On November 15, 1884 a gathering of European powers took
place in the City of Berlin on Wilhelmstraße.
This gathering later came be known as the Berlin Conference or the Congo
Conference. To main point of the Berlin
conference was the division of Africa amongst the European powers of the time
to avoid conflict between European countries regarding the trades occurring with
African tribes. However, the voices and opinions of African citizens were not
heard at this conference as not one African Individual was present.
Upon visiting the location of the Berlin Conference we found
a very new sign near the sidewalk displaying the distribution of land amongst the
European powers, and the political borders than have not changed to this day. Because
the division of Africa during the Berlin conference was rather arbitrary the
location a distribution of different people in Africa was also not taken into
account, and, as we all know, civil wars broke out in Africa shortly after. This
disregard for diverse ethnicity in Africa has caused massive conflicts and to
this day still effects those living in Africa today.
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| Sign describing the division of Africa during the Berlin Conference on Wilhelmstraße. |
4 comments:
I find this topic interesting since the sign is a recent addition to the city. Why do you think the city of Berlin decided to add such a sign so late considering the conference took place many years ago?
I am not sure when the sign went up exactly, but while researching my post I found a news article from Feburary on Berlin's 9th annual "memorial march in remembrance of the African victims of enslavement, trade with enslaved people, colonial occupation, and racist violence." Perhaps this is when people finally started to really talk about this other important part of Germany history.
Also the initiative was started by Green politician Dr. Victor Dzidzonou who was from Togo, so it could also just be that it was that long before someone was commited enough to the idea of such a monument to fight for it.
Brooklyn, I'm not 100% sure why they decide to place the monument so long after the fact but I think that Jen makes some very valid points. I shall have to look further into this.
I feel like there is so much history in Berlin that it's hard to erect moments to commemorate it all in a timely fashion haha
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