13 - From Farbe bekennen to Schokoladenkind: GenerationalChange in Afro-German Autobiographies

Summary

OVER THE PAST TEN YEARS a remarkable increase in publications by black German writers, mostly in autobiographical form, has occurred. These texts represent a diversity of voices from different generational and geographical backgrounds, including the former East and West Germanies and unified Germany. The authors’ birth dates range from 1931 to 1970. The publication of all these texts seems to be motivated by their authors’ desire to share the unusual life experiences of an underrecognized German minority. As such, all of them thematize race as an important factor of their identity formation as black Germans, either in the narratives themselves or in the marketing of the books through the choice of titles and cover images. However, over the years the character of these works has changed: the earliest published autobiographies identify widespread societal racism as a dominant theme and articulate counterstrategies to such discrimination, beginning with the self-identification “Afro-Deutsch,” whereas later stories seem to downplay race as a determinant and frame their authors’ successes and failures in terms of personal accomplishments and defeats.

In this essay I examine three of the most recently published autobiographies by the youngest generation of black Germans against the backdrop of earlier Afro-German writing, to determine how generational factors may have contributed to such a shift in emphasizing or de-emphasizing race and racism. In the following, I will discuss Schokoladenkind by Abini Zöllner (2003; Chocolate Child), D! Heimkind–Neger–Pionier (2005; D! Orphan–Negro–Pioneer) by Detlef Soost, and Ich bin ein Black Berliner: Die ungewöhnliche Lebensgeschichte eines Afrikaners in Deutschland (2006; I Am a Black Berliner: The Unusual Biography of an African in Germany) by Jones Kwesi Evans. Close readings reveal the limitations and strengths of the generational model. As the analysis will show, consideration needs to be given to further complicating factors, such as geography, class, and gender.

Furthermore, I examine how texts by the youngest generation of black Germans function as “counter-narratives,” that is, writings that can disrupt widely held stereotypes, even though they seem at first glance to avoid politicizing their authors’ own encounters with racism, choosing instead to focus strictly on the personal, not the political. In doing so, I explore strategies that these texts employ to give readers insights into the individual experiences of black Germans.