» History

GO-BAMA: Between Hope & Dreams

rosepena — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 01:28:08 +0000

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Künstlertreff: Label Noir

rosepena — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 11:42:16 +0000

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Bourgeois Radicals: The NAACP and the Struggle for Colonial Liberation, 1941-1960

rosepena — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:52:02 +0000

Speaker: Carol Anderson (Emory University) – more about this lecture…
In 1993, shortly after his release from Robben Island, future President of South Africa Nelson Mandela addressed the NAACP annual convention. Mandela told the Association members, who “had contributed everything from $20 bills to $1,000 checks in a fund-raiser for the ANC”, that “‘We have come as a component part of the historic coalition of organizations, to which the NAACP and the ANC belong that has fought for the emancipation of black people everywhere.’”

Indeed, many of the strategies that brought about the collapse of apartheid – the isolation of South Africa in the UN, boycotts, divestment, and media attention focused on the brutality of white supremacy – were designed by a transnational team of activists in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

One of the first sustained skirmishes occurred when South Africa, swimming against the tide of colonial and racial history, attempted in 1946 to annex the adjacent international mandate of South West Africa (current-day Namibia). Pretoria was confident of UN approval for such an unprecedented move. Yet, into the breach -and into the United Nations – stepped an unlikely duo, the Reverend Michael Scott and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to stop the absorption of 350,000 Africans into a white supremacist state.

This seemingly odd couple, a maverick, communist-leaning Anglican minister and a staid, staunchly anti-communist bureaucratic organization, launched a skillful assault in the UN by linking the destructiveness of colonialism with white supremacist domestic rule. Within the span of five hard-fought years, the NAACP and Scott, wielding one human rights charter after the next, had carved out the political space in the UN for non-governmental organizations to debunk the myth of the white man’s burden and to challenge the legitimacy of apartheid.

In her talk, Professor Anderson will explore the intersection of domestic and international history, recapturing the vision and the actions of the black political center in the anti-colonial and global freedom movements.

Read Full Article Here…

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Afro-Auschwitz/Buchenwald

rosepena — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 12:52:47 +0000

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Lebensgeschichte im Buch verarbeitet

rosepena — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 12:05:11 +0000

Gert Schramm

Gert Schramm wird Eberswalde auf der Leipziger Buchmesse vertreten. Der 82-Jährige hat seine Lebensgeschichte aufgeschrieben. „Wer hat Angst vorm schwarzen Mann – Mein Leben in Deutschland“, so der Titel der Autobiografie, die der Aufbau-Verlag ab 12. März in die Buchläden bringen wird.

Die Idee zum Buch hatte Gert Schramm schon vor mehr als drei Jahren. „Irgendwann ist niemand mehr da, der über die Nazi-Zeit und den Neubeginn nach Kriegsende etwas erzählen kann“, sagt der 82-Jährige bescheiden. „Der zweite Grund für mein Buch. Ich wollte etwas tun gegen den wiederauflebenden Nazismus. Ich möchte vor allem die Jugend warnen, solchen Ideologien auf den Leim zu gehen“, fügt er hinzu. 2008 hatte er deshalb angefangen, aufzuschreiben, wie sein Leben bisher verlaufen war. Mehr als 1000 handschriftliche Blätter waren schließlich zusammengekommen. Aus dem umfangreichen Material entstand ein Manuskript, das Gert Schramm seinem Buchenwaldkameraden Götz Dieckmann und dessen Frau zum Lesen gab. Beide befanden die Geschichte für gut. So kam es, dass Gert Schramm seine Biografie an mehrere Verlage verschickte. Vier meldeten sich zurück, darunter der Aufbau-Verlag, der den Eberswalder Autor bereits zur Buchmesse in Leipzig eingeladen hat. Dort wird der 82-Jährige sein Erstlingswerk am 17. März persönlich vorstellen. Die Eberswalder können das Buch schon am 11. März in der Brasserie am Stein kennenlernen. Dort liest Gert Schramm auf Einladung von Buchhändlerin Brigitte Puppe-Mahler.

Zu erzählen hat der 82-Jährige jede Menge. Als Kind eines schwarzen Amerikaners und einer Deutschen hat sich ihm das dunkelste Kapitel deutscher Geschichte nachhaltig eingeprägt. Über seinen Vater weiß er nur, dass er Jack Brankson hieß und aus Kalifornien stammte. Er war Ingenieur für Stahlhochbau und 1927 als Vertragsarbeiter einer amerikanischen Firma nach Erfurt gekommen, die den Auftrag hatte, eine Eisenbahnbrücke zu bauen. Schramms Mutter arbeitete zu dieser Zeit als gelernte Schneiderin im Geschäft ihres Vaters. „Dort sind sich meine Eltern begegnet. Es muss wohl Liebe auf den ersten Blick gewesen sein“, sagt Gert Schramm. Im November 1928 erblickte er das Licht der Welt. An seine Kindheit hat er nur gute Erinnerung. „Ich war der ganze Stolz meiner Familie“, sagt er.

