Posted:06/06
From:AUF






Send your protest letters to the adresses listed below!

From: Norbert Finzsch

I am a German scholar of African American History and member of H-Net Afro-Am.

Today I would like to direct your attention to something that is going on in Germany which, in my opinion, requires the consideration of the international scholarly community.

It is with utmost indignation that the African German community has taken notice of the plans to open an "African Village" within the zoo of Augsburg, Germany. The opening of this exhibit is scheduled for July 9 - July 12. 2005.

"Artisans, silversmiths, basket makers and traditional hairdressers are situated in an unique African steppe landscape" according to the leaflets handed out by the organizers of the show. The conveners obviously are oblivious of the fact that exhibits like the one planned in Augsburg are organized within the German tradition of racist "ethnographic shows" (Völkerschauen).

A letter of reply by Ms. Barbara Jantschke, PhD, from the Augsburg Zoo, directed to an African Swiss citizen underlines the intention, to put Africans on display in the zoo within "an atmosphere of exotism".

It is obvious that the conveners do not understand the historical implications of their project. Even in Germany the impact of colonialism and racism on African societies are nowadays debated in public. The way Africans and African Americans in Germany are perceived and discussed, the way they are present on billboards and in TV ads prove that the colonialist and racist gaze is still very much alive in Germany. This is the direct result of forty years of German colonialism and twelve years of National Socialism. People of color are still seen as exotic objects (of desire), as basically dehumanized entities within the realm of animals.

This also explains why a zoo has been selected as site for the exhibit. It is necessary to remind the organizers that in the history of "ethnographic shows" African and German African individuals were used as object for anthropometric tests and ethnological investigations of highly questionable scientific benefit. Many of the artists who performed in these shows in the 1920s and 1930s died from malnutrition and as a consequence of bad living conditions. The Nazis employed a policy of eugenic control, resulting in forced operations to limit the biological reproduction of African Germans or in downright incarceration in concentration camps. Survivors of this policy had to gain a living as performers in exotic shows. The Augsburg exhibit thus fails to acknowledge the political and social history of persecution in Nazi Germany.

The African German community and concerned individuals like myself call to your attention the need to protest against the opening of the exhibit in the Augsburg Zoo.

Please direct your personalized letters of protest to Frau Dr. Barbara Jantschke (Director Zoo Augsburg) at barbara.jantschke@zoo-augsburg.de. (pls BCC to augsburgprotest@ecoterra.net)

and send copies to:
Bayerisches Staatsministerium des Innern
Odeonsplatz 3
80539 München
Postanschrift:
Postfach
80524 München
Telefon (zentral): (089) 2192-01
Telefax (zentral): (089) 2192-12225
E-Mail: poststelle@stmi.bayern.de

Regierung von Schwaben
Government of Suevia
Fronhof 10, 86152 Augsburg
Telefon 0821/327-01
Telefax 0821/327-2288
E-Mail: poststelle@reg-schw.bayern.de



Thank you

Norbert Finzsch
Professor of History and
Provost of the University of Cologne
Anglo-Amerikanische Abteilung
Historisches Seminar
Universität zu Köln
Albertus-Magnus-Platz
Philosophikum
D 50923 Köln
Tel. ++49-221-470-2307
Email: Norbert.Finzsch@uni-koeln.de
URL http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/histsem/anglo/

----------

Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa
http://www.africanfront.com/AF033.php

BLOODY HELL!!

Those dirty swines!!

Am busy writing now. I urge and ask all other BN members to do so seriously! AND MAKE IT VERY STRONG WORDED

just sent an e-mail

You thought Americans were racist...

im bz emailing too.. in this day and age its unbelievable.. someone should tell the Voice and New Nation because we all need to come together and sto this bu++sh**

Is this for real or a wind up?

My question is which Africans are so damn fool to allow themselves and their culture to be exhibited in a zoo.

Its beyond belief. Speechless. This needs to be taken to the European court. It must contravene some act.

