People Who Inspire Us:
Katharina Oguntoye

It was an unforgettable moment: Audre Lorde, celebrated American poet, feminist, and civil rights activist, urging two young students in Berlin to “find your voice.” Those students were Katharina Oguntoye and the late poet May Ayim. 

Together, they followed that advice, starting with a groundbreaking book on Afro-German identity and history, “Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out” (Farbe bekennen. Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte), published in 1986.

“The first thing we wanted to do… was to make people aware,” Katharina says. “Because they would say, ‘Oh, we don't have Black people in Germany.’” The book featured a series of interviews with Black women in Germany who shared their stories, including the subtle racism they faced every day. 

One of the interviews was with two sisters who were born in Weimar and survived World War II. That interview was particularly important. “How did black people survive under the Nazis? Did they survive at all? We had no idea because there was no research or reports about it. …And that means they were the first contemporary witnesses to speak out,” Katharina says.

“The importance of ‘Showing Our Colors’ can’t be underestimated. For the first time Black activists, Black women were stepping out into the open and claiming a space — asking for rights; asking for their history to be made known, to be made visible,” says Robbie Aitken, professor of history at Sheffield Hallam University in the U.K. and an expert on Black Europe and empire. “It was pivotal in challenging people’s perceptions of what is German history, who are Germans, how has an idea of a German identity been constructed.”

Katharina has spent a lifetime raising awareness about the Afro-German community and the challenges Afro-Germans face, and bringing together members of the community for support and education. May Ayim died tragically in 1996.

Katharina also published “An Afro-German Story: About the Living Situations of Africans and Afro-Germans in Germany from 1884 to 1950.” That book, along with “Showing Our Colors,” confronted a widely held myth that Afro-German history began largely with the arrival of African-American servicemen in 1945 and of contract workers from Africa who had arrived in East Germany in the 1970s, says Aitken.

Among many other accomplishments, Oguntoye in 1997 founded the Berlin-based intercultural association Joliba, which serves families from many cultural backgrounds, with an emphasis on those from the African diaspora.

Savannah Sipho, a student in Berlin, says Joliba is like home for her. “My Afro-German identity was developed and shaped here,” she says. “Here it is natural as an Afro-German person to have Black role models, to have access to Black literature, to have access to Black history and know where to find it. And not to feel alone from an early age. I think that was the most empowering thing of all: not feeling alone, not being the only one, and then being able to draw on this more and more, because this is a safe space.”

Carolyn Gammon, Katharina’s wife and an author and Holocaust scholar, says there’s a reason young people feel so empowered at Joliba. “One very unique thing about Katharina’s work, and I’ll stress this, is that it’s always positive…Everybody assumes ‘That’s all you talk about is racism.’ No. It was always about what can we do in the world, what can we achieve. I think that positive example is what she gave young people, that I can achieve something too. I can take on the world.”

Oguntoye was honored with an Obermayer Award in a ceremony at Berlin’s Red Town Hall on January 29, 2024. 

More: See the short film about Katharina and read the more about her work and accomplishments.