Category: Black History

First Annual BGCS Convention in DC!

Sunday, 06 March 2011 15:53 Written by rosepena 0 Comments

Keynote Speaker: Noah Sow

The Black German Cultural Society, Inc. (BGCS), is excited to announce its 1st Annual Convention to be held from August 19 to 21, 2011, at the German Historical Institute (GHI) in Washington, DC.

With the theme of “Strengthening Transatlantic Connections,” the convention will host guests and presenters from our international community in Germany and the United States.

Our keynote speaker will be Noah Sow, the acclaimed journalist, musician, producer and author of “Germany Black & White” (2008), who will speak about “Geteilte Geschichte: The Black Experience in Germany and the US.”

For More information and to register, please visit our Convention Website!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Geteilte Geschichte: Noah Sow und Rosemarie Peña in neuer Buchveröffentlichung

Saturday, 26 February 2011 12:18 Written by rosepena 0 Comments

Mitten im Black History Month 2011 erschien soeben im teNeues Verlag das Buch „Briefe bewegen die Welt, Band II – Liebe, Schicksal, Leidenschaft“ (herausgegeben von Hellmuth Karasek), in dem auch ein Brief Rosemarie Peñas an mich zu lesen ist.

In diesem Brief wird ein oft verdecktes Stück deutscher Nachkriegsgeschichte sichtbar.

In den Jahren nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg kamen in Deutschland viele Kinder zur Welt, die aus Beziehungen zwischen Schwarzen Soldaten der Alliierten und weißen deutschen Frauen stammten. Dass man diese Kinder nicht gerade willkommen hieß, lassen bereits die rassistischen Bezeichnungen der damaligen Zeit erahnen.

Deutschland und die USA berieten über Möglichkeiten, afrodeutsche Kinder in die Staaten auszusiedeln, damit amerikanische Paare sie adoptieren konnten.
Ihre Kinder zur Adoption freizugeben, wurde von deutscher Seite auch jenen Müttern nahe gelegt, die ihre Kinder selbst aufziehen wollten. Gerade „solche“ Kinder – so die scheinheilige Begründung – hätten es in den USA viel leichter, weil sie wegen der dortigen Bevölkerungsstruktur unter „ihresgleichen“ wären und besser integriert werden könnten. Die Wahrheit ist eine andere: Der Rassenwahn des Nationalsozialismus lag erst wenige Jahre zurück, und dem Adenauerstaat war an einer Auseinandersetzung darüber nicht gelegen. In einem Deutschland, das sich grundsätzlich als weiß verstand, passten Schwarze Babys nicht ins Bild. MEHR….

Popularity: 1% [?]

Bärbel Kampmann

Monday, 10 January 2011 20:49 Written by rosepena 0 Comments

Popularity: 1% [?]

Africans Fought for Kaiser and Germany in World War I

Sunday, 02 January 2011 12:22 Written by rosepena 0 Comments

Black Soldier who fought for Germany in WWI

German African askaris served nobly under General von Lettow-Vorbeck in German East Africa during WWI. Africans also served in the Kaiser’s Army in Europe.

The Colonial Army (Schutztruppe) of the German Empire employed native troops–called askaris–led by German officers and NCOs. The highest concentration of such locally recruited troops was in German East Africa (now Tanzania). The first askaris in German East Africa were organized by the German East Africa Company around 1888. It was during the First World War, however, that the Askaris became the pride of the short-lived German empire.

Askaris were harshly disciplined and well paid

Harshly disciplined–as were all German troops of that time–and well paid–askaris received double the pay of their British counterparts in the King’s African Rifles, and received specialized training from German officers who were themselves subject to an extremely rigorous selection process. Before the onset of war in 1914, the basic Schutztruppe unit in Southeast Africa was the feldkompagnie comprised of seven or eight German officers and NCOs with around 160 askaris, including two machine gun teams. Such small independent commands were often supplemented by tribal irregulars or ruga-ruga.

The well-trained askaris in German East Africa commanded by Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck managed to resist numerically superior British, Portuguese and Belgian colonial forces from 1914 until the end of World War I in 1918.

Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and his askaris‘ exploits in Africa during World War I

General von Lettow-Vorbeck is possibly the most successful guerrilla commander in military history. He and his native askaris are famous for their exploits in German East Africa during World War I. Lettow-Vorbeck was fluent in Swahili, which earned the respect and admiration of his African soldiers. Appointing black officers, he said with conviction, “we are all Africans here.” Lettow-Vorbeck greatly admired his askaris, who displayed a fanatic loyalty in return. He treated them with fairness and shared their hardships.

Read more at Suite101: Africans Fought for Kaiser and Germany in World War I

Popularity: 1% [?]

Hitler’s Forgotten Holocaust Victims

Sunday, 19 December 2010 14:11 Written by rosepena 0 Comments

Afro German girl in the 1930s

Like many West European nations, Germany established colonies in Africa in the late 1800s in what later became Togo, Cameroon, Namibia, and Tanzania.

German genetic experiments began there, most notably involving prisoners taken from the 1904 Heroro Massacre that left 60,000 Africans dead, following a 4-year revolt against German colonisation. After the crushing defeat Germany received in World War I, it was stripped of its African colonies in 1918.

As a spoil of war, the French were allowed to occupy Germany in the Rhineland – a bitter fought piece of land that has gone back and forth between the two nations for centuries. The French willfully deployed their own colonised African soldiers as the occupying force.

Germans viewed this as the final insult of World War I, and, soon thereafter, 92% of them voted in the Nazi party.

Hundreds of the African Rhineland-based soldiers intermarried with German women and raised their children as Black Germans. In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote about his plans for these “Rhineland Bastards”. When he came to power, one of his first directives was aimed at these mixed-race children.

Underscoring Hitler’s obsession with racial purity, by 1937, every identified mixed-race child in the Rhineland had been forcibly sterilized, in order to prevent further “race polluting”, as Hitler termed it. Read Full Article Here…

Popularity: 1% [?]

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »