the subject of ad hoc UNESCO and UNIDROIT conventions (respectively in 1970 and 1995), this issue has become highly topical because Western institutions, in possession of objects that have no clear provenance and that bear witness to a history that is difficult to safeguard today, have shown discomfort and a need to free themselves from the heavy colonial legacy and free themselves from the definition of “last bastions of colonialism”.

The debate on restitution, on reconstitutions, on repair, through the reappropriation of cultural values, allows us to reconnect the precolonial past, consciously buried and forgotten, to an amputated postcolonial present. What is returned? What is the value of cultural objects returned to the communities of origin? These questions are the humus of a debate that should be a mirror image of that of Western societies and within the so-called modern African continent, among members of the communities of origin, to create a space for dialogue and awareness on the importance of African cultural values ​​in general and on their maintenance and conservation. Restoring all the destroyed traditional values ​​seems to be the answer to the questions: “What is the future of our mother tongues, especially within intellectual families? How do we maintain our cemeteries? How do we preserve our archive documents?”

The dossier collects contributions in Italian, English and French by scholars, experts and activists who deal with specific cases, such as those of Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria, and broader issues. The section on Italy, which includes two articles on the former Colonial Museum, now the Museum of Civilizations in Rome, highlights the limits of the debate and initiatives on restitution in our country.

The dossier includes as an insert the fanzine of the project “Decolonizing the Gaze” by Caterina Pecchioli, realized thanks to the support of the Italian Council (2022). An open reflection on the link between identity, fashion and colonialism starting from the observation of clothing objects, fabrics and accessories from the colonial period kept in Italian and Dutch archives and museum institutions.

With:

Kaaj Tshikalandand, cultural anthropologist

Sandra Federici, editor-in-chief of Africa e Mediterraneo

Lucrezia Cippitelli, independent researcher and co-curator of the Dossier “Restitutions”

Caterina Pecchioli, visual artist and independent researcher