<MoneyLab> A radical new model turns the NFT into a tool for decolonization

[Geert Lovink]

A radical new model turns the NFT into a tool for decolonization

CATPC mobilizes the NFT (Non-Fungible Token) to reclaim the powers of a long-lost sculpture and buy back their land

For decades - if not centuries - people on plantations in Congo and elsewhere have been deprived of their culture and forced into unpaid labor, supporting wealth and art in the global north. In one of the first global instances of digital restitution, The Congolese Plantation Workers Art League (CATPC) claims their heritage using the powers of NFTs. The Balot NFT, to be minted on February 11th 2022, will put digital ownership of culture back into the hands of the many and helps buy back land once stolen and exhausted, reintroducing sustainable ways of governance, land use, and community-building. In a radical new model of restitution, blockchain-based NFT technology becomes a tool for decolonization.

The Balot sculpture was carved in 1931, during a Pende uprising against rape and other atrocities carried out by the Unilever plantation system and Belgian colonial agents. The sculpture depicts the angry spirit of beheaded Belgian officer Maximilien Balot, and was carved to control Balot's spirit and make him work for the Pende people. Today, the sculpture is held in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in Richmond. Loan requests by CATPC have not yet been granted.

With the Balot NFT, the CATPC uses blockchain technology to claim back what is theirs: not just art, but land. The sculpture will later this year be atomized in a limited number of original NFTs for sale. Buyers get a digital rendering of the sculpture, based on photographic reproduction from the VMFA's website. Every purchase helps to ultimately unleash the powers of the sculpture and make it work for the community: sales directly buy back land, replant the forest and reintroduce biodiversity, resulting in offsetting carbon emissions and providing autonomy and food security for plantation workers in one of most impoverished areas of the world. 

What’s at stake
Despite loaning the statue to institutions such as the Rietberg Museum in Zurich, Switzerland for an exhibition titled "Congo Fiction", the VMFA has as of yet not answered favourably to the loan requests made by CATPC to exhibit it in the White Cube, the museum that CATPC has built on the Unilever plantation.
CATPC intends to use the window of opportunity that is offered by NFT digital ownership to claim lost art and restitute its functions: by using NFTs the powers of these objects can be reclaimed, even if the physical art is held by unwilling museums. However, this window is limited: museums in the global north are already minting digital copies of key works in their collection and selling them as NFTs, creating a new profitable existence of these age-old artworks, while keeping the originals in their collections. Impoverishment on the plantations is rampant: it is now essential that local communities make use of this technology and control the powers of their lost art, rather than the institutions that were built on the exploitation of their labour and culture.
 
The launch of the Balot NFT will take place at White Cube Lusanga, and KOW Berlin, on February 11, 17:00 CET, 2022. You can join the launch and conversation here <https://humanactivities.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=09b056c780682cd6eb71fe312&id=e133e31ddb&e=ea51bcea70>. Please note that capacity is limited. We will share a video of the presentation shortly afterwards on our website <https://humanactivities.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=09b056c780682cd6eb71fe312&id=d42d7f8fe9&e=ea51bcea70>.
 
The launch is part of the exhibition “Balot” at KOW, where in addition to the NFT, the video installation Plantations and Museums, and Renzo Martens' film White Cube will also be exhibited. More info here <https://humanactivities.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=09b056c780682cd6eb71fe312&id=4c5d1201d8&e=ea51bcea70>.

About the NFT
On February 11th, CATPC publicly calls back the powers of the Balot sculpture by minting it as NFT. Later this year, a collection of 300 individual Balot NFTs will go on the market. The funds will be used to buy back land. Meanwhile, each contained spirit of Balot will live on the blockchain while royalties from resales will go into replanting forests, reintroducing biodiversity, offsetting carbon emissions and providing local food security.
 
