Wem gehört Afrikas Kulturerbe?: die Rückgabe der Benin-Bronzen und die Zukunft des Museums

Die aktuelle Debatte zur angeblich gescheiterten Restitution der Benin-Bronzen verdeckt mehr als sie aufklärt. Vor allem schneidet sie eine Diskussion ab, bevor diese überhaupt begonnen hat

Denkmalsturz

Die Diskussion zu den Denkmalstürzen der letzten Tage wird oft auf eine einfache Opposition reduziert: Alles muss weg – oder nichts darf angetastet werden. Als Königsweg erscheint dann „Kontextualisierung“. Doch wie soll diese aussehen? Und was passiert da eigentlich gerade weltweit

«Paarungsszenen sind nie zu sehen» - Kolonialerbe im Schaukasten: ein Berner Museum klärt auf (Gesine Krüger im Interview mit Regula Fuchs)

Wie entstanden die Idyllen mit ausgestopften Löwen und Gazellen im Naturhistorischen Museum Bern? Das Haus erklärt nun deren Geschichte. Gut so, sagt Historikerin Gesine Krüger

From 'One Namibia, One Nation' towards 'Unity in Diversity? Shifting representations of culture and nationhood in Namibian Independence Day celebrations, 1990-2010

In 2010 Namibia celebrated its twentieth anniversary of independence from South African rule. The main celebrations in the country’s capital Windhoek became the stage for an impressively orchestrated demonstration of maturing nationhood, symbolically embracing postcolonial policy concepts such as ‘national reconciliation’, ‘unity’ and ‘diversity’. At the same time, nation building in post-apartheid Namibia is characterised by a high degree of social and political fragmentation that manifests itself in cultural and/or ethnic discourses of belonging. Taking the highly significant independence jubilee as our vantage point, we map out a shift of cultural representations of the nation in Independence Day celebrations since 1990, embodied by the two prominent slogans of ‘One Namibia, one Nation’ and ‘Unity in Diversity’. As we will argue, the difficult and at times highly fragile postcolonial disposition made it necessary for the SWAPO government, as primary nation builder, to accommodate the demands of regions and local communities in its policy frameworks. This negotiation of local identifications and national belonging in turn shaped, and continues to shape, the performative dimension of Independence Day celebrations in Namibia.Web of Scienc

The German National Registry of Primary Immunodeficiencies (2012-2017)

Introduction: The German PID-NET registry was founded in 2009, serving as the first national registry of patients with primary immunodeficiencies (PID) in Germany. It is part of the European Society for Immunodeficiencies (ESID) registry. The primary purpose of the registry is to gather data on the epidemiology, diagnostic delay, diagnosis, and treatment of PIDs. Methods: Clinical and laboratory data was collected from 2,453 patients from 36 German PID centres in an online registry. Data was analysed with the software Stata® and Excel. Results: The minimum prevalence of PID in Germany is 2.72 per 100,000 inhabitants. Among patients aged 1–25, there was a clear predominance of males. The median age of living patients ranged between 7 and 40 years, depending on the respective PID. Predominantly antibody disorders were the most prevalent group with 57% of all 2,453 PID patients (including 728 CVID patients). A gene defect was identified in 36% of patients. Familial cases were observed in 21% of patients. The age of onset for presenting symptoms ranged from birth to late adulthood (range 0–88 years). Presenting symptoms comprised infections (74%) and immune dysregulation (22%). Ninety-three patients were diagnosed without prior clinical symptoms. Regarding the general and clinical diagnostic delay, no PID had undergone a slight decrease within the last decade. However, both, SCID and hyper IgE- syndrome showed a substantial improvement in shortening the time between onset of symptoms and genetic diagnosis. Regarding treatment, 49% of all patients received immunoglobulin G (IgG) substitution (70%—subcutaneous; 29%—intravenous; 1%—unknown). Three-hundred patients underwent at least one hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Five patients had gene therapy. Conclusion: The German PID-NET registry is a precious tool for physicians, researchers, the pharmaceutical industry, politicians, and ultimately the patients, for whom the outcomes will eventually lead to a more timely diagnosis and better treatment

Decolonizing France - the négritude's radicalness

Léopold Sédar Senghor and Aimé Césaire are important founding fathers of Négritude, a literary and political movement opposing the exoticization of Africa. With their philosophical project, they aimed at liberating colonial and colonized thinking – in Africa and in Europe