Revisiting Bandung Conference: Berbeda Sejak dalam Pikiran
Nila Ayu UTAMI
ABSTRACT The 60th anniversary of the Bandung Conference seems to be a timely moment to reevaluate how we frame the Bandung Conference. Glorified as the momentous event of forging Asian-African solidarity to fight colonialism and imperialism, scholars and intellectuals oftentimes look upon the Conference for alternative framework on solidarity. Although not beyond criticism, the Bandung Spirit remains a sought-after awareness that connects common historical experience of colonialism and pushes forward the process of decolonization. Much needed, however, is the contextualization of Bandung Conference to Indonesia’s state of politics and social affairs. It is imperative that we begin to see Bandung Conference not as a solitary event in the historiography of Indonesia, but as an event within the trajectory of the newly emerging state. In that sense, we have to reframe the Bandung Conference as dependent upon other events within the both chronological and sporadic history that characterizes the post-independence struggle in Indonesia.
KEYWORDS: Bandung, national independence, sovereignty, and solidarity
Notes on contributor
Nila Ayu Utami is Lecturer at the English Study Program, Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Indonesia in 2008 and her M.A. degree in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies from the National Chiao Tung University in 2015. Her research interests include the politics of memory and state violence, social movements and human rights activism, and interdisciplinary trans- and inter-regional research with the focus on dissent and peripheries.