Living in the African Quarter Berlin Germany
African Quarter In Berlin Germany
Berlin's Afrikanisches
Viertel or African quarter carries the names of a number of cruel German
colonial rulers, military personnel and German colonies during the scramble for
Africa.
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| Germany in Africa |
Germany in Africa
Germany seized four
protectorates, in Africa: Togo and Cameroon in the west, German Southwest
Africa (today’s Namibia), and German East Africa (today’s Tanzania, Rwanda, and
Burundi) in the east. Parts of modern day Chad, Gabon, Ghana (the gold coast),
Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Central African Republic and the Republic of
the Congo were also under the control of German Africa at various points during
German rule.
Africans fought
Germany over their homeland and this led to several violent colonial wars. The
Herero-Nama war of 1904 in German Southwest Africa and the Maji-Maji war in
German East Africa were the most devastating for Native Africans. The
German-Herero war led to the first genocide of the 20th century.
African Quarter Berlin Germany
Estimates vary with around 300,000 to 800,000
people of African origin call Germany home. Since April 2011, citizens
who live in the African Quarter Germany are petitioning city leaders to balance
historical heritage in the city and the streets, including street and place
names.
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| Adolf Lรผderitz nicknamed "Lรผgenfritz" or lie buddy |
Tanzanian born Mnyaka
Sururu Mboro lives on Petersallee Street says "Carl Peters was so brutal.”I
cannot understand that some people are proud to have a street named after him
in this quarter." Carl Peters was
the driving force behind the foundation of the German colonies and earned a
reputation for brutality and torturing native Africans.
Lรผderitzstraรe, named
after Adolf Lรผderitz nicknamed "Lรผgenfritz" or lie buddy who “bought”
land from native Africans until he claimed to own the entire coastal strip from
South Africa to Angola, 220,000 sq miles.
"Even many
people living here often do not know what the names are all about,"
Christian Kopp, a historian with "Berlin Postkolonial". Besides
renaming the three streets, Kopp also wants to raise awareness about the
historical connotation of other streets. "We have thousands of streets in
Berlin, but we do not know any street in Berlin honoring a person from Africa.
That needs to change," said Christian.
