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A Very Brief History of Black Germans
Fatima El-Tayeb
There are about 500,000 black people living in Germany (European nations do not officially record their citizens’ race). Nevertheless, if black Germans traveling or living abroad are questioned about their origin, they are usually met with the response — from black and white people alike: "Oh, black Germans, I had no idea they existed!" If they are asked the same question in their home-country, which happens at least as frequently, the most heard answer is: "Yes, but where do you really come from?" It is obvious that black Germans are not exactly a well-known minority. Instead, they are usually assumed to be non-existent and under a constant requirement to explain, or rather justify, their presence in a white country. Prior to the 1980s, virtually no research was done on the history of Germans of African descent and while scholars by now have shown that there has been a black minority in Germany since the 15th Century, this did not change the general perception of Germany as a (very) white nation. Contrary to US legal practice, until 2000, German citizenship was based on "the law of blood," meaning that whoever descents from a German is legally considered German (even if his or her family migrated to another part of the world centuries ago). Whoever is without "German blood," on the other hand, remains a legal "foreigner," even if born in and raised in Germany. This peculiar concept of national identity does not only create a disenfranchised "foreign" population actually German in every sense but the legal one, such an anti-assimilationist ideology, which considers "foreignness" a hereditary trait rather than a temporary state also creates
naturalized and racialized definitions of Germanness that put minorities on the defense whether they possess citizenship or not: until proven otherwise they are "Outsiders," expected to be very literally on their (natural) way out of a nation they cannot belong to. German minorities therefore not only need to fight for political influence but for a basic recognition as part of German society. Contemporary black Germans are a case in point: contrary to e.g. the Turkish minority, most of them have one German parent (usually the mother: both among African migrants in Germany and African American soldiers stationed there, men vastly outnumber women) and therefore possesses citizenship. Nevertheless, being black, they are routinely perceived as "foreigners" (see the question about origin cited above — every black German has heard it hundreds of times). Being non-existent in the public mind, minorities are not granted the role of active subjects within public debates — in fact, not even if they are its object. The refusal to grant black Germans the right of self-definition is a striking example. While the term afrodeutsch (Afro-German) is almost unanimously used as self-reference by those black Germans who intervene in the political and cultural discourse, white Germans at least as unanimously reject it in favor of "colored" (liberal version) or Mischling (mongrel).
Since the 1980s though, there has been an active and diverse Afro-German movement. The term "Afro-German" already gives you an idea how important the fight of blacks in the US was for the development of a black German consciousness. In fact, "Afro-German" was coined by the US black feminist activist Audre Lorde when she first met black Germans in 1984 (back when African Americans still were Afro-Americans). Prior to the 1980s, there were virtually no books, articles, documentaries or anything else acknowledging the existence of black Germans. Having no German rolemodels or sources of information, many black Germans turned to the US and Africa for models of resistance. One of the foremost achievements of black activism in Germany was the rediscovery of a long black German history that had been completely erased from the public record. A history that includes people who due to their exposed position left traces, like Anton Wilhem Amo, a Ghanian sold to Germany as a child in 1703 and later become a distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of Halle in East Germany, close to where more than a hundred years later Machbuba, an Ethiopian woman, was brought as a slave by the famous Count Pückler. Sources indicate that the black German population was small and dispersed up to the late 19th Century, when colonialism, more decisive for the black presence in Europe than slavery, reached Germany. The nation had colonies for a very short period only (they were all lost in the First World War), but with rather devastating consequences for the colonized. Resistance was widespread in all of Germany's African colonies, most persistently in "Southwestafrica," today's Namibia. In 1904, the Germans ended an uprising there with the first genocide of their history, slaughtering three quarters of the Herero population, many of them after the war was already over (the Herero are still fighting for an apology and reparations for this). Life for Africans and their families in Germany was difficult as well, they had a precarious legal status and similar to the US they were deemed fit only for a restricted number of professions: menial labor, serving positions or the entertainment industry. Prejudices increased after the First World War, when part of Germany was occupied by French troops, some of which were African. This lead to a massive campaign against the "Black Horror on the Rhine," vilifying the children of African soldiers and German women. Dubbed "Rhinelandbastards," they were recorded in special government lists. In response, African migrants organized in various ways, besides informal networks across the nation, the "League for the Defense of the Negro Race" (affiliated with Garvey's "Universal Negro Improvement Association") and the more conservative "German African League" sought to represent black interests, and in 1930, the first congress of the communist "International League of Negro Workers" convened in Germany, with delegates from Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa.
