The Film Screening Workshop was organised as a participatory learning and dialogue space to explore the topic: Intergenerational Trauma resulting from Enslavement and other Historical Atrocities. The aim was to create a reflective environment where young people can critically engage with the film’s themes, connect historical injustices to present-day social realities, and collectively discuss pathways toward healing, justice, and social cohesion.
Purpose
This project was developed in response to the need to combat racism and discrimination, addressing a phenomenon that is often subtle yet persistent. It examined how racism and discrimination are embedded in collective memory and can be transmitted across generations through intergenerational trauma.
The project aimed to bring greater visibility to these underlying patterns while advancing approaches to address racism more effectively. In doing so, it sought to strengthen intercultural programmes, deepen dialogue, and foster social cohesion within diverse communities.
Our Objectives
01
Create reflective environments and build awareness
To provide a reflective space where young people could critically engage with the film’s themes such as racism, multiculturalism, decoloniality, and historical trauma and collective memory through participatory dialogue.
02
Connect historical injustices to present-day social realities
Strengthening young people’s understanding of the links between historical injustices and present-day social inequalities, enabling them to recognise how past systems of oppression continue to shape current social structures and lived experiences.
03
Discuss pathways toward healing, justice, and social cohesion.
Facilitating collective discussions that explore solutions and practical approaches toward healing historical and social wounds, promoting justice-oriented thinking, and fostering inclusive and cohesive societies.
Thematisation
Following the screening, participants were divided into four groups to deepen engagement with the film’s sub-themes: multiculturalism, decolonialism & decoloniality, racism, and historical trauma and collective memory. Small group discussions encouraged dialogue, reflection, and critical engagement.
Multiculturalism
The discussion explored multiculturalism as both the coexistence and interaction of diverse cultures, grounded in respect, recognition, and the celebration of cultural diversity. This led to a reflection on multiculturalism in Germany, highlighting the opportunities it creates for intercultural exchange, learning, and growth, while also acknowledging the challenges, such as exclusion and visible and invisible forms of social segregation that hinder meaningful integration and inclusion. A key reflection that emerged was that diversity alone does not automatically lead to inclusion.
Decolonialism & decoloniality
The discussion explored decolonialism and decoloniality through lived experiences, reflecting on how colonial histories continue to shape identities, societies, and global power structures today. The discussion further highlighted how colonial hierarchies remain visible in global narratives that position the Global North as developed and the Global Majority as underdeveloped. This emphasised how colonial legacies have contributed to the devaluation or loss of local languages, cultures, knowledge systems, and histories, particularly through education systems that often prioritise Western perspectives.
Racism
The exchange highlighted how dominant historical narratives often exclude or marginalise certain groups, contributing to limited public awareness of intersecting histories. The existence of black people during holocaust and the the historical presence of Jewish communities in East Africa came strongly as a sphere less explored and discussed. These reflections underscored how selective historical storytelling can reinforce narrow understandings of identity and collective memory. In this context, racism manifests differently across communities, shaped by historical context, racialisation processes, and social positioning.
Historical trauma and collective memory
The discussions explored how historical trauma and collective memory shape identity, belonging, and lived experiences across generations. The exchange pointed out how historical systems such as colonisation and enslavement continue to influence self-perception, identity formation, and experiences of belonging, particularly for people from racialised communities. The conversations also reflected on how collective memory can shape communities’ relationships to ideas of “home”, particularly for second- and third-generation migrants navigating multiple cultural identities. A key reflection that emerged was the importance of remembering history in ways that support healing, identity affirmation, and social justice, while also recognising the need to approach historical memory carefully to avoid retraumatisation.
