Simone Dede Ayivi & Accomplices: Black People — Reclaiming Memories

Black People — Reclaiming Memories is a late file inspection. Afro-German children were born in post-war Germany soon after the Second World War: children of white German women and black soldiers of the US Army. Politicians and authorities declared these children a problem and ensured that many of them did not grow up in their families but were placed in homes or sent abroad.

Many of these life stories began in West Berlin, but also in Frankfurt am Main, Mannheim, Stuttgart — all over the American sphere of influence. This part of Germany's post-war history has barely been researched to this day.

What began as biographical research in Unauthorized and Outrageous (Sophiensæle, 2024), Simone Dede Ayivi & Accomplices are now expanding into an investigation of institutional racism in the young Federal Republic of Germany. How was something like this possible after the end of National Socialism — and how do we find a language that is gentle on those affected but mercilessly judges a largely indifferent society?

Black people ask about how the history of bureaucratic violence is currently being dealt with: the lack of transparency, institutional inertia, and the emotional burden of those who are not granted access to files even after decades.