Featured stories

29/05/2025
Dissemination

Art looted in the colonies, in Catalan museums

El Punt Avui publishes an extensive report on the (Tr)african(t)s program, with an interview with researcher Laida Memba and statements by researchers Alberto López and Àlex Tejero.

02/04/2025
The Research

The institutional journey of José Coronado’s Philippine collection (MUEC)

From the 1887 Exposición General de las Islas Filipinas to the Ethnological Museum of Barcelona, José Coronado Ladrón de Guevara’s Philippine collection has passed through numerous institutions and relocations. Its journey, shaped by world’s fairs, political decisions, and museum reorganisations, reflects the complex management of colonial heritage in the Spanish state.

07/02/2025
The Research

Morocco: scientific expeditions and foundational extractivism

Having just begun its career in 1949, the Ethnological and Colonial Museum of Barcelona (precursor to the current Museum of Ethnology and World Cultures) assumed the responsibility of inventorying on the ground the material culture of the peoples who inhabited the northern zone of the Spanish protectorate over Morocco. The result of the expeditions was one of its first collections of colonial origin.

07/02/2025
Intercultural dialogue boards

Intercultural Dialogue Tables (Equatorial Guinea)

A summary of the interventions at the first Intercultural Dialogue Tables with people linked to Equatorial Guinea, held at the Museum of Ethnology and World Cultures (MuEC) during the first phase of the research.

07/02/2025
Dissemination

(Tr)african(s) in the Parliament of Catalonia

On November 17, 2023, the architect and researcher Laida Memba Ikuga appeared in the Parliament of Catalonia on behalf of (Tr)african(t)s, to explain the program within the framework of the Study Commission on Institutional and Structural Racism.

07/02/2025
Dissemination

Traffickers of patrimony

After months of collaboration between many hands, a large monograph has been published in the magazine Sàpiens with part of the results of the research we do at (Tr)african(t)s

03/05/2024
The Research

A skull at the CRAI of Belles Arts (UB)

At the University of Barcelona Library (CRAI Belles Arts), a human skull was exhibited inside a biere, a ritual figure used in the cult of the melan of the Fang people. This object becomes evidence of the colonial ties that persist in Catalan institutions.

03/05/2024
The Research

Interview with Françoise Vergès

The preparation and filming of in-depth interviews with people who can provide knowledge about the relationship between museums, the colonial past and its relevance today, is one of the methodological tools that we are developing as the program progresses.