Host: Joshua Kwesi Aikins
Postcolonial city tour (in English)
Host: Joshua Kwesi Aikins
Afrikanisches Viertel (African Quarter) and Schlossplatz, “Mohrenstraße,” Wilhelmstraße and May-Ayim-Ufer: all of these very different sites across the city have one thing in common ‒ they commemorate German policies and perpetrators of enslavement and colonialism. This is where crimes against humanity were planned, committed or celebrated by honouring the aggressors. Stolen or looted Goods and art treasures as well as people abducted or invited from the colonies came into the capital of the German colonial empire.
But these are also sites of resistance and contestation – both historically and in the present. In the city of the Berlin Conference where the division of Africa was negotiated at the invitation of Chancellor Bismarck, the shared German-African and German-Asian colonial history comes into sharp relief – a history that includes Berlin-based anti-colonial resistance. Up to the present day the colonial propaganda – including from the Nazi era – continues to shape Berlin’s cityscape. And presently people in Berlin, Germany and Europe benefit ‒ often unconsciously yet evidently ‒ from colonial continuities shaping everyday life ranging from the morning coffee to the smart phone. The tour offers a look at/through Berlin as a lens, enabling new perspectives on the everyday presence of the colonial past.
Meeting point: EOTO e.V., Togostraße 76, 13351 Berlin
Duration of the city tour: approx. 3 1/2 hours
Please note: The tour starts here and ends at May Ayim-Ufer, Kreuzberg. We therefore recommend public transport to reach the meeting point. The tour includes walking in the open, please be prepared for cold and rainy weather.
Tickets are only available online (Remaining tickets on site).
