The Deberlinization Festschrift, curated by Ibou Coulibaly Diop, Franck Hermann Ekra, and Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung and published in collaboration with Diaphanes, reflects on the urgency and potentials of a deberlinization process—a concept initiated by the artist Mansour Ciss Kanakassy to question the after-effects of the Berlin/Congo Conference (1884–85) that resulted in the division of the African continent among the industrial and military powers of the time. The anthology documents the contributions to a three-day programme that took place at HKW in April 2025 and presents the academic research, essays, polemics, and literary approaches that emerged from it.  

Through a transformative poetics of relation between creative action and forms of memory and resistance, the Deberlinization Festschrift critically reflects on enduring colonial structures of knowledge and power and considers alternative narratives on the prevailing world order. Contributors to the book and additional guests discuss ways of engaging in deberlinization in order to envision potential future trajectories. Paired with musical and literary interventions, the book launch explores the strategies and the language that are needed to refabulate the world.