THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
Dr Sylvie Nantcha, chairman of The African Network of Germany (TANG), has called for an improved recording of the numbers of politically motivated attacks against Black people in Germany. She made the plea during the official presentation of the first situation report on Racism in Germany in Berlin recently.
The event, which took place at the office of the chancellor was attended by the Minister of State on Integration, Reem Alabali-Radovan, and representatives of civil society, politics, business and sports.
“The gap between the incidents in everyday life and the reported incidents is large,” Ms Nantcha said in her speech at the event. “Far too many people of African origin are racially attacked every day,” she added.
“Madam Minister of State, we congratulate you on your office as anti-racism commissioner and on this first situation report on Racism in Germany. We very much welcome the fact that the Federal Government not only recognises anti-Black racism in Germany as a threat to our democracy, but also addresses it in a separate chapter,” Nantcha said.
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She welcomed the establishment of a coordination office for the UN Decade for People of African Descent and called for the swift implementation of its measures in the municipalities, at the level of the federal states and the federation. “There is still a lack of facts and figures on experiences of racism in certain areas of life: e.g. education, the labour market, health and sport,” Nantcha added.
“TANG sees the report as an important milestone in the fight against racism in Germany,” Nantcha said.
“Anti-racism is systemically relevant to our democracy,” said Reem Alabali-Radovan at the launch of the report. It is the first situation report to comprehensively address the issue of racism in Germany.
The report provides an overview of scientific findings in the field of racism. It also identifies existing gaps, for example with regard to the data situation, and points out where racism research needs to be further strengthened.
Femi Awoniyi
