This panel is designed to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Bandung Conference of 1955. The conference stands out as a pivotal event in the history of the Global South, a testament to the unity and solidarity of 29 African and Asian countries, either newly independent or in the process of achieving independence. It drew them together to Bandung, Indonesia, at the invitation of the five organizing countries: Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), India, Indonesia, and Pakistan, to uniquely challenge the legacy of European colonialism on a global stage.
The Bandung Conference, far from being a mere gathering of heads of state, was a significant milestone in the restructuring of global governance architecture in the post-World War II era. It boldly contested the established notions of global governance and institutions, despite the persistent efforts of the colonial, former colonial, and imperial powers of the time to maintain a world hierarchy across culture, polity, knowledge, material, and ontological conditions.
While it's important to avoid romanticizing the Bandung Conference, it's equally crucial to acknowledge its lasting legacy and impacts. Many of its initiatives, for various reasons, did not succeed. However, the conference's vision of peaceful coexistence led to the establishment of numerous vital institutions, forums, and cultural, legal, political, and theoretical movements in the South and globally. These impacts continue to inspire us today as we strive to articulate a vision of a world where humanity and the planet could peacefully co-exist.
The legacy of Bandung not only offers a framework for discussing and shaping the concept of decolonial existence and mutual prosperity, but also presents a blueprint for a new world order. It intervenes in the legal framework and articulates decolonial cultural, economic, and political cooperation among these countries. It also presents a radical, more humane vision of a world where all nations could peacefully exist. This vision is rooted in the principles of respecting national sovereignty, promoting cooperation, advocating for non-interference, and laying the foundations for a better future where everyone and everything belong.
Speakers
Fabia Fernandes Carvalho is a lecturer in international law and deputy Coordinator of the Academic Masters and PhD Program at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) São Paulo Law School, Brazil. Her research explores the history of international law in Latin America, focusing on the principle of non-intervention and regional understandings of international law. Fabia has written on TWAIL, regionalism, nationalization of natural resources, sovereign debt, and past international legal doctrines and practices in Latin America.
Mai Taha is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Mai’s research explores the different scales of revolution that draw out historical tensions arising in workers’ movements, feminist movements, and anticolonial liberation movements. She has written on law, colonialism, labour movements, class and gender relations, and social reproduction in the Middle East.
Wildan Sena Utama is a lecturer in global political history at the Department of History, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Indonesia. He is a scholar of modern international and transnational history, interested in the history of the connections between Indonesia and the Afro-Asian world in the 20th century. He obtained his PhD at the Department of History, University of Bristol in 2023, researching the involvement of Indonesian anti-imperialist activists in Afro-Asian movements in the 1950s-1960s to demonstrate that South-South Solidarity was central to the history of national independence, anti-imperialism, and decolonial worldmaking. He is currently preparing to transform the thesis into a book manuscript.
Elsadig Elsheikh is the Director of the Global Justice Program at the Othering & Belonging Institute, where he oversees the program’s projects. He lead the Global South Lab project and also co-lead the Inclusiveness Index and the Nile Project. Elsadig’s research focuses on global North-global South interactions related to global governance systems, socio-political dynamics, citizenship, structural mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. He has authored and co-authored several publications on just transitions, climate refugees, food systems, Islamophobia, forced migration, global expressions of belonging, international development & trade, UN human rights mechanisms, and Sudanese politics.
