The African-German Experience Research Paper

Have you ever wondered if “Afrodeutsche“ experience racism and exclusion to the same extent as African Americans do? Ijoma Mangold, a well-known German journalist and literary critic gives us the answer in his book “Das deutsche Krokodil“. He is the son of a German mother and a Nigerian father, and describes his experiences with having a mixed-race background in Germany in his book. 

According to Mangold, there have not been many people in Germany in the 70’s and 80’s that have had not only German, but also African roots. However, he has sometimes met a boy with the same mixed-race background as himself. The boy once has asked Ijoma what his roots are, and he then has told him of a club of African Germans. Ijoma has been confused by that. He has always identified himself as German, not as an African German. His German friends have been as confused as him and have declared it as ridiculous. “You would only need to unite as African Germans, if there would happen injustice to them“, Mangold says. And that would not be the case: they have never excluded him or treated him as if he would not be a fully-fledged citizen. Ijoma has „never felt foreign in his own country, but always in good hands''. He perceives being German is not in one's genes, but in one's head.