Afterword: Knowing by Ear

The afterword discusses the concept of “knowing by ear,” the performative capacities of voice, and how sound archives transfer different takes on colonial history. Arguing that the Lautarchiv in Berlin, despite growing attention, is still a sequestered space, the author suggests that its spoken histories should enter public spaces as sound installations and exhibitions more often. She discusses recent artistic interventions as well as her own exhibition of historical recordings in Hamburg (2019). Using an understanding of echo as a concept for thinking with sound in/as histories, the author argues for the restitution of acoustic collections to their countries of origin.