One day when we still had the space in Ohlaher Straße we gathered a number of us together and wrote down little snippets of our experience here in Germany as refugee and migrant women. Here is an example what we women of iwspace had to say:
I want to know what the government is: is it a building? Or are there people in there?”
…the pictures we have of Europe are of a paradise and we come expecting to be in Hollywood and then we see what it is all about and we get frustrated…”
Ausländer, black, foreigner, refugee – you are hit by these names. Since you were born you are called by your name. You are something and all of the sudden you are nothing: you are a refugee. “
“We know there are illiterate Germans too.”
The picture they have of us is that we’ve never seen a fork before coming to Germany, that we don’t use pots to cook…you try to engage yourself with a man and you have to stop because they think you’ve never been on a bus or a train.”
We have a thick skin, Africans have a thick skin because we’ve been discriminated for a long time. We’ve become almost immune to racism. Others would hang themselves if they had to go through what we go through, but we have a thick skin.”
They go to Kenya to see the slums and those are the pictures they bring back. As if they are not in Kenya until they see a slum. The slum became a tourist attraction. They arrive in the airport and they ask ‘where is the slum and the animals?’ They see Africa as slum and animals”
When you come here you start to realize that they feel good about themselves, when they give you a torn sock…”
“Here my color plays the biggest role.”
Photo credit: background images by D Sharon Pruitt of Pink Sherbet Photography
iwspace 