We are all "Kanaken"

In his essay film, Wir sind alle Kanaken, Kervin Saint Pere demonstrates the complex layers of meaning associated with the term "Kanake" that have been violently imposed through European colonialism. The appropriation of the term is closely tied to racist practices of European colonialism in the Global South, and to this day serves to legitimize violence. Saint Pere examines these colonial practices using imagery of unscientific myths and "theories" that illustrate how the terming of an individual as "Kanake" is used to dehumanize, degrade and mark them as other and foreign.

It is exactly these objectified people who are cut...