Negotiating African Futures

The exhibition project “Negotiating African Futures” represents a collaborative effort between the CRC228 “Future Rural Africa” and the Futurium – House of Futures in Berlin. Its overarching goal is to translate key findings from the CRC228 into engaging science communication, making research on rural African future-making accessible to broad audiences in Europe and Africa in the form of an exhibition project in the Futurium. By embracing insights from more than ten years of collaborative research the exhibition project facilitates a reflection process within the CRC228 about its key messages and invites a wider audience to reflect on the interconnectedness of futures and future-making in and beyond rural Africa. The exhibition does not aim to comprehensively represent “African futures” but rather to foster reflection on the diverse visions, challenges, and global connections shaping future-making processes. The four main objectives include: (1) Present exemplary research experiences and findings to a broad audience; (2) Raise awareness of diverse and alternative futures in Africa; (3) Foster a shared understanding of Afro-European futures; (4) Highlight individuals and communities from the African continent as active agents and “future-makers”. The exhibition project aims to create a space for envisioning and enacting African futures rooted in multiplicity, solidarity, respect, and mutual learning, while fostering a shared understanding of perspectives on the grand challenges of the 21st century. This entails the gradual development and translation of the CRC228 themes and insights into an appropriate curatorial concept and exhibition formats in close collaboration with African scientists, artists and communities, incorporating participatory “worldbuilding” workshops. Major themes – infrastructures, conservation, intensification, and financing – will be illustrated through interactive installations and case studies from Kenya, Namibia, and Tanzania. The final exhibition will open at the Futurium in 2029, with satellite activities in Africa. Core work packages include conceptual alignment, narrative development, production of visual media, exhibition implementation, and long-term archiving. Feedback from “critical friends” from different African countries and the diaspora will guide all project phases.