Angela Davis is a political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, author and above all a revolutionary! When we thought about how we would like to mark the 10 years anniversary of the occupation of O-Platz and the start of our movement, we had the courage to dream of having Angela speak to us, many of us at O-Platz. And because dreaming is free, we went ahead and asked her, and, to our joy, she accepted our invitation.

The speech documented in this video is a lesson on the vestiges of colonialism and enslavement, and a reminder of women*’s power and leadership in struggles around the world. It is a speech about hope and our role as activists in transmitting hope, and it is also a speech about about freedom.

As Angela Davis says, remembering the song “Freedom is a constant struggle”, which is a freedom song that was repeatedly sung in the southern United States during the twentieth century freedom movement.

Directed / Subtitles: Denise Garcia Bergt
Produced: Lica Stein
Cameras: Thomas Macholz / Hoda Taheri
Drone: Marco Heinig
Audio: Tsvetelina Valkova
Edit / Post production: Johnny Welch
Music: Carmel Zoum

THIS VIDEO IS ALSO ON > VIMEO,

As part of Oplatz wird 10 – Baustelle Migration, 5-9th October 2022 at Oranienplatz, 10999 Berlin

Exhibition, Performances, Radio, Workshops, Poetry, Music & Talks, open daily 12-10pm. IWS Cinema, open daily 12-10pm. Billboard exhibition at different sites around Oranienplatz, 30 September to 11 October 2022.

See full festival programme here. (Oplatz.net)

Exhibition at OPlatzBox

with the International Women* Space archive, IWS RADIO, Oranienplatz Comic Workshop and contributions by Anike Joyce Sadiq & Judith Hamann & leo & Nino Bulling, Aziza Ahmad, Barby Asante, Clementine Ewokolo Burnