In this episode we speak to members of the Erasmus School of colour about self-organising as students whilst coming up against the bureaucracy of the university. We discuss the importance of cultivating safe spaces through friendship, and start to pry open the pandora's box of what it means to decolonize the self and how that is possible whilst facing the violence of double erasure.  

Merel Dap, Zouhair Hammana, Melisa Ersoy, Nia Nikoladze, and Alyssa Renfurm are members of the Erasmus School of Colour (ESOC). ESOC is a collective that works towards dismantling racist, patriarchal and ableist structures within and beyond the university. Aiming to establish a safe and accessible, environment for marginalized groups, they organize different small- and large-scale events and host a reading group that is open to everyone and is co-created as a safe, healing and educating space for all who participate. 

ESOC: https://esocrotterdam.nl/ Insta: @erasmus_school_of_colour 

Music for the podcast is produced and performed by Ntomb'Yelanga, whose work is aimed at the preservation, promotion and creation of indigenous instruments and music in South Africa. Her current project, Songs of our Ancestors, explores how ancient sounds ingoma is a language, a memory and a dream we bring to life through intergenerational connections and sound dialogue, where the body is seen as a living archive of these sounds. Makwande sibamba ngazo zombili. http://www.mmaletsatsipro.co.za/

This episode is brought to you by the Civic Innovation Research Initiative, a group of scholar-activists committed to social justice based at the International Institute of Social Studies, in The Hague, Netherlands. https://www.iss.nl/en/research/research-groups/civic-innovation