Global South Studies Center Erfurt

Global South Studies are a rather recent, vibrant and interdisciplinary research field. Global South is understood here in its relation to the Global North and Global East, as a relational concept. The term first appeared officially in world politics in 1980 with the report of Willy Brandt’s North-South Commission (1977-79), entitled North-South: A Programme for Survival, but "Global South" was used since the 1960s.
The concept of the Global East has recently been introduced into the discussion in order to include the post-Soviet and postsocialist spaces, the former “Second World”, liminally positioned between Global South and Global North. Global South, North and East are not to be understood as geographical descriptions, but rather as deterritorialized concepts used to describe and analyze transregional, transnational and translocal relationships, spaces and movements within the global economic and political order. Thus, there is “South” to be found in the “North” and "East" (and vice-versa). Through related experiences of subaltern positions of marginalization (and often alienation), the concepts Global South and East are also used to both express and analyze powerful social and political Imaginaries that have been able to transcend the contradictions and disjunctions of the societies and politics involved.

Events

Global South Movie Night presents: 
 

Djamila, the Algerian
 

When: Thursday December 4th 18:00
 

Where: LG1 HS 3, Running Time: 120 minutes

What role did women play in the struggles for national liberation?
The 1958 movie “Djamila, the Algerian” helps us answer this question. 
Based on the life of Djamila Bouhired , the film tells the real story of a young women’s radicalization and involvement in the armed struggle during the Algerian war of independence. Following her development from a pacifist university student to an urban guerrilla fighter, we learn of the day to day realities of French colonial rule in Algeria, as well as of the lengths Algerians went to in order to resist it. Furthermore, through Djamila, who became a political icon throughout the Arab World, we can see how a revolutionary movement puts into question not only the political domination of colonialism, but also the dynamics of gender oppression in the native societies themselves.

Even though the movie is set in Algeria, it is an Egyptian production right out of the “Golden Age of Egyptian Cinema”. Directed by the acclaimed Youssef Chahine and written by the Arab World’s  only Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz , what we have here is a testament to Egypt’s cultural production of the time. Naturally, being an Egyptian production gives a whole new side to the movie, enabling us to read it as an insightful example of Egyptian soft power and ideological projection.

Prior to the movie screening, Prof. Dr. Schäbler will deliver an introduction into the historical context of the Algerian war of independence.

This movie night is a cooperation between the Committee to Rebuild the FSR Geschichte, the Global South Studies Center Erfurt and HSG Plurals.