June, 2025

• 13 June

  Cologne’s African film festival celebrates resilience and creative power

  

  Despite ongoing funding challenges, the Afrika Film Festival Köln will return in 2025 for its 22nd edition, reaffirming its role as a vital platform for African cinema in Europe. Running from 18 to 28 September, the festival will once again transform Cologne into a cinematic hub for powerful African storytelling, global premieres and thought-provoking dialogue. Under the banner “Afrikas Kino lebt …

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• 13 June

  Germany: African Music Festival Celebrates 25 Years

  

  One of Europe’s most enduring African cultural events is marking a major milestone. The African Music Festival, held annually in the picturesque town of Emmendingen in southwest Germany usually in the first weekend of August, is celebrating its 25th anniversary — a remarkable achievement that highlights its legacy of music, multiculturalism and community engagement. From its modest beginnings in 2000, …

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• 13 June

  Essay: Africa and the Echoes of Toussaint L’Ouverture

  

  Prof. Jason Osai* traces the ongoing political revolution in Francophone West Africa to the legacy of Toussaint L’Ouverture, the Haitian leader who led the struggle to establish the first independent Black nation and free his people from the grip of French colonial oppression. Since 2020, there have been military overthrows in four West African countries—three of which have expelled France …

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• 7 June

  Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: Tribute to a decolonial thinker and defender of African languages

  

  Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o passed away on 28 May. A towering figure in African literature, his works critically address colonial oppression and the unjust postcolonial order. In this tribute, Dr Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, literary scholar and former lecturer at the University of Bayreuth, honours the life and legacy of this influential writer. A former member of the European Parliament, Dr …

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• 6 June

  UK court confirms Ogunfemi’s leadership of Nigerians in Europe

  

  The long-running leadership crisis that has rocked the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe (NIDOE) for months has finally been laid to rest. According to a press statement issued by the organisation, the Royal Courts of Justice in London, in a ruling on 28 May 2025, has unequivocally affirmed the legitimacy of the Central Executive Council led by Harold Ogunfemi, bringing …

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• 5 June

  Germany: Court deals blow to Merz government’s tough asylum policy

  

  Germany’s recent policy of turning back asylum-seekers at its borders has been dealt a legal blow, following a landmark ruling by the Berlin Administrative Court. The court decided that the rejection of three Somali nationals at the German-Polish border was unlawful, affirming that asylum-seekers must be processed according to EU law, specifically the Dublin Regulation. The case involved two men …

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• 5 June

  Germany scraps free visa appeal option

  

  From 1 July 2025, Germany will end the remonstration procedure, a free appeal process that allowed visa applicants to challenge a rejection without going to court. Currently, if your visa is denied, you can file a written appeal (called a remonstrance) without going to court. This informal process usually takes between one and three months and gives applicants the chance …

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• 5 June

  Germany: A Struggle for Historical Truth in Public Spaces

  

  Berlin’s image as a progressive, multicultural city is under scrutiny once again. In this article, Amal Abbass confronts the distortion of Black history through a recent exhibition at Alexanderplatz that misrepresented the origins of blues music. She writes about what she describes as a broader pattern of how Germany’s public memory suppresses uncomfortable truths and how the Black community must …

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• 4 June

  Germany’s Annalena Baerbock Elected President of UN General Assembly

  

  Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s former foreign minister, has been elected President of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, becoming the first woman from Western Europe and only the fifth woman overall to hold the position. Baerbock was elected with overwhelming support, securing 167 votes in a secret ballot at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday. Her closest …

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• 4 June

  YANA Berlin expands support for new African migrants

  

  YANA Berlin has relaunched its services to provide support for asylum-seekers and other new African migrants in the German capital on 1 April. The migrant advisory service, run by the nonprofit German-African Initiative for Development and Integration (GAIDI), operates under the motto “You Are Not Alone in Berlin” (YANA Berlin), offering guidance to ease integration. Supported by the Stiftung Berliner …

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