EUROPE

Carlo Bansah, the son of König Cephas Bansah, has assumed office as the managing director of DRK Vorderpfalz gGmbH. DRK (Deutsches Rotes Kreuz) is the synonym of the German Red Cross and Vorderpfalz is a region in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.   The IT specialist who also studied business management, aged 40, took over the management of the welfare service …

For the first time, a government financed pilot project for the reappraisal of German colonial history has been launched in Berlin

On 13 September, elections for Lord Mayors, Mayors, Councillors and the Integration Councils will be held in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. AfricanTide Union e.V. is calling on members of the African community to participate in the elections. “Your opinion counts, because it is about you, your family and our community!” the organisation said in a public message …

Perhaps no other phrase uttered during Angela Merkel's long chancellorship has made such an impact. The words "Wir schaffen das" ("We can do it") were meant to express confidence in the face of a huge, self-imposed task. How has Germany and those who came to seek asylum in the country managed since then?

The renaming of streets in Berlin should be made easier if the name heroicises or trivialises colonial injustice. That is the objective of a draft resolution submitted by Regine Günther to the Senate of Berlin, the executive body governing the city that is also a federal state, on 18 August. According to the resolution, the Berlin street law is to …

"In addition to individual spectacular outbreaks that have become known nationwide, there are transmissions in the family and domestic environment that do not necessarily lead to many secondary cases and only show a few cases per outbreak, but apparently occur very frequently"

In what could be described as a major victory for the Black community’s long struggle for the renaming of streets bearing names derogatory or disrespectful of Africans in the federal capital, the District Assembly (Bezirksversammlung) of Berlin-Mitte has approved the name change of the Mohrenstrasse (Moor Street). On Thursday evening, the assembly decided to rename Mohrenstrasse. In the future, the …

Hundreds of participants will gather on 22-23 August in the German city of Cologne to take part in activities marking the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. The night of 22 to 23 August 1791, in Santo Domingo (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) marked the beginning of the uprising that would play a …

A Germany-based Ghanaian association has expressed its gratitude to the government of President Nana Akufo-Addo for the successful evacuation of Europe-based Ghanaians who were stranded in Ghana. Over 1705 persons, according to a statement issued by Ghanaian Community in Diaspora, have arrived safely in their respective countries in Europe whiles 85 stranded Ghanaians in Germany were also flown back to …

Since Saturday, 8 August, mandatory testing applies to those entering the country from coronavirus high-risk countries and regions. Here’s how it functions: —– To whom does the mandatory test apply? In principle, every person who has been in a high-risk area in the last 14 days before entering the Federal Republic of Germany must be tested for the coronavirus. This …

Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn has decided to make corona testing mandatory for people entering Germany. It will apply to all travellers entering Germany from high-risk areas from Saturday, 8 August. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany’s centre for disease control, lists the countries that are classified as high-risk areas on its website. The list of high-risk areas currently …

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has pledged to hire more people from minority groups after meeting with members of the European Parliament’s Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup (AIRD) on Tuesday (28 July). The meeting, called at the request of the anti-racist MEPs, focused on the Commission’s Action Plan against Racism and Xenophobia and discussed the AIRD’s proposals on “how …

The Nigerian community in the southern German state of Bavaria has elected a new executive committee to pilot the affairs of the association for the next two years. At the event, which took place in Munich on Saturday, 25 July, Kazeem Ojoye was elected the new chairman of the Nigerian Community Germany Bayern (NCBG) e.V. Mr Ojoye, a former Financial …

A study on racial profiling in Germany’s police services was cancelled by Interior Minister Horst Seehofer two weeks ago. Instead, the Federal Ministry of the Interior is now making preparations for a study on violence against police officers. Critics accuse Seehofer of hypocrisy According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, it is making preparations for a study on violence …

Racism in different forms and places is a common experience for the more than one million people of African descent in Germany. Black people are often subjected to police identity control more than other groups. Also, they experience discrimination in public offices, at the workplace, while accessing healthcare, looking for apartment, in schools, in the justice system, in their neighbourhoods …

Anna Swaboda, a member of power4africa e.V., reports on a demonstration against anti-Black racism in the eastern city of Dresden on Sunday. “The only thing that should be separated according to colour is laundry” was the message on a banner at the Black Lives Matter demonstration on Sunday afternoon in Dresden. Several hundreds of people gathered at Dresden’s Neumarkt square …

  The racist attack on Noël Martin in June 1996 was one of the most internationally reported incidents of neo-Nazi violence in Germany in the 1990s. The attack left the British-Jamaican paralysed from the neck down and yet he found the strength to continue living, setting up a charitable foundation which campaigns against racial intolerance and promotes exchanges between German …

Estimates of the number of Ghanaians living outside their homeland range from one to three million out of a general population of about 30 million. Ghanaians in Germany are reputed to form the second largest of the country’s diaspora populations in Europe, after the United Kingdom. Journalist, translator and community activist Sam Atsu Nove*, who first arrived in Germany in …

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) has warned against racial profiling, as well as “systemic racism and inequalities” in Europe. “Racial profiling constitutes a specific form of racial discrimination and must be expressly prohibited by law,” ECRI, a human rights monitoring body, said in a statement published on 6 July. “It generates a feeling of humiliation and injustice …

The decision of the Federal Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer, to call off an investigation into racial profiling in the police is drawing anger and criticisms not only of migrant associations but also political parties, including the junior governing coalition partner SPD. Following the Black Lives Matter protests in Germany, questions are being raised about racism in the country’s …