Author Archives: glokal

Unspeakable STIHLlos: Appeal against Stihl calendar disrespecting women

This year’s Weltweitwissen Congress, entitled “Changing Perspectives – Nationwide Congress on Global Learning and Education for Sustainable Development,” took place January 16-18 at the Haus der Wirtschaft Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart. To the dismay of many attendees, the photo exhibition for this year’s STIHL erotic calendar (attention trigger warning) was prominently displayed in the foyer. This year’s calendar (circulation 900,000) of the Swabian chainsaw manufacturer, which has been around for 40 years(!) with similar discriminatory images, is described as follows:

“Inspired by fascinating night shots of wild animals, the interplay between femininity and technology is staged as a nocturnal encounter in “Unique Encounters.” Caught by the light of the camera, women move like shy animals in the impressive nature of South Africa.”

Continue reading →

Thousands of dead in Berlin? PM of “No Humboldt 21! Moratorium for the Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace”.

The member organizations of the international NGO alliance “No Humboldt 21!” urge the German government, the Berlin Senate and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin/Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SMB/SPK) to increase transparency regarding non-European human remains and cultural objects with special significance for the societies of origin. Continue reading →

(In)Security in postcolonial development education in Germany

Last year, two glokal members participated in a roundtable on “What Do We Teach?”. How Do We Teach It? Critical Pedagogies and World Politics” at the International Studies Association Annual Convention in San Francisco, USA. The event resulted in a collection of publications that has now been published in the journal Critical Studies on Security. Here you can find the abstract of our article “(In)Security in postcolonial development education in Germany” (unfortunately it is not freely available, but only for much, much money).

Massive police violence against refugees in Kreuzberg

During a police operation on the night of 16. to the December 17, 2013, there were massive violations of the law on the part of the police. Public opinion has recently turned in favor of the refugees’ protest after Henkel’s eviction threats. That exactly at this time such a martial police action against the Gerhard Hauptmann School inhabited by refugees takes place is probably no coincidence, according to the press release of the refugees.

Continue reading →

Berlin Mohrenstrasse to be renamed Nelson-Mandela-Strasse

Press release of the NGO Alliance “No Humboldt 21! Moratorium for the Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace” and the Global Afrikan Congress, Berlin, 13.12.2013

The international campaign alliance “No Humboldt 21!”, supported by more than 80 non-governmental organizations, and the Global African Congress strongly reject the current proposal of the “Stiftung Zukunft Berlin” to name the square in front of the controversial Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace after Nelson Mandela. Instead, they emphatically renew the demand already made in 2004 by numerous African associations in Berlin to rename Mohrenstrasse, which dates back to the Brandenburg-Prussian trade in enslaved people in the late 17th century, Nelson-Mandela-Strasse.

“The attempt by the Stiftung Zukunft Berlin, which is involved in the Humboldt Forum, to rehabilitate the large-scale project, which has come under public criticism as neocolonial and Eurocentric, by creating a Nelson Mandela Square in front of it is as transparent as it is unacceptable,” says Christian Kopp of Berlin Postkolonial. “The name of the anti-apartheid fighter must not be misused as cosmetics for the controversial non-European collections of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which also contain thousands of appropriated cultural treasures and human remains from forcibly colonized territories.”

Yonas Endrias of the Global Afrikan Congress emphasizes: “Already ten years ago, all African associations in Berlin jointly demanded the renaming of Mohrenstraße to Nelson-Mandela-Straße. The current name of the street, where enslaved minors from Africa lived who had to serve at the Brandenburg-Prussian court, is based on a racist foreign designation and violates the dignity of Black people in Berlin.”

Contact: Yonas Endrias, Global Afrikan Congress, endriasy@aol.com, 01799404690; Christian Kopp, “No Humboldt 21!” campaign, buero@berlin-postkolonial.de, 01799100976

Info: www.no-humboldt21.de

Not all that glitters is gold! – Rusty and Golden Radiator Awards leave a bitter aftertaste

Announced today, December 10
SAIH – The Norwegian Students and Academics International Assistance Fund
 announced the winners of two international awards: the Rusty Radiator Award for the most damaging fundraising video and the Golden Radiator Award for the most creative fundraising video. Much media attention and more than two million clicks on the satirical video “Radi-Aid: Africa for Norway” released a year ago have encouraged SAIH to take new actions. The awards were accompanied by a new video clip “Let’s save Africa! – gone wrong”, in which the young black Michael shows us common patterns in fundraising. He makes Western expectations his profession: “Every time these filmmakers come to us in Africa, I’m the first person they call. I’m incredibly talented. Wait – this is sad Africa.”

The short film successfully problematizes in a satirical way how charity commercials are shot. From reports of filmmakers who have been involved in such shoots, we know how people are literally trained to look sad, women have to take off their jewelry for the shoot, or children have to exchange their school uniforms for dirty rags – sometimes despite the objections and incomprehension of those photographed. It does not make the situation any better that many aid organizations have long since switched to shooting their commercials and posters in Europe and casting Black people and People of Color here for their purposes.

Thanks to the Radiator Awards, the discussion about problematic donation advertising in the run-up to Christmas has also made it into Germany’s leading media. On “Let’s save Africa! – gone wrong”, for example, the Süddeutsche Zeitung has published an article. The racism researcher cited in it, Nadja Ofuatey-Alazard, has her say in a lengthy interview on Deutschlandradio Kultur and comments on the clip as follows:

Continue reading →

Anything but knorke!

The Berlin band Knorkator advertises their latest record with racist motifs and the slogan “We want Mohr”. We heard it on radioeins, saw it in Berlin’s streets and couldn’t believe our ears and eyes, but did nothing. Fortunately, not everyone has remained inactive: for example, the Initiative Black People in Germany has written a statement and the blogger Atif Hussein has exchanged letters with radioeins – rbb.

Looted art and academic colonisation in Germany

The Archaeological Association of Nigeria (AAN) accuses the curators of the recent German Nok exhibition in Frankfurt of academic colonization of archaeology for failing to agree to the exhibition first being hosted on Nigerian soil and for several other breaches concerning the heritage of Nigeria. For more information, see the statement by the AAN, an article on Pambazuka by the president of the AAN, Zacharys Anger Gundu, and an essay by Kwame Opoku in Modern Ghana.

New evidence of murder of Oury Jalloh

On November 11, 2013, the Initiative in Memory of Oury Jalloh e.V. and several individuals filed criminal charges of manslaughter or murder against unknown police officers in the Oury Jalloh death case with the Federal Prosecutor General Harald Range in Karlsruhe. The basis for this is a new fire report, which was presented at a press conference on November 12, 2013. Donations are still urgently needed for expert opinions/investigations, legal and court fees, and political action.