Cornelia Knoll
Africa is a country - December 19, 2014
The myth of an all-white, Christian German society largely persists. So
does the idea that anyone who is black only arrived here in the late
20th century or the 21st as refugees, or for economic reasons. Though
many Germans actually remain unaware or do not acknowledge it, German
colonialism did exist—and no, it was not a “benign” form of colonialism,
either; German forces were responsible for the genocide of indigenous
Herero populations in Namibia (to find out more: see here and here).
These are facts that are difficult for Germans to bear, especially
since they also bear the responsibility for the trauma and genocides
during World War II So colonial atrocities – and the fact that the
nation was involved in slave trade and exploitation of Africans – are,
for the most part, happily forgotten. And since German society
represents itself as racially white, black lives and bodies are
invisible and voices of resistance against this dominant narrative of
Germany – those that question Germany as a “white space” without a
colonial history in Africa – are hardly ever heard.
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