High time to decolonize the university! Statement by students, alumni, and researchers of Freie Universität Berlin on the lecture series “Climate Change in Africa.

***English text below***

Dear fellow human beings,

Your commitment is needed. We are a group of students and activists, most of us are directly related to the Otto Suhr Institute (OSI) and the Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin).

We are very concerned that in 2016 it is possible to organize a lecture series on Africa where racist and colonial structures prevail and all the lecturers are white and European. The lecture series in question is entitled “Climate Change in Africa” and is being held at OSI this semester.

It is deeply disturbing that in 2016, well into the 21st century, we are still busy reminding the OSI of Europe’s history and colonial legacy, and the complicity of universities. Germany has a brutal colonial history in Africa, even if it goes largely unnoticed. Thus, the ground on which the OSI stands today at Ihnestraße 21 already bears witness to this history: this was the site of the “Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics” (KWI), whose work helped to justify the genocide of the Nazi regime. As students showed in an exhibition at OSI in 2013, KWI scientists kept a collection of skulls and bones from murdered Africans from the German colony of South-West Africa (now Namibia) in this building.

On October 21, 2016, a group of 20 people from our circle addressed a letter to the organizer of the lecture series, about which the director of the Institute was also informed. In that letter, we pointed out that the lecture series appeared to have been entirely staffed by *white* European lecturers. Not a single African academic or academic from the African diaspora will speak here. Whatever the reasons may be, ultimately African voices are completely silenced as a result. In our letter, we asked for a response. We have not received any.

We consider the decision to hold a lecture series on Africa, or any other region in the Global South, with only white, European speakers to be unacceptable. Moreover, we see the “Climate Change in Africa” lecture series as a clear indicator that the university has a much deeper problem. It is therefore necessary to review the OSI’s self-commitment and to participate in the decolonization of the German sciences, if such a self-commitment exists. It is no longer acceptable for a university to remain normatively, habitually, and intellectually *white*.

Against this background, we decided yesterday to issue a statement on this issue, which contains a list of concrete demands and has already received a lot of support. We also need your support, especially regarding the points listed at the end of the statement.

The statement in English and German for signing is available at the following link:

https://www.change.org/p/freie-universtät-berlin-allerhöchste-zeit-die-universität-zu-entkolonialisieren-fu-berlin-klimawandel-in-afrika

Thank you very much and many greetings.

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It’s high time to decolonize the university: A statement on Freie Universität Berlin’s lecture series “Climate Change in Africa

Dear all,

Your activism is needed. We are a group of students and activists, many of us with a direct link to the Otto Suhr Institute (OSI) and the Freie Universität Berlin (FU Berlin) more broadly. Our common concern is to challenge the colonial, racist structures that make it possible still, in 2016, to hold an all-White, all-European lecture series on Africa. The lecture in question is titled “Klimawandel in Afrika” (Climate Change in Africa), and is being held by the OSI Club this semester.

It deeply troubles us that well into the twenty-first century, we must still remind the OSI of the history and legacy of European colonialism on the African continent, and of the complicity of the academy. Though largely unacknowledged, Germany has a brutal colonial history in Africa. This history is staring us in the face everyday. The very ground on which the OSI stands and the building it now occupies at Ihnestraße 22, once hosted the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics (KWI). KWI’s eugenic approach sought to legitimate the genocidal Nazi regime. As students of the OSI shared in an exhibition at the institute in 2013, KWI scientists kept, on the premises, a collection of skulls and bones of murdered Africans from the colony of German South-West Africa (modern day Namibia).

On October 21, 2016, a group of twenty FU Berlin students, alumni and researchers sent a letter to the organizer of the lecture series, copying the OSI’s director. In the letter, we specifically asked for a response. We never received one.

In our view, the decision to hold an all-White, all-European lecture series on Africa, or any region of the Global South, is not acceptable under any circumstances. Furthermore, we feel that the “Climate Change in Africa” lecture series is indicative of a much deeper problem at the university. It fundamentally calls into question the university’s commitment, if such a commitment exists, to decolonising the university.

Against this backdrop, we released a statement on the issue. The statement, which has received a lot of support thus far, lists a specific set of demands. We need your support, especially in the ways outlined at the end of the statement.

The statement can be viewed and signed at the following link: https://www.change.org/p/freie-universtät-berlin-allerhöchste-zeit-die-universität-zu-entkolonialisieren-fu-berlin-klimawandel-in-afrika

Thank you and best regards.