 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2009) |
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.
The idea for the project took root when a German of Mozambiquan origin, named Alberto Adriano, was brutally killed by neo-Nazis in Dessau in 2000. [1] [2] A group of musicians decided to organize and fight back.
The following quote is about Adriano's death and its effect.
Original:
Als Alberto Adriano an Pfingsten 2000 von Neonazis in Dessau ermordet wird, hinterlässt er eine Ehefrau und drei Kinder – eine Familie, die nun nicht nur lernen muss, ohne ihren Vater und Mann zu leben, sondern zugleich verstehen muss, dass er starb, weil er ein Schwarzer war. [3]
English:
Alberto Adriano, killed on pentecost 2000 by neo-nazis in Dessau, is survived by a wife and three children - a family that not only must learn to live without a father and husband, but also has to understand that he died because he was black.
Brothers Keepers has local groups active in information campaigns, presenting teach-ins at schools etc. However the project primarily gained prominence in Germany through the collaborative album, Lightkultur. The title is a pun on conservative politician Günther Beckstein’s term " deutsche Leitkultur " ("German leading culture"), demanding that foreigners subject themselves to the supposed standards of German culture. The album features German musicians such as Torch, Samy Deluxe, Afrob, Denyo from the Beginner and D-Flame. The proceeds of this album went to charity.
Brothers Keepers faced much criticism and disapproval despite being one of the first groups of Afro-German hip-hop artists that broke into the mainstream while addressing the struggles behind the Afro-German racial identity. On the one hand, the rappers are denounced for being "too German." As described by Fatima El-Tayeb, "Black Germans’ attempt to make their country their home by creating a space for themselves on its imaginary map – a step which, if successful, would mean a dramatic reconfiguration of ‘Germanness’ – is held against them by exactly those white Germans who most decry the nation's anachronistic and exclusionary concept of identity." [4] On the other hand, they are also criticized, mostly by white German liberals, for being too Black, racially exclusive, and anti-multicultural. They also received charges for perpetuating male dominance and masculinity that undermines the notable role that women and feminism asserted during the early stages of the Hip Hop movement. The main concern is that while they have made significant contributions to the protest against racial divides and essentialization for the Afro-German community in large, they might have done so in a way that fails to subvert gender stereotypes and is quite often offensive, if not hostile, towards women.
Brothers Keepers presented themselves and delivered their message in traditionally masculine ways. Their presentation was heavily influenced by the Black masculinity of mainstream American Hip-Hop, but maintained a distinctly Afro-German identity and spoke to Afro-German issues. Especially in lyrics and videos that were explicitly against Nazism and anti-Blackness in Germany, they formed a confrontational masculine collectivity. This was reaffirmed by their exclusion of women from their music and videos, an absence which they claimed was due to female performers being pregnant or on maternity leave. Some of the female performers in question, Sisters Keepers, contrasted with that masculinity with a rhetoric of peace and coalition-building rather than direct confrontation. In fact, in the music video for Sisters Keepers's "Liebe und Verstand," members of Brothers Keepers make visual and auditory cameos, giving the song a gendered authenticity. Although Brothers Keepers sought to reaffirm Afro-German identity with a masculinist perspective, it is important to note that the formation of the Afro-German identity was done largely by Afro-German women. [5]
Black Lesbian feminist theorist and poet Audre Lorde can be identified as instrumental in facilitating contemporary articulations of Black Germanness. In 1984, Lorde visited Berlin and met with Black German women (such as Maya Ayim, Katharina Oguntoye, and Ika Hügel-Marshall) and coined the term "Afro-German". [4] Following the consolidation of terminology, a movement emerged led by the publication of Farbe bekennen (translated as Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out ). Then, several organizations coalesced to critique the racism of the German feminist movement, including Initiative Schwarze Deutsche" (ISD), and "Afro-deutsche Frauen" (ADEFRA). [4] These organizations' early activities involved publishing magazines and organizing the first Black History Month celebrations in Berlin. They were foundational for community building along gendered and racialized lines in Germany and elsewhere, and they were pioneered by Afro-German women.
