BERLIN POSTKOLONIAL e.V.

About us

Since 2004, the 120th anniversary of the Berlin Africa Conference marking the beginning of German colonialism, many civil-society initiatives in the Federal Republic of Germany have worked towards a critical public discussion of the German colonial past. In commemorating the 100th anniversary of the genocide in what was once German Southwest Africa and of the Maji Maji War in German East Africa, they demanded that German colonialism and the historical origins of racism within German society be reappraised comprehensively.

These initiatives expect the German federal government to accept its historical and political responsibility for the crimes committed in the German colonies by those in power. They consider this acceptance to be a basic requirement for a partnership at eye level in order to achieve a relationship between people from the north and the south that is free of prejudice.

The association BERLIN POSTKOLONIAL was founded in July of 2007. It is committed to attaining these objectives in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. Its members intend to study regional colonial history in its global dimensions, discovering and highlighting postcolonial ways of thinking and societal structures that have endured into the present. In this context, BERLIN POSTKOLONIAL seeks to cooperate with other organizations critical of colonialism and groups against racism while networking with further postcolonial initiatives within Germany.

BERLIN POSTKOLONIAL was founded by members of various organizations, people from Germany and from the former German colonies. It is particularly as a result of their different interests, perspectives and competences that they want to address this topic and bring it into the public eye.
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