WHEN THE JACKAL LEAVES THE SUN
Decentering Restitution | Pedagogies of Repossession
WHEN THE JACKAL LEAVES THE SUN: Decentering Restitution | Pedagogies of Repossession is a decolonial feminist infrastructure for memory politics, art and transformative justice connecting Nairobi, Windhoek, Kigali, Dresden, Dar Es Salam, Dakar, Sinne Saloum, Jaol-Fadiouth, Cape Town and Berlin.
Initiated by Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Jennifer Kamau, Memory Biwa, Michael Bader, Rehema Chachage, Reneé Akitelek Mboya and Suza Husse
In collaboration with District*School Without Center, International Women* Space, Nyabinghi Lab, SOMA, Wali Chafu Collective
“It is not that Europe has denied its colonial history – that would be too crude. It is instead that Europe has developed a way of telling the story of its colonial history that ultimately seeks to erase that history.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 
Presenting a challenge to dominant institutional discourses of repair, When the Jackal leaves the Sun brings together artists, activists, curators, lawyers, and cultural practitioners to create interventions and pedagogical tools that currently come to life throughout 6 Chapters. Grounded in radical Black, queer and feminist positions, When The Jackal Leaves The Sun creates an independent and transterritorial infrastructure and platform for artistic and transdisciplinary collaborations on memory, cultural and educational work from summer 2022 to summer 2024 in Nairobi, Windhoek, Cape Town, Kigali, Dresden, Dar Es Salam, Dakar, Sinne Saloum, Jaol-Fadiouth, Berlin and online.
When the Jackal leaves the Sun connects an intersectional spectrum of artists, curators, activists, lawyers, cultural practitioners and collectives to develop an account of Pedagogies of Repossession. Through co-developing and facilitating a process toward Pedagogies of Repossession, When the Jackal leaves the Sun seeks to disrupt and counter persistent colonial violence through artistic and political means, fostering memory, cultural education, and spiritual healing.
Visual Language
Bamun Alphabet
To connect these stories we built a visual language with our graphic designer Aziza Ahmad, to think about the meaning of when the jackal leaves the sun through non-western typography. A metaphor for when the shackles of oppressed peoples can leave the oppression of imperialism and dismantle systems of colonial violence. The Jackal’s story reflects that of the lion’s; if it had its own historian, would the hunter still be the hero?
Our chosen design is inspired by the redaction project a typeface commissioned by Titus Kaphar and Reginald Dwayne Betts (2018) as part of a timely conversation at the intersections of history, the legal system and social justice. The redaction font seeks to highlight the abuses in the criminal justice system. Using legal documents filed by Civil Rights Corps, the typography is dictated by the New Century School Book, a font used in all legal court systems originally designed by Nazi typographers Hermann and Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse. The letter forms were de-nazified to transform into an animated transmission of disassemblages, disruption and degradation to propose another narrative; concealment and what Maryse Condé described as ‘moving through mangroves’. In this reflection we thought together about the Shumom alphabet system created by King Ibrahim Mbouombouo Njoya of Bamum (Cameroon) in 1986 as a way to create non-western histories and disrupt western imperialism through visual illustration. We experimented with 2 typographical narratives to spark a conversation on creating a language of our own stories.
Team
Funding Organizations
WHEN THE JACKAL LEAVES THE SUN: Decentering Restitution | Pedagogies of Repossession is funded by the TURN2 Fund of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media).
