Africa Is a Country

Being Black in Germany

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Being Black in Germany

By
Tom Devriendt

Sharon Dodua Otoo is hoping to edit the book series ‘Witnessed’, written in English by black authors, who live or have lived in Germany. She says:

The idea for the series came to me one day as I thought about how little people know about life in Germany as a Black person – or how dated this knowledge is. Even within Germany, discourse around ethnicity and diversity goes something like this: “if the foreigners learn German, they will integrate then there will be no problems”. And yet, Black people have lived in Germany for over 300 years. Black Germans can be found in all fields from science to art, from education to sport, from music to entrepreneurship. Where there are problems, these rarely have to do with lack of proficiency in the German language. It is (…) incredible how little voice Black people within Germany have, despite decades of activism, academic research, creative publications and performances. So I thought – fine! If we don’t find recognition within Germany, we surely can on an international stage.

There are also these video presentations of some of the project participants: Philipp Khabo Kopsell, Joshua Kwesi Aikins and Mirjam Nunning.

All the details here.

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