As hip-hop became means of forwarding Afro-German activism, Brother Keepers’ select historical consciousness demonstrates how "the strong presence of women – articulate, feminist, often lesbian – in the first decades of the Afro-German struggle has been hard for young male MCs to stomach, given that they generally model themselves after images of black masculinity that are often deeply sexist and homophobic". [4] In other words, "By relegating female performers to the margins... Brothers Keepers runs counter to the strong presence of women and feminism in the history of Afro-German political organizing". [5] Brother Keepers’ female counterpart, Sisters Keepers, emerged as an ostensible afterthought, and in their collaboration, Sisters Keepers were relinquished to the background as apolitical and demure sidekicks. This representation is a far cry from the true role Afro-German women have played in activism. Sisters Keepers later diverged from Brother Keepers, renaming themselves to "Sisters" and releasing the more radical record Gender Riots in 2008.
The lyrics on the album are influenced by Black Power rhetoric and are militantly anti-Nazi, proposing solutions to racism ranging from education to violence. The militancy is especially well illustrated in the German Top 10 hit "Adriano", a seven-minute tour de force produced by DJ Desue, featuring the crème of German rap. Its video shows a procession of rappers, marching as a united front and the chorus, sung by South African-descended R&B star Xavier Naidoo, goes thus: [6]
Original:
Dies' ist so 'was wie eine letzte Warnung, / Denn unser Rückschlag ist längst in Planung. / Wir fall’n darein, wo ihr auffallt, / Wir bieten eurer braunen Scheiße endlich Aufhalt. / Denn was ihr sucht, ist das Ende. / Und was wir reichen sind geballte Fäuste und keine Hände. / Euer Niedergang für immer! / Und was wir hören denn ist euer Weinen und euer Gewimmer.
English:
"This is something like a final warning, / As we have been planning our counterstrike for a long time. / We intervene where you emerge, / At last, we offer resistance to your brown shit. / ‘Cause what you want is the end. / And what we offer are clenched fists and not our hands. / Your downfall forever! / And what we’ll hear is your crying and your whimpering."
or
Ich sage K, sage Z, sage Nazis rein / Ich will nicht labern, denn ich kenn mein Vaterland / Macht es mich krank wie Masern, dann verspür ich Tatendrang / Ich fühle mich eingeengt und will statt Prominenz / Und statt großer Fans, Nazis die wie Poster hängen.
"I say K, I say Z, I say Nazis inside / I don't wanna talk 'cause I know my country / Does it make me sick like measles, then I wanna act / Then I feel constricted and want instead of prominence / and lots of fans, Nazis who hang like posters."
The project is not limited to Germany. It focuses on manifestations of the African diaspora throughout the world and is supported by international artists such as Jamaican reggae musician Ziggy Marley and Senegalese mbalax musician Youssou N'Dour. There is a UK Brothers Keepers, which, while lacking the organizational superstructure of its German counterpart, contributed a track to Lightkultur.
There is also a female version of this Movement/Band called the Sisters Keepers consisting of Nadja Benaissa, Ayọ, Kaye, Nicole Hadfield (Groove Guerrilla [ de ]), and Tamika, along with Tesiree, Lisa, Mamadee, Pat and Meli (Skills en Masse [ de ], Ischen Impossible [ de ]) with Onejiru (Pielina Schindler).
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GER | AUT | SWI | ||
| 2001 | Lightkultur(with the Sisters Keepers) | |||
| 2005 | Am I My Brother's Keeper? | |||
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GER | AUT | SWI | |||
| 2001 | "Adriano - Letzte Warnung" | ||||
| 2005 | "Bereit" | "Afrobob" | |||
| "Will We Ever know?" | |||||
A list is available on the website.
Samy Sorge, commonly known as Samy Deluxe, Wickeda MC or Sam Semillia, is a German rapper and record producer from Hamburg.
Robert Zemichiel, known professionally as Afrob, is a German rapper and actor.
Sinzig is a town in the district of Ahrweiler, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the river Rhine, about 5 km south-east of Remagen and 25 km south-east of Bonn, and it has approximately 20,000 inhabitants (2004).