If you want to preregister, please send an email to balotnft at humanactivities.org <mailto:balotnft at humanactivities.org>
 
About the Balot Sculpture
This sculpture was made during the 1931 Pende revolt against land expropriation and forced labour for HCB, a subsidiary of Lever Brothers, now Unilever. In order to find workers, HCB agents, aided by the Belgian state, regularly took women hostage to coerce men to work on the plantations. When Kafuchi, the wife of Pende chief Matemo was raped in such instance, this ignited the revolt of the Pende: the last armed revolt against the Belgian state before independence in 1960. The first act of revolt was the killing of Belgian colonial officer Maximilien Balot, after which he was beheaded. A sculpture representing Balot was carved to contain Balot’s angry spirit and make him work for the Pende. The statue was hidden when Belgian military forces searched for the body of Balot and killed hundreds with machine guns. It only reappeared in 1972 when it was sold to the American scholar Herbert Weiss, who later transferred it to the VMFA. Now held in the permanent collection of the VMFA, the sculpture has been named “Chief's or Diviner's Figure representing the Belgian Colonial Officer, Maximilien Balot”. The museum acknowledges that this is an important power figure that was meant to control the spirit of Balot.
 
On present-day Congolese plantations
CATPC have brought about considerable change on their land and improved their living situation and that of their community significantly. The same cannot be said for many other former Unilever plantations in Congo, where malnutrition, a lack of access to clean water and extremely poor working conditions are rampant. Even if many of these plantations produce palm oil for Unilever products up to today, and profits still go to London, pay is as low as $9 USD /month for women and for men $18 USD/month. For further information on labour conditions on these plantations, please refer to this Human Rights Watch Report <https://humanactivities.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=09b056c780682cd6eb71fe312&id=9d5c1bdb4d&e=ea51bcea70>.

Image: Matthieu Kasiama in conversation with Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, still from Plantations and Museums, 2021
Ibrahim Mahama show at the White Cube in Lusanga

Luyalu Academy – On February 24, CATPC launches a long-term educational program for the decolonization of the plantation. The program will be co-initiated by Selom Kudjie (director of SCCA, Tamale, Ghana) and artist Ibrahim Mahama. It is based on deep thought: muzindu and composition: kukungika, for children and adults. Opening February 24, 2022 – ongoing.
 
Solo show Ibrahim Mahama – Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama has long striven to bring together seemingly distinct value chains, from commodity extraction from the continent, to value creation within the art world. It will be Mahama’s first institutional solo show in Central Africa. Opening February 25, 2022.

We do not encourage mass travel, and will make an effort to report about the exhibition online.

Agenda 

Hayy Jameel, Jedda - Dec 6, 2021 - Apr 30, 2022
CATPC, group show "Staple: What's on your plate? <https://humanactivities.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=09b056c780682cd6eb71fe312&id=ec402024f5&e=ea51bcea70>"

Kunsthal Extra City, Antwerp, Feb 4 - May 29, 2022 
CATPC, group show “Made in X <https://humanactivities.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=09b056c780682cd6eb71fe312&id=ba8d68d843&e=ea51bcea70>”

KOW, Berlin, Feb 11 - April 16, 2022
CATPC & Renzo Martens solo show "Balot <https://humanactivities.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=09b056c780682cd6eb71fe312&id=169b0cb8d9&e=ea51bcea70>"

White Cube, Lusanga, Feb 24 - Mrch 10, 2022
Ibrahim Mahama, solo show

Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden, Mrch 19 - Aug 28, 2022 
CATPC and Renzo Martens, group show "Hurting and Healing"
Editorial note  
For more information on Human Activities and CATPC, please contact Janke Brands: janke at humanactivities.org <mailto:janke at humanactivities.org>
In case of publication, please mention our website: www.humanactivities.org <https://humanactivities.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=09b056c780682cd6eb71fe312&id=273218e8c8&e=ea51bcea70>

Human Activities 
Potgieterstraat 23
1053 XP Amsterdam
The Netherlands
www.humanactivities.org <https://humanactivities.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=09b056c780682cd6eb71fe312&id=f81b1a3e7f&e=ea51bcea70>

Our work is generously supported by Gieskes-Strijbis Fonds, Postkodstiftelsen, Stichting DOEN, Turing Foundation, OMA, Mondriaan Fund, AFK, NPO-Fund, Dutch Film Fund, ABN Amro Cultuurfonds, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Triodos Foundation, Chocolonely Foundation & Tony's Chocolonely, Fabrique, …,staat, Brave New Works, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the DRC, various private donors, and KASK Hogent. 

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