The globalAfrican diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the native West and Central Africans who were enslaved and shipped to the Americas via the Atlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries, with their largest populations in the United States, Brazil, and Haiti. However, the term can also be used to refer to African descendants from North Africa who immigrated to other parts of the world. Some scholars identify "four circulatory phases" of this migration out of Africa. The phrase African diaspora gradually entered common usage at the turn of the 21st century. The term diaspora originates from the Greek διασπορά which gained popularity in English in reference to the Jewish diaspora before being more broadly applied to other populations.
Rhineland Bastard was a derogatory term used in Nazi Germany to describe Afro-Germans, believed fathered by French Army personnel of African descent who were stationed in the Rhineland during its occupation by France after World War I. There is evidence that other Afro-Germans, born from unions between German men and African women in former German colonies in Africa, were also referred to as Rheinlandbastarde.
Brothers Keepers is a German-based transnational anti-racism project, bringing together hip hop, reggae and soul musicians, headed primarily by Afro-Germans. Their debut single, "Adriano-Letzte Warnung", was written in response to the murder of Alberto Adriano by Neo-Nazis. It remains their most popular release, with more than 6 million views on YouTube.
Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern Afro-Caribbean people descend from the Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the trans-Atlantic slave trade between the 15th and 19th centuries to work primarily on various sugar plantations and in domestic households. Other names for the ethnic group include Black Caribbean, Afro or Black West Indian or Afro or Black Antillean. The term Afro-Caribbean was not coined by Caribbean people themselves but was first used by European Americans in the late 1960s.
Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi was a German-American journalist and author. He was born in Hamburg, Germany, to a German mother and a Liberian father of Vai ethnicity, the grandson of Momulu Massaquoi, the consul general of Liberia in Germany at the time.
Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany (ISBN 978-0060959616) is an autobiographical book by Hans J. Massaquoi.
While black people in Nazi Germany were never subject to an organized mass extermination program, as in the cases of Jews, homosexuals, Romani, and Slavs, they were still considered by the Nazis to be an inferior race and along with Romani people were subject to the Nuremberg Laws under a supplementary decree. There is evidence that at least two dozen black Germans ended up in concentration camps in Germany.
May Ayim is the pen name of May Opitz ; she was an Afro-German poet, educator, and activist. The child of a German dancer and Ghanaian medical student, she lived with a white German foster family when young. After reconnecting with her father and his family in Ghana, in 1992 she took his surname for a pen name.
Afro-Russians are people of African descent that have migrated to and settled in Russia. The Metis Foundation estimates that there were about 30,000 Afro-Russians in 2013.
Racism in German history is inextricably linked to the Herero and Namaqua genocide in colonial times. Racism reached its peak during the Nazi regime which eventually led to a program of systematic state-sponsored murder known as The Holocaust. According to reports by the European Commission, milder forms of racism are still present in parts of German society. Currently the racism has been mainly directed towards Asian and African countries by both the state and through the citizens which includes being impolite and trying to interfere in internal matters of African countries by the diplomats.
Hilarius Gilges was a German actor, dancer and communist political activist. He was murdered at the age of 24 by the Nazi party.
Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out is an English translation of the German book Farbe bekennen edited by author May Ayim, Katharina Oguntoye, and Dagmar Schultz. It is the first published book by Afro-Germans. It is the first written use of the term Afro-German. A compilation of texts, testimonials and other secondary sources, the collection brings to life the stories of black German women living amid racism, sexism and other institutional constraints in Germany. The book draws on themes and motifs prevalent in Germany from the earliest colonial interactions between Germany and black "otherness," up through the lived experiences of black German women in the 1980s. It was groundbreaking not only for the degree to which it examined the Afro-German experience, which had been generally ignored in the larger popular discourse, but also as a forum for women to have a voice in constructing this narrative. The book also acted as a source for these Afro-German women to have a platform where their stories can be heard. The stories that were told helped the development of an Afro-German community as a common theme throughout Showing Our Colors was the idea of feeling alone and as though there was no one to relate to. The discussion of this loss of connection to others helped Afro-Germans come together and unite.
Bayume Mohamed Husen was an Afro-German soldier, actor and victim of Nazi persecution.
Katharina Oguntoye is an Afro-German writer, historian, activist, and poet. She founded the nonprofit intercultural association Joliba in Germany and is perhaps best known for co-editing the book Farbe bekennen with May Ayim and Dagmar Schultz. The English translation of this book was entitled Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out. Oguntoye has played an important role in the Afro-German Movement.
Erika "Ika" Hügel-Marshall was a German author and activist. She was active in the Afro-German women's movement organization ADEFRA. Her autobiography, Daheim unterwegs. Ein deutsches Leben, discusses racism in Germany and her search for a family identity. She was influenced by and praised the work of her friend, American activist Audre Lorde. She and her partner Dagmar Schultz worked with Lorde.
Fatima Massaquoi-Fahnbulleh was a Liberian writer and academic. After completing her education in the United States, she returned to Liberia in 1946, making significant contributions to the cultural and social life of the country.
The Autobiography of an African Princess, published in 2013, is an account of the early years (1912–1946) in the life of Fatima Massaquoi, a descendant of the royal families of the Gallinas from Sierra Leone and Liberia. It describes her early childhood in Africa, her schooling in Germany and Switzerland and her university studies in the United States.
Theodor Wonja Michael was a German child actor, journalist and public servant, as well as a prominent speaker on living as an Afro-German and a prisoner in Nazi forced labor camps during Nazi Germany.
Bärbel Kampmann was an Afro-German psychologist, writer, and civil servant. A well-known anti-racist activist in Germany, she led innovative integration programs in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia that served as a model for the rest of the country.
Generation ADEFRA – Schwarze Frauen in Deutschland is a Berlin-based German cultural and political organization for Black women and other women of color. Founded in 1986, it is considered the first grassroots activist group for Afro-German women.
