Abstract
European institutions perpetuate a one-dimensional understanding of history, science, and society while sub-narratives remain invisible and silenced. Based on the life of the Ghanaian philosopher Anton Wilhelm Amo, who lived and worked as an Enlightenment thinker in eighteenth-century Germany, and who has been neglected in German philosophical tradition, this article traces how museums and other cultural organizations continue exerting institutional power by reproducing dominant narratives and forms of knowledge. The example of Amo underlines remarkably how history is a construction of those in power. Incorporating anti-racist practices in museums and other cultural institutions requires a deep analysis of institutional history and its effects today. This paper draws on theories of, among others, Walter D. Mignolo, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, and Michel-Rolph Trouillot to uncover the existing racist dynamics and discriminating structures which persist through the merely superficial treatment of racism as a thematic focus rather than a starting point for building a fair and equal society for all.
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