1 - Bandung Friendship: Is Transracial Cooperation an Imagined Memory?

From April 18th – 24th, 1955, 29 nations, some newly sovereign, met in the capital city of Indonesia’s West Java province. It was notable because it was the first international meeting of “ex-colonial subjects, people whom the white West called “colored” peoples” and the first formal international recognition of non-white sovereignty. Organized by Asian leaders from the newly independent states of Asia, six African states participated (Egypt, Liberia and Libya), and only three from Sub-Saharan or “black” Africa – Ethiopia, Gold Coast (now Ghana), and Sudan. This moment of the “Bandung Spirit”, formerly colonized third-world states working together to form a voting block that could challenge the West in the new international organizations they controlled, soon dissipated. And many scholars consider Bandung a “fleeting moment” in the postcolonial history of the world.

But is that assessment of Bandung correct? This paper argues that the fruits of Bandung have been plentiful and have nourished China’s relationship with several African states. Bandung laid the groundwork for important institutions of global governance, like the International Atomic Energy Agency, an autonomous organization within the United Nations system. It continued the “Bandung  Spirit” through international sporting events, inviting both African and Western states to compete and, most recently, it has modeled a forum for diplomacy and debate, leading to China’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summits. Using insights from narrative and visual media, I argue that the Bandung Spirit is still with us, alive and well.