Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out

by May Ayim, Katharina Oguntoye, Dagmar Schultz

Book Overview

Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out is an English translation of the German book Farbe bekennen edited by author May Ayim, Katharina Oguntoye, and Dagmar Schultz. It is the first published book by Afro-Germans. It is the first written use of the term Afro-German.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870237608
• ISBN13: 9780870237607
• Release Date: December 1991
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.4"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Groundbreaking features in Showing Our Colors

The publication of Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out was groundbreaking not only because it examined the Afro-German experience, one that had been highly ignored or denied, but also because it provided a forum for Afro-German women to discuss issues that affected them. This was difficult before the publication of this book because of the way that German historians had examined what they called "the problem" of the "occupation babies," and because Afro-Germans had generally been raised isolated from other Afro-Germans. This book discusses the concept of German identity and why Afro-Germans have been a marginalized group because of the concept of Germany as a homogenous white nation. This book confronts the ignorance concerning Afro-Germans in Germany and exposes the reader to instance after instance of subtle racism including and ways in which different expressions concerning race, color, and mixedness are used derogatorily and what connotations they have. It explains why racism is often an accepted part of the social structure and exposes the fallacies that are used to justify ignorance and violent behavior. The personal experiences give an intimate perspective to a history that can otherwise be viewed objectively. By attempting to educate the public with this book, the contributors create a context for themselves in German history and modern German culture. The existence of Afro-Germans is no longer a mystery, nor denied; instead it is claimed by them. When a society is ignorant of its own history it can not begin to remedy the problems within. Because it provides a community for people formerly isolated, because it examines a history not previously discussed, because it educates a public in the hopes that some change will come about: for those reasons is Showing Our Colors a groundbreaking book.

Breathtaking

This novel will take your breath away. It is horrendous that not enough information has been written about others that sufferd through the scourge of Nazism. And there's scant amount written about Blacks in Nazi Germany. The Rhineland Bastards (children of mixed race in pre-war Germany) were the first victims of the Nazi murder machine. But little is known or has been written about them. Their skin color placed them in a most precarious position: impossible to hide and no amount of bleaching the hair would change that. But Mr. Masaquoi's book is enthralling and exquisitely rendered. One particular passage made me cringe with excitement: being a child and wanting to be like his peers, this young boy of mixed race wanted to join the Nazi Youth like his other friends were doing, knowing little of the atrocious policies of the Third Reich. Well, his mother, fearing she couldn't just tell him NO decided that a better lesson would be to take him to the local Nazi Youth headquarters and attempt to sign him up for the organization....well, you'll have to buy this book to find out what happened. In all, this is a tremendous work and one that has not received, unfortunately, as much attention as many other books on personal accounts of the Holocaust.