Events

In this 90-minute walk, the Center for African Studies invites you to explore the diverse connections between Basel and the African continent in comfortable footwear. Along the way, you will meet Basel entrepreneurs who once marketed exoticism, trace racist representations in children's books and shed light on relations between Switzerland and South Africa during the apartheid era. The history of the ethnological shows at Basel Zoo is also discussed and you will encounter a young woman from Ghana who lived in Basel in the 19th century. The walk concludes with a look at Basel as the economic hinterland of the transatlantic slave trade. Even though Switzerland had no colonies, it was economically closely integrated into the colonial world system. Using examples from textile production, the insurance industry and Basel's banks, it becomes clear to what extent colonial exploitation became the basis for local economic prosperity - a perspective that sharpens our view of Basel as a location.

The tour begins at Klosterberg 20 and ends at the State Archives in Martinsgasse. It is aimed at anyone who is prepared to question conventional views and rethink the history of the city in a global context. 

With Veit Arlt, Center for African Studies, University of Basel.