After the end of the Second World War, blacks weren't included in the official list of persecuted groups (as weren't, until recently, gays and draft resisters) and their fate was never publicly recognized. Instead, black Germans entered the public discourse
The National Socialist takeover in 1933 abruptly ended all these activities, the offices of the "League of Negro Workers" were immediately raided, its members imprisoned or deported. A few years later, using the government lists of the "Rhinelandbastards, African German teenagers were systematically sterilized. Generally, Nazi racist policies focused on Jews and Gypsies, blacks were left relatively unharmed in some areas of the country, in others, though, they were not only excluded from schools, public spaces, and most professions, but also sent to concentration camps. again as an entirely new phenomenon, this time dubbed "occupation babies," a term referring to the several thousand children of white German women and African American soldiers (white US soldiers fathered about 30 times as many children in Germany, but in the public mind, all "occupation babies" were black). With the community structures built up in the first half of the 20th Century destroyed by National Socialism, this new generation of black Germans grew up in isolation, faced with a society that was less than welcoming. While black revolutionary movements in Africa and the US were hardly aware of a black presence in Europe, these movements became an important source of pride and identification for black Germans (by now, the recognition is mutual, there are several exchange programs with the US and numerous cooperations between black German and African migrant organizations in Germany). Patterns of racism in Germany (and other parts of Europe) are similar to the US in many ways: blacks are supposed to be great singers, dancers, and athletes, but incapable of intellectual achievement, both men and women are constantly sexualized in media discourses, jobs or houses one had arranged for by phone mysteriously vanish when one shows up in person, and racial profiling by the police is common in all parts of the nation. along the chance to use the sudden attention to get their message across. This is especially true for a vibrant subculture that had formerly been ignored by the mainstream: Hip Hop. Though Americans might not be aware of it, Hip Hop has become a worldwide youth culture, especially taken up by people of color. In Germany, the scene is dominated by black and Turkish youths. In 2000, forty of the most important Afro-German Hip Hop artists united in the project Brothers Keepers (and their somewhat subdued sidekick Sisters Keepers), aimed at fighting the growing racism in German society. Their first single addressed the racist murder of a black man by a group of white youths (only one of more than 100 killings committed by skinheads and other right wing groups over the last ten years) — the song, as well as the CD following it, reached the top of the charts and Brothers Keepers used their popularity to initiate a variety of activities supporting black youths and refugees (who, independent of their origin, live under pitiful conditions in Germany). In addition, since the 1980s there has been a national organization of black Germans, ISD (Initiative Blacks in Germany, engaging in political, social and cultural activities) and an affiliated women's organization, ADEFRA (offering women-oriented activities and building networks with women of color inside and outside of Germany) — the first Afro-German activists in the 80s were female, they published a book that remains the key-text of black Germany, Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out, the first publication to express an Afro-German identity and point out the long history of a black presence within the nation. Apart from various local activities there is an annual national meeting of blacks in Germany,
Recently there has been a new development, though: black Germans have been discovered as hip by the white majority, they are exciting, exotic, representing a new, open, multicultural Germany. This trend is largely a continuation of old prejudices, nevertheless it is the first time that the existence of black Germans is officially admitted, offering groups active all the Black History Month, and recently, a cyber-presence, listing black owned businesses, activities, and initiatives ( http://www.cybernomads.net — partly in English).
http://web.utk.edu/~bsa/BSA_Newsletter/Page11.html
More like your swearing.
Your posts are the world's greatest proof of reincarnation; no one could get that dumb in just one lifetime. I suggest you hone your writing skills before applying borrowed glories as a mere typist.
If brains were gasoline, you wouldn't have enough to run an ant's go-kart around the inside of a donut. Is that a conclusion or simply the place where you got tired of thinking? Oh well, at least you only charge what your free advice is worth. I am reminded of something relevant that Benjamin Disraeli said: "He was distinguished for ignorance - for he had only one idea and that was wrong."