I have always said to myself the Nazi era was a blink of an eye in terms of history. European culture in its present form will always bend itself towards this type of thinking. Its the natural result of evolutionsim. Charles Darwin the old racist has alot to answer for. But you will always have the purists.

Lets not even talk about Eastern Europe. Give it another 50 years or quicker and this shit will be prevalent again. Its only a matter of time.

I need more evidence that this is real because I don't know which blasted idiot would let themselves be exhibited in a zoo in Germany.

http://prague.tv/forum/viewpost.php?id=3965



its amazingly true! check out the linksin the above - tips on how to get through and complain to the right people.

I was wrong then... It IS real people!! My gosh who would do that??




When asked to move the ‘african village’ elsewhere but the zoo, the ‘african village’ seems to be some kind of arts and crafts exhibition, the director of the zoo answered that the zoo was just the right place for an african exhibition and they won’t go elsewhere whatsoever.

What remains? A negro village at the Augsburg Zoo. A zoo, where one normally goes to watch animals.





Wrote them twice but as yet I have had no response.

Thanks! I will be sending a protest email shortly and I have already forwarded the link to the media (bbc news). I don't like them much but I think this story should be featured by the BBC as they have the clout to embarrass the German zoo.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4070816.stm







Row over German zoo's Africa show

German anti-racism campaigners have condemned plans to stage an African cultural festival in a zoo.






The African Village festival hopes to attract 20,000 visitors
The event is intended to give residents in the town of Augsburg in south Germany, a taste of Africa with craft sellers, drummers, story tellers, music groups and food from around Africa.
But campaigners, including representative of Germany's black community and academics, say setting it in the town's zoo is racist.
"People are upset by the idea of placing [the festival] in a zoo between the baboons and the zebras," said Noah So, who founded Der Braune Mob - an organisation that monitors race issues in the German media.
'Exotic atmosphere'
"It is just not the right place to display human beings, let alone their culture," she told the BBC's Network Africa programme.








There is an urge to see those who are not white as part of something exotic or romanticised

Noah Sow
"Two hundred years ago African people were displayed in zoos. Now we're in 2005 and one could get the impression that nothing's really changed."
According to Augsburg Zoo, the African Village - as the four-day event opening on Thursday 9 June is called - hopes to attract some 20,000 visitors.
Responding to the criticism, Augsburg Zoo Director Barbara Jantschke said she does not see anything wrong with staging the event in a zoo, where many cultural exhibitions are held.
"It's a kind of market where you can see African products," she told the BBC.
"So the products are the centre of attention, not the people."
Aid organisations will be taking part, she added, to allow visitors to get involved in projects in Africa.
'Images stick'
Mrs Jantschke also argued that the zoo was the ideal place to convey the necessary "exotic atmosphere" for the festival.








The way Africans are perceived and discussed prove that the colonialist and racist gaze is still very much alive in Germany

Professor Norbert Finzsch
It is an attitude which campaigners like Ms So want to change.

"There is an urge in Germany to see those who are not white as part of something exotic or romanticised."
This treatment insinuates that non-whites are not really part of German society, she says.
Norbert Finzsch, a history professor at the University of Cologne, agrees.
"The way Africans and African Americans in Germany are perceived and discussed, the way they are presented on billboards and in TV ads prove that the colonialist and racist gaze is still very much alive in Germany," he said in an open letter calling for the event not to open.
But not everyone sees the show as contentious.
Nehneh Winckler, a German Ghanaian, who is cooking food at the African Village over the weekend, supports the festival and its setting.
The landscape at the zoo - and even the presence of the animals - make the zoo the perfect background, she told Germany newspaper Die Welt.
For Ms So, showcasing African talent is not the problem, it is tackling the issue of how German people view black people.
"It's a problem... for children who go to the zoo and to find Africans selling bead necklaces, these are images that stick

I bet bbc stole the story from us then they did depth research on it