Fünf Sterne deluxe is a German-language hip-hop band from Hamburg, Germany, founded in mid-1997, consisting of the rappers Das Bo and Tobi Tobsen, the graphic designer Marcnesium, and the disc jockey DJ Coolmann.
The main difference that sets apart German sentence structure from that of English is that German is an OV (Object-Verb) language, whereas English is a VO (verb-object) language. Additionally, German, like all Germanic languages except English, uses V2 word order, though only in independent clauses. In dependent clauses, the finite verb is placed last.
Lena Valaitis is a Lithuanian–German schlager singer who had her greatest success during the 1970s and 1980s. She finished second at the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest.
Dennis Lisk, also known as Denyo, Denyo 77, Dennis Deutschland and Dennis Dubplate, is a German soul and hip hop musician and radio presenter. He was also host of the German television series Cover My Song.
German singer and songwriter Xavier Naidoo began his music career in the early 1990s. His debut studio album, Seeing Is Believing, was released in 1994, consisting mostly of cover versions of traditional tracks and soul songs from the 1960s and 1970s. Released in the United States only, it failed to chart on the Billboard 200 and thus, was never released in Europe. Following a fall-out with main producer Nicole Dürr, he signed with Frankfurt am Main-based Pelham Power Productions (3P) and began appearing as a background vocalist on several of his label-mates' albums. Naidoo's second studio album Nicht von dieser Welt, produced unter the guidance of Moses Pelham and Martin Haas, was released in May 1998. The album peaked at number one on the German Albums Chart and sold more than a million copies. Its singles included his debut single "20.000 Meilen", the top twenty entries "Nicht von dieser Welt" and "Seine Straßen" as well as top five hit "Sie sieht mich nicht", which served as the theme song for the feature film Asterix & Obelix Take On Caesar (1999). A gold-certified live album of his first concert tour, simply titled Live (1999), reached the top ten in Germany the following year.
Claire Waldoff, born Clara Wortmann, was a German singer. She was a famous kabarett singer and entertainer in Berlin during the 1910s and 1920s, chiefly known for performing ironic songs in the Berlin dialect and with lesbian undertones and themes.
Adegoke Odukoya, better known as Ade Bantu, is a Nigerian-German musician, producer and social activist who is the front man of the 13 piece band BANTU and the creator of the monthly concert series and music Festival Afropolitan Vibes which holds in Lagos, Nigeria. Ade Bantu is also the founder of the Afro-German musical collective Brothers Keepers. His band BANTU received the Kora Award for their album Fuji Satisfaction in 2005.
Simone Stelzer alias Simone is an Austrian pop singer. She was born in Vienna, Austria on 1 October 1969.
This is the discography of Sido, a German rapper from Berlin.
Farid Hamed El Abdellaoui, known professionally as Farid Bang, is a German rapper of Moroccan-Spanish descent. He is currently the owner of the label Banger Musik.
"Was es ist" is a song written and recorded by the German pop and rock band MIA., released in 2003 and later included on the album Stille Post. Although only reaching number 50 in the German charts, it caused a fierce controversy within German society because of its underlying patriotic message.
Sonja Gerhardt is a German film and television actress. She is best known for her roles in the television series Schmetterlinge im Bauch and Deutschland 83, and the upcoming action-horror film Paranormal Activity: The Other Side.
Abiodun Odukoya, better known as Abiodun, is a Nigerian-German singer, songwriter, producer and music arranger. Abiodun's name is of Yoruba origin. It means he who is born on a day of festivity. He is better known as the co founder of the Afro German music collective Brothers Keepers and as one of the pioneers of the German reggae, afro and soul music scene.
Sisters Keepers were initially a subset of the band Brothers Keepers, formed in the autumn of 2001 in Germany, joined a compilation album Lightkultur (WEA) by the Brothers Keepers. Appealing against racism, famous female and mainly Afro-German singers joined together with reggae, Soul music and Hip-Hop background.
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.
In 2000, Albert Adriano was murdered by three neo-Nazis in Dessau, Germany. The killers were immediately arrested and imprisoned after a trial.
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Other | |