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First Annual BGCS Convention in DC!

rosepena — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 15:53:15 +0000

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!

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Bärbel Kampmann

rosepena — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:49:41 +0000

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Africans Fought for Kaiser and Germany in World War I

rosepena — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 12:22:14 +0000

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

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Blacks were forerunners of the Holocaust

rosepena — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:28:14 +0000

Before the Jews, there were the Africans

: Hans Jürgen Massaquoi

American Jews tell their story of survival, pain, and tragedy regarding Germany’s horrendous mass genocide known as the Holocaust. But more often than not, the story of those Black Africans brutalized and experimented on in Nazi Germany fall by the wayside, as if burned to ash in the fires of Hitler’s secret past. Before the German tyrant Adolf Hitler mobilized his deviant and apparently bewitched Nazi soldiers to attempt to exterminate European Jews, records show that he tested his inhumane tactics on Germans of African descent.

Clarence Lusane, author of “Hitler’s Black Victims,” (a historical compilation of the events and philosophies surrounding the Holocaust) suggests African people were used in preparation for the Jewish Holocaust.

From 1904 to 1907, Germany engaged in a war against the Herero people of Southwest Africa. Although the Herero attempted to live peaceably with Germany, which occupied various parts of Southwest Africa, foreign soldiers constantly provoked them by raping their women, and stealing and lynching those who protested against their acts. As a result, a massive Herero revolt took place, initiating a years long war.

Germany sent over one of their most brutal, bloodthirsty war assassins, Lt. Gen. Lother von Trotha. In his attacks, he killed any Herero people in his path and banished the remaining population to the then Omaheke Desert. He also ordered his troops to poison the water supplies to the desert. By the end of the bloodbath, the Herero population had been cut from 80,000 to 15,000.

The remaining Herero who fell into the hands of Germans were then sent off to concentration camps, where they endured barbaric treatment and eventually death. “In the camps, the Herero were subjected to medical experiments including sterilization and injections of smallpox, typhus, and tuberculosis,” Lusane writes. “This type of experimentation can be seen as a testing ground for later medical procedures that would be used against Blacks, Jews, Gypsies, and others during the Nazi Holocaust.”

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE!

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Thomas Usleber

rosepena — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 13:49:06 +0000

»Kultur darf nicht auf die Sprache oder die Religion reduziert werden, denn dadurch wird nur das Trennende hervorgehoben.«

»Ich bin ein Deutscher. Bin ich es? Woran wird „Deutschsein“ erkennbar? Woran erkennen Menschen, dass ein anderer ein Deutscher ist oder eben keiner? Am Pass? An der Sprache? Am Namen? Am Aussehen?«

Mit seinen autobiografischen Aufzeichnungen »Die Farben unter meiner Haut« meldete sich 2002 erstmals ein schwarzer, deutscher Mann zu Wort. Der 1960 geborene Thomas Usleber erzählt vom Aufwachsen in der westdeutschen Provinz, wo er mit seiner weißen Mutter und einem schwarzen Bruder lebte. Auch wenn Rassismus seine Erfahrung von Ausgrenzung am stärksten prägt, gesellt sich bei ihm noch ein weiterer Aspekt dazu: Die Armut seiner Familie. […] Usleber arrangiert sich damit, als Schwarzer nicht deutsch sein zu können. Um dennoch in einer Gesellschaft (über)leben zu können, die ihn offensichtlich ausgrenzt, wählt er die Strategie der Assimilation, nimmt die Rolle des Vermittlers ein und leistet Bewusstseinsarbeit in der Mehrheitsgesellschaft, um “Toleranz” für nicht-weiße Deutsche oder anderweitig Ausgegrenzte zu schaffen. © Ekpenyong Ani

In seinem Buch zeichnet Usleber die erschütternde Geschichte eines Deutschen auf, der im eigenen Land als Fremder gesehen wird, aber mit Konsequenz und einem unbeirrbaren Glauben dokumentiert, dass nicht die Hautfarbe eines Menschen entscheidend ist, sondern seine Willenskraft und individuelle Persönlichkeit. AUDIO & MEHR….

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