Paper short abstract:

For many years the body of academic work regarding German Erinnerungskultur (culture of remembrance) focused primarily upon German Nationalism, thus leaving grey areas of German colonialism, and its far-reaching after-effects mainly under-examined. German postcolonial discourse needs to engage its relation to Africa as a point of self-reflection instead of as a discourse of opposition.

Paper long abstract:

Key Words: Germany, Africa, Post-colonial History, Periphery, Self-Reflection

Germany and "Black" Africa have occupied two very different historical realities.

These differences are closely linked to political as well as economic roles played by both actors within the world historical trajectory. Germany is a component within the dominant center of the world's socio-economic system, and "Black " Africa occupies a position along the periphery of this center, whose epicenter system emerged over five hundred years ago during Western European expansion and imperialism. The continent of Africa was divided, "unevenly" distributed amongst the European powers, and its postcolonial future molded during the notorious Berliner Westafrikakonferenz (1884/85-Berlin Congo Conference). Since this period, the African-European relationship has been one that has moved between paternalism, neo-colonialism and "hidden" domination" (Smith & Glaser: 1994). Germany played and continues to play an important role in European policies regarding Africa, despite its limited involvement (1885/86-1919) as a colonial power. However, the memory of Germany as an active participant in the colonization of the African continent occupies a marginal space within the German collective memory. Lack of sufficient engagement with German colonial history and I will add, a critical analysis of German post-colonial history (although this is now changing) has contributed not only to the marginalization of colonial history within the German collective memory of today, it has also contributed to the perception of Germans of African diasporan descent, i.e. Afro-Germans , as borderline figures.

I argue that the socio-political peripherization of Africa that began over five hundred years ago continues to influence cultural readings and notions of "belonging" in relation to persons of African descent residing in Germany. Moreover, I contend that the German post-colonial discourse (in the German case) perhaps needs to embark upon an epistemological concept that approachs the socio-historical trajectories of such African derived resident populations as a point of self-reflection and not only as a discourse of opposition.