After the killing of George Floyd, structures and representations of white supremacy, including symbols, maps, and memorials became targets worldwide to contest racism nowadays. The tribute to white males who played a role in slavery and colonialism through statues and place names became objects of contestation. Contested monuments are therefore interesting starting points for analysing the racialized and gendered power relations and capitalist dynamics that shaped cities in the past and continue to shape them in the present. In this lecture I propose a globalized reading of some European cities, including Grenoble, Basel and Amsterdam and show how cities themselves or their residents were involved in colonial encounters and the slave trade from the 16th century onwards and how these histories are dealt with at present.
If cities are partly shaped by colonial relations and if the coloniality of power is still relevant for these cities today, how can we conceive of decolonising urban landscapes?


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