Writing Across Differences: Afro-Germans, Gender, and Diaspora, 1970s-1990s
Abstract
My dissertation, 'Writing Across Differences: Afro-Germans, Gender, and Diaspora, 1970s-1990s,' explores the birth of the Afro-German movement, including its two organizations: The Initiative of Black Germans (Initiative Schwarze Deutsche, ISD) and Afro-German Women (Afro-deutsche Frauen, ADEFRA) in West and then reunified Germany. In it, I uncover the efforts of Black Germans to organize a diasporic and literary movement to confront discriminatory discourses and practices that simultaneously ignored them and positioned them as 'Others' in postwar German society. Through their diverse literature and coordinated events, Black Germans enacted membership in the African diaspora, articulating and claiming an identity that supported a community and that both transcended and affirmed the nation. In this way, Afro-Germans established transnational connections with other Afro-diasporic individuals that did not preclude ties to Germany.