Black German Cultural Society of New Jersey
2012 Annual Convention

Call For Proposals 2012

Building on the success of the inaugural 2011 conference, the second annual convention of the Black German Cultural Society of New Jersey (BGCSNJ) will be held at Barnard College in New York City on August 10-11, 2012.  This year’s convention will focus on the theme of “What Is the Black German Experience?” The conference will feature a keynote address by Yara Colette Lemke Muniz de Faria, screenings of the films “Hope in My Heart: The May Ayim Story” and “Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984-1992,” and readings by Black German poet-performers Olumide Popoola and Philipp Kabo Köpsell.

In response to recent interest, the BGCSNJ Review Committee has expanded the scope of the conference and invites proposals for papers that engage the diverse histories, experiences and cultural productions of Blacks of German heritage and blackness in Germany and Europe more broadly. We welcome submissions for twenty-minute presentations on three academic panels. Additionally, two panels will be devoted to life writing, oral history and memoir. These two panels will provide a forum for the work of collecting individual accounts and reflections, as well as raising awareness on the overlooked life histories of blacks of Germany heritage and blackness in a wider European context.

We encourage submissions from both academics of all disciplines, as well as non-academics interested in sharing their work.. To participate please send a one-page abstract and a CV or short biographical statement to: bgcsinc@gmail.com. Deadline for proposals: April 15, 2012

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Synopsis:

A five-year-old girl suddenly appears on the doorstep of a well-to-do Hamburg family. The members of the multi-generational, white household react differently to the arrival of Toxi, who is black, the daughter of an African-American G.I. and a white German woman who has died. Eventually Toxi works her way into the hearts of this German family, but then her father returns, hoping to take Toxi back to America with him.

At the time of the film’s release in 1952, there were between 3,000 and 5,000 children of Allied paternity born since WWII living in West Germany. Toxi was the first feature-length film to explore the subject of “black occupation children” in postwar Germany and premiered when the first generation of these children began entering German schools, creating a public awareness of this situation. Robert A. Stemmle, one of the most popular West German directors and known for his unique blend of social realism and melodrama, brought together an exceptionally renowned set of classic German actors with diverse experiences of the Nazi era, including Paul Bildt, Johanna Hofer and Elisabeth Flickenschildt.

PURCHASE ONLINE AT DEFA

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We are tremendously grateful to Priscilla Layne, S. Marina Jones and Noah Sow for providing us with a formal conference report of the First Annual Convention and the complete text of the keynote lecture.

Our inaugural convention was a great success and we are currently very busy making arrangements for the Second Annual Convention. Please stay tuned for details. We promise not to disappoint.

Thank you again for all who were in attendance and supported us in this endeavor. We look forward to seeing all of you again soon! Plan to bring a friend.

DOWNLOAD FULL  CONVENTION REPORT

VIDEO: NOAH’S KEYNOTE LECTURE

CONVENTION 2011 WEBSITE

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German Colonialism and the Concept of Transnational History

Organized by Clelia Caruso (GHI) and Uwe Spiekermann (GHI)

Click to Enlarge Image

In 1897 Chancellor von Bülow claimed “einen Platz an der Sonne” (a place in the sun) attempting to justify the recent and, as it turned out, comparatively short-lived German imperial ambitions. By the end of World War I, Germans colonial endeavors were already a thing of the past. The former German colonies quickly merged into other European empires and German society was hardly influenced by the brief imperial episode – or so it seemed. Following the lead of recent scholarship on transnationalism the lecture series “The Aftermath of German Colonialism” reopens the case. Historians from Germany and the United States will explore whether and to what extent imperialism shaped Germany and its former colonies and possibly continues to do so.

All lectures begin at 6:30 pm (refreshments will be served from 6:00 to 6:30 pm) and will be held at the German Historical Institute, 1607 New Hampshire Avenue NW (Directions). Please RSVP (acceptances only) by Tel. 202.387.3355, Fax 202.387.6437 or E-mail.

CLICK FOR COMPLETE DETAILS

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Null 8 Fünf 10 productions

A New documentary about the annual ISD Bundestreffen (Federal Meeting of Black People)  in Germany.

Seeking International Screening opportunities. Contact Filmmaker, Julia Rivera!

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Find out how you can support and be part of this important project HERE!

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By Yara-Colette Lemke Muniz de Faria

Rosemarie Peña's Passport

Between 1945 and 1955, an estimated 67,770 children were born to soldiers of the occupying forces and German women in the Federal Republic of Germany. Of these children, 4,776 children were the children of African American and Moroccan soldiers. The fate of this generation of Afro-German children (or “brown babies” as they were called in the U.S.) was the focus of public interest both in West Germany and the U.S.

During the 1940s and 50s, popular and scholarly publications in both countries printed detailed reports on these “brown babies” (“Mischlingskinder”) who were the subject of intense political and pedagogical debates and controversies. Indeed, both state institutions and private organizations in Germany and in the U.S. devoted considerable time and effort to planning out their lives. What underlay the public debate on the fate of Afro-German children both in postwar Germany and the U.S. was a very specific construction of their heritage—one that defined them as essentially “fremd” (both in the sense of “strange” and “Other” and, at the same time, “foreign” or “alien”), “not belonging and at risk in Germany.” Their German nationality and their socialization in the country of their birth were, thus, only of secondary interest. In other words, their national and cultural heritage were regarded as contrasting directly with their race. Consequently, an ambivalent and contradictory attitude developed toward them both in hypothetical discussions and in the concrete actions taken in their name. The debate around these Afro-German children reveals a paradoxical and shifting dynamic of caretaking and marginalization, inclusion and exclusion. Complete Article & Photo Gallery here….

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Y.-C. Lemke Muniz de Faria: Zwischen Fürsorge und Ausgrenzung

By Yara-Colette Lemke Muniz de Faria
(Metropole Verlag, 2003)

more…

“Germany’s ‘Brown Babies’ Must Be Helped! Will You?”: U.S. Adoption Plans for Afro-German Children, 1950-1955

“This essay explores the debate that arose around the adoption of Black German children by African American parents and the subsequent immigration of these children to the United States. Using a comparative approach, the article probes the underlying internal social and political controversies in postwar Germany and the United States that led to and accompanied

these events, concluding that both the plans for and practical implementation of the adoption of these Black German children abroad was an complex and contradictory attempt to solve the “problem” a German-born Black population was seen to pose. FIND ARTICLE…

Callaloo

Volume 26, Number 2, Spring 2003

E-ISSN: 1080-6512 Print ISSN: 0161-2492

DOI: 10.1353/cal.2003.0052

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