SPECIAL: BLACK PEOPLE IN GERMANY

A panel discussion on how the Black community could engage the state for its empowerment was part of the People of African Descent Week which took place recently in Berlin. Panellists, including Berlin minister for justice, looked at how problems faced by Black people could be solved through community engagement with the government. The historic People of African Descent (PAD) …

About 200 people took the streets of Cologne on Saturday in a public demonstration against a recent controversial court ruling allowing the use of the word neger (subsequently referred to as the N-word in this report) to describe people of African descent. The protesters demanded that the use of the derogatory word be made illegal as it degrades Black people. …

Black people are often singled out as potential culprits in society which is why they are frequently stopped and searched by the police, followed in the supermarket, asked for their ticket by controllers in public transport or closely observed by security personnel in official premises. Since Black people are subjected to these experiences more frequently than members of other groups, we talk of their racial profiling.

Members of the Black community in Germany will hit the streets of Cologne on Saturday, 18 January to register their protest against the controversial decision of a court that describing people of African descent as “neger” is not necessarily derogatory. The state constitutional court of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) had ruled on 19 December that sanctioning the leader of the AfD …

The State Constitutional Court of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Landesverfassungsgericht Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), sitting in Magdeburg, ruled on 19 December that sanctioning an AfD member of the state parliament, Nikolaus Kramer, over the use of the word “neger” during a debate in the house amounted to a restriction of his right to free expression. Kramer had taken the leadership of the state parliament to …

Charlotte Nzimiro launched the ongoing petition against the scandalous judgement of the State Constitutional Court of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), de facto recognising that the word “Neger” (Engl. Nigger, Negro) could be used to describe people of African descent in Germany. Nzimiro’s petition, launched on 20 December and which has already gathered more than 42,000 signatures within 2 days, calls for …

Activist launches petition campaign for the classification of “neger” as a racist word in Germany after eastern state court gives AfD member the right to call people of African descent by the derogatory word. AfD is a xenophobic, extreme right-wing party. The state constitutional court of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) ruled on Thursday (19 December) that sanctioning the leader of the …

It’s important that the community of people of African descent in Germany recognises Hamado Dipama and his kind for we’re all beneficiaries of the fruits of their labour.

While speaking at the opening of the People of African Descent (PAD) Week Germany on 28 November in the Bundestag, Goran Buldioski, co-director of Open Society Initiative for Europe, called for more data on the experience of Black people, including on racism and discrimination. That is precisely the objective of a unique project, presented at one of the workshops on the …

The historic People of African Descent (PAD) Week Germany ended on Saturday in Berlin with workshops and panel discussions on the situation of Black people in the country. Organised by Each One Teach One (EOTO) e.V., a community-based education and empowerment project, PAD Week Germany, held on 28-30 November and attended by more than 250 participants, also marked the third …

About 250 people came together for the event to press for more recognition of the challenges faced by Black people in Germany and for concrete actions to be taken by decision makers to address these challenges.

In what could be described as a historic congress of Black people in Germany, their organisations and groups will gather in Berlin for three days (28-30 November) to take stock of the situation of people of African descent in the country. On the first day of PAD (People of African Descent) Week Germany, Black organizations will converge for the first …

One of the oldest living Germans of African descent has passed on. Theodor Wonja Michael died in Cologne on Saturday (19 October), aged 94. Michael, who was born on 15 January 1925 as the youngest of four children to a father from Cameroon and a German mother, was one of the few remaining Black Germans who lived through the horrors …

Deutsch Sein und Schwarz Dazu” (“To Be German and Black”) is a treasure and a gift for German historiography. It is a treasure because Theodor Michael succeeds in vividly describing and analysing key events of his dramatic life in a historical and political context, covering the period from the Weimar Republic to this day.

Jacklyne Achieng Kuhn started the group to offer Kenyan women a platform where they can support, interact and uplift each other.

How to make African women more visible as entrepreneurs and not only as employees in Germany was the theme of the 10th Economic Forum of the Pan-African Women’s Day, which took place on Friday, 26 July at the Chamber of Commerce (IHK) in Potsdam, Germany. The Day (celebrated each year on 31 August) is also a contribution to the UN …

The Federal Government has appointed Dr Sylvie Nantcha as a member of a technical commission on migration. The task of the 24-member commission is to identify “the root causes of flight and irregular migration” and it has until the end of next year to make concrete recommendations for action on how to tackle the issues. Flight and migration are among …

In the second and concluding  part of his report on Ghanaians in Germany, journalist, translator and community activist Sam Atsu Nove* writes on the changes in the patterns of Ghanaian migration in the past 40 years and the contribution of the Diaspora to Germany’s and their home  country’s development. ———————————– The economic crisis of the 1970s and 1980s in Ghana …

The population of people of African origin in Germany has nearly doubled in only five years, according to new figures published on Tuesday by the Federal Statistics Office. Moreover, the number of people with an immigrant background in the country reached a new high of 18.6 million in 2016, an increase of 8.5 per cent compared to the previous year. …

There are artists who believe their work should be assessed solely for its aesthetic qualities. This “art for art’s sake” philosophy should not be surprising as art is “the conscious creation of something beautiful or meaningful using skill and imagination”. There are others however who hold that beyond the beauty of their work, it should also send a social message. …