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2025 marks the 100th anniversary of Frantz Fanon’s birth. The Black psychiatrist and philosopher died at just 36, but his observations remain searingly topical. During three evenings in June, contemporary thinkers and activists will discuss Fanon’s legacy, each time followed by a screening of Abdenour Zahzah’s new fiction film.
The true chronicles of the last century at the Blida-Joinville psychiatric hospital, when Dr Frantz Fanon was head of the fifth ward between 1953 and 1956 is set in colonised Algeria in 1953. Frantz Fanon works at the Blida-Joinville psychiatric hospital where he tries to treat Algerians suffering from cultural alienation. At the same time, the war of independence is spreading and beginning to affect his department as well.
Estelle Depris will be our guest on 8 June, 7 p.m.
Estelle Depris is a Belgian author, speaker, and trainer. She founded the anti-racist educational Instagram page @Sansblancderien, now @estelle.depris, in 2019. Her community consists mainly of white people who want to become allies in the fight against racism. In 2024, she compiled her insights in the guide Mécanique du Privilège Blanc: Comment l’identifier et le déjouer.
Language: French
Sibo Rugwiza Kanobana will be our guest on 20 June, 6:30 p.m.
Sibo Rugwiza Kanobana is a lecturer in sociolinguistics and post-colonial studies at the Open University of the Netherlands. He is co-author of De bastaards van onze kolonie: verzwegen verhalen van Belgische metissen (The bastards of our colony: concealed stories of Belgian Metis, 2010), editor of the Zwarte bladzijden. Afro-Belgische reflecties op Vlaamse (post)koloniale literatuur (Black pages. Afro-Belgian reflections on Flemish (post-)colonial literature, 2021) collected works, and author of Witte Orde. Over ras, klasse en witheid (White Order. On Race, Class and Whiteness, 2024).
Language: Dutch
Abdellali Hajjat will be our guest on 21 June 2025,7 p.m.
Abdellali Hajjat is a professor of sociology at ULB, a member of GERME (Research Group on Ethnic Relations, Migration and Equality), spokesperson for the HERICOL project (Colonial Heritages in Belgium), and co-founder of the academic journal Marronnages : les questions raciales au crible des sciences sociales. He is notably the author of Les frontières de l’identité nationale : l’injonction à l’assimilation en France métropolitaine et coloniale (2nd ed., 2024) and co-author of Islamophobie : comment les élites françaises fabriquent le « problème musulman » (3rd ed., 2022).
Language: French