16 May 2024 | Conference Broadcasting Colonialism: Sight, Sound and Media Technologies in the Colonial World, Oxford, UK

Paper Presentation:

Dulce da Rocha Gonçalves:

TedTalks of the early twentieth century: Public lantern lectures and the Dutch colonial strategy

Conference organized by the African Studies Centre and Oxford Centre for Global History, University of Oxford, the Department of Communication Studies, University of Ghana, and the Department of Communication and Media Studies, University of Johannesburg.

The full program can be accessed here.

Abstract:

Public lantern lectures, that is public lectures featuring the projection of images by means of a lantern, were once a ubiquitous cultural activity of Dutch social life. They were organized for broad audiences and usually held in public auditoriums such as theaters, concert halls or even cinemas, but also countryside inns and cafés. Facilitating this type of events was an important part of the audiovisual propaganda strategy developed by the Koloniaal Instituut, which aimed to “collect and disseminate knowledge about our overseas regions, in particular the promotion of trade, agriculture, industry, and other interests.” The Koloniaal Instituut created its own lantern slide rental office, published lantern readings, and established collaborations with other national associations. The Maatschappij tot Nut van ‘t Algemeen, for instance, framed these events within a “united” national effort and tried to encourage its many departments to organize them by establishing a subsidized lecture-scheme in 1912. By exploring the diversity of lecture topics and framings used by speakers and organizers—from academic insights to personal experiences—this paper aims to investigate how public lantern lectures articulated the relation between the colonies and the metropole.