ADEFRA
ADEFRA
Black German Women
Black Women In Germany
ADEFRA ist ein Forum, in dem sich Schwarze Frauen mit unterschiedlichsten Themen wie Politik, Bildung, Lifestyle und Gesundheit beschäftigen. ADEFRA repräsentiert eine Vielfalt von Schwarzen Frauen: Töchter, Mütter, Frauen, die allein oder in Beziehung leben, Frauen aller sexuellen Orientierungen, alte und junge Frauen. Alle verbindet auf die eine oder andere Weise – unabhangig von Weltanschauung, Glauben, Nationalität, Beruf und Sozialisation – die Erfahrung Schwarz und eine Frau zu sein.
For more please check out their website at:
English:
ADEFRA is an amalgamation of Black German women and Black
women in Germany to speak for and represent themselves. The name ‘ADEFRA’ means, in an Ethiopian language: The Woman Who Shows Courage.
While working on the book, ‘Showing Our Colors: Afro-German
Women Speak Out’ [published by the University of Massachusetts
Press, 1992. Original title: Farbe bekennen – Afro-deutsche
Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte; edited by Katharina
Oguntoye, May Opitz (Ayim), Dagmar Schulz, Berlin: Orlanda
Frauenverlag, 1986], regular meetings started nationwide. Out of
ADEFRA the Initiative of Black Germans/Black People in Germany
(ISD) came into being where women and men work together.
We are Black women, born and/or grown up in the Federal
Republic of Germany or the former German Democratic Republic and Black migrant women.
Our reality of life is mainly determined by being Black as
well as being women and by living in white social relations
without the background of a Black community.
ADEFRA was specifically founded to enable Black women to
explore the basic questions of what it means to be a Black woman
in the white German society.
Objectives:
ADEFRA fights for the end of prejudices, discrimination,
racism and sexism.
We want to contribute to uncovering and changing racist
structures, behaviors and stereotypes in everyday life, in
institutions, in the media and in legislation.
We want to be recognized and respected as part of German
society.
We want German society to have an analytical view of German
history and politics concerning Black people, especially Black
women.
ADEFRA is a forum for Black women:
– to discuss Black history and culture.
– to strengthen ourselves for our Black feminist struggle.
– to define and clarify the collective position of Black women on
issues that affect the quality of our lives.
– to develop the leadership potential of Black women by
encouraging and facilitating our entry into public services.
– to build and strengthen our Black consciousness and Black
identity in the white German society.
What Does ADEFRA Do?
ADEFRA organizes and participates in local, national and
international meetings mainly for Black women and also for People
of Color in general.
Activities:
– seminars, workshops, conferences, exhibitions, readings and
other events
– support of publications
– establishing and coordination of working sessions
– cultural events
– networking
– cooperation with other organizations and groups which have the
same objectives
– creating a library and an archive
Planned Activities:
– to create a center for Black Germans/Black people in Germany,
with the focus on Black women, children and youth
In Honor of Audre Lorde
“We will begin to see each other as we dare to begin to see
ourselves; we will begin to see ourselves as we begin to see each
other, without aggrandizement or dismissal or recriminations, but
with patience and understanding for when we do not quite make it,
and recognition and appreciation for when we do.”
-Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde initiated the book ‘Showing Our Colors:
Afro-German Women Speak Out”. She brought us together; she showed
us the way to a self-determined way of life. She taught us to
articulate our oppression, in order to fight it. She helped us to
discover our self-confidence by making us tackle our stories and
the realities of life.
Audre Lorde believed in our actual potential to affect
change throughout Germany. We, who had formerly been silent,
Black Germans, women and men, old and young. She also believed in
our growing power to participate in international change together
with African-Europeans, African-Asians, African-Caribbeans and
African-Americans (North and South) and all other dual-identity
colonized peoples determined to recapture their true identities
according to the patterns of struggles started and still moving
among all oppressed peoples.
Her lifework is a legacy to us.
ADEFRA
c/o Kofra
Baaderstr. 30
D-80469 Munich
Germany
Tel: +49 089 201 36 26
Fax: +49 089 201 27 47
E-Mail: ADEFRA…@AMAZONAS.comlink.apc.org
(Source: Sabina Astete <sgas…@u.washington.edu>)
Arriving In The Future 