Reconstructing the Legacies of Colonial Detention through Co-Creation: Digital Heritage, Memory, and the Mau Mau Conflict, 1952-1960

This talk by Dr Bethany Rebisz examines the legacies of colonial detention in Kenya and considers the adaptive digital heritage practices used by the Museum of British Colonialism (MBC) to hold space for the individual experiences of survivors. The histories of British atrocities committed in colonial Kenya during its Emergency period have been contested, both academically and publicly. Considering this, MBC, in partnership with African Digital Heritage, has been motivated by a shared desire and responsibility to restore marginalized narratives where they have been ignored, silenced, and destroyed. Using digital technologies and heritage practices grounded in co-creation and personal exchange, this talk explores new frameworks to reimagine colonial heritage and memories of conflict.

Dr Bethany Rebisz is a Historian of Modern Africa at the University of Bristol. She is a gender historian of East Africa and is particularly interested in histories of humanitarianism, late-colonial warfare, and the historical legacies of this in public memory.

Organised by the School of History’s GLAM and Empires and After research groups.