You are about as entertaining as a child's inflatable punching toy. You bop it, it springs back, you bop it again and you forget it ever existed. It slowly deflates in an unused corner, then one day you throw it away. If I had wanted to talk to somebody with your personality, I would be at the damn pet store talking to the lizards. Maybe you wouldn't read like such a pathetic loser if you weren't an 'idiot savant' without the 'savant' part; if your weren't so fat that when you run, you make the CD player skip at the radio station, or if you didn't have a face that people rub tree branches on to make ugly sticks. Who am I kidding? You would.
To sum up: I'd rather pass the world's largest kidney stone than read another post from you.
Your posts are the world's greatest proof of reincarnation; no one could get that dumb in just one lifetime. I suggest you hone your writing skills before applying borrowed glories as a mere typist.
If brains were gasoline, you wouldn't have enough to run an ant's go-kart around the inside of a donut. Is that a conclusion or simply the place where you got tired of thinking? Oh well, at least you only charge what your free advice is worth. I am reminded of something relevant that Benjamin Disraeli said: "He was distinguished for ignorance - for he had only one idea and that was wrong."
You are about as entertaining as a child's inflatable punching toy. You bop it, it springs back, you bop it again and you forget it ever existed. It slowly deflates in an unused corner, then one day you throw it away. If I had wanted to talk to somebody with your personality, I would be at the damn pet store talking to the lizards. Maybe you wouldn't read like such a pathetic loser if you weren't an 'idiot savant' without the 'savant' part; if your weren't so fat that when you run, you make the CD player skip at the radio station, or if you didn't have a face that people rub tree branches on to make ugly sticks. Who am I kidding? You would.
To sum up: I'd rather pass the world's largest kidney stone than read another post from you.
No, like I fucking care what you say.
Just when I think I've read the stupidest post ever, you go and post another. In future, kindly proofread your posts before assaulting unsuspecting readers of this message board with a litany of misspellings, egregious grammatical errors, and other verbal atrocities.
You're just another Internet-addicted idiot suffering from diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the mind. Reading your post makes blindness a wonderful thing to look forward to. As Ellen Glasgow once remarked: "He knows so little and knows it so fluently."
You have that certain nothing. Truly, you are about as interesting as watching a slug move slowly across a large rock. You have the warm personal charm of a millipede and about as much class as a bucket of mucous lodged on top of a dumpster in a Blue Light district of New Jersey. Maybe you wouldn't read like such a pathetic loser if you weren't intellectually outclassed by dead sheep; if your weren't so fat that when you walk down the street, everyone yells "Earthquake!", or if you didn't have a face designed exclusively for radio. Nah, of course you would.
Now, if you care to apologize for wasting my shamefully wasted time, I'll consider accepting it.
He still owned you.
But for those wondering why I have no friends of another race. Consider this:
Black men in London/Liverpool:
They dont talk to me because of the way I look.
They ignore me completely usually.
When Im walking between clubs at night they shout 'Mosher' or 'Goth' out of the car window as they race past.
When im on the tube they refuse to move while I struggle to get my bag from the luggage area behind them. They still dont move as I try to squeeze past them.
Indian/Muslim in London/Liverpool (usually middle aged):
They refuse to serve me in their chipshops, kebab places late at night for no reason. They simply tell me 'sorry we cant serve you'
They look at my awkwardly while they serve me in their grocery shop.
I never return anything or say anything, Ive never acted in a racist way to any person mostly because I would be scared of the reaction.
Whos racist here?
But for those wondering why I have no friends of another race. Consider this:
Black men in London/Liverpool:
They dont talk to me because of the way I look.
They ignore me completely usually.
When Im walking between clubs at night they shout 'Mosher' or 'Goth' out of the car window as they race past.
When im on the tube they refuse to move while I struggle to get my bag from the luggage area behind them. They still dont move as I try to squeeze past them.
Indian/Muslim in London/Liverpool (usually middle aged):
They refuse to serve me in their chipshops, kebab places late at night for no reason. They simply tell me 'sorry we cant serve you'
They look at my awkwardly while they serve me in their grocery shop.
I never return anything or say anything, Ive never acted in a racist way to any person mostly because I would be scared of the reaction.
Whos racist here?
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