International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition: 7th Renaming Celebration at M-Street
Sunday, August 23., 2020
13.00 – 14.00 hrs: Humboldt Forum
14:30 – 19:00 hrs: Hausvogteiplatz/M-Street
The night of 22 to 23 August 1791, in Santo Domingo (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) saw the beginning of the uprising that would play a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. It is against this background that the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition is commemorated on 23 August each year.
On this day, the member organizations of the Decolonize Berlin e.V. alliance also celebrate the 7th renaming ceremony for the discriminatory M-Steet in Berlin, which in future will honour Anton Wilhelm Amo, Germany’s first Black university scholar. Amo stands not only for the more than three hundred years of presence of Black people in Prussia, but also for their continuing resistance against racist discrimination. Our online petition to rename Berlin’s M-Street in honor of Anton Wilhelm Amo now has more than 11,500 supporters.
This year we will gather at 1 pm at the Lustgarten opposite the Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace to protest against Germany’s newly erected, largest colonial monument. We do not only want to protest against the exhibition of looted cultural assets in the castle of the Hohenzollern rulers. We would also like to remind you that in the imperial building with its golden dome cross, Black minors who were once deported and forcibly baptized in the castle chapel had to serve at court.
At 2:30 pm our street renaming celebration begins on the Hausvogteiplatz with music, speeches and panel discussions. In the context of a cooperation of the German Museum of Technology with the joint project DEKOLONIALE Erinnerungskultur in der Stadt (DEKOLONIAL culture of remembrance in the city), we will broadcast the performative action SEK/ SORRYFORNOTHING EINSATZ KOMMANDO by Philip Kojo Metz in a live stream from the shipping department after the museum performance by the artist Monilola Ilupeju on Sunday morning. In the process, a much-criticized installation by the Museum of Technology on the transatlantic slave trade will be demonstratively dismantled in order to make room for an open space for debate in which topics of decolonization will be discussed in the future.
Speeches by: Simone Dede Ayivi, Vincent B. Bababoutilabo, Dr. Manuela Bauche, Angelo Camufingo, Dr. Karamba Diaby, Dr. Ibou Diop, Dr. Noa Ha, Monilola Ilupeju, Dr. Duane Jethro, Elisabeth Kaneza, Jeff Klein, Adetoun Küppers-Adebisi, Philip Kojo Metz, u.a.
Organizers: AfricAvenir International, AFROTAK TV cyberNomads, Berliner Entwicklungspolitischer Ratschlag, Berlin Postkolonial, Each One Teach One, FuturAfrik, glokal, Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland, NARUD, Tanzania-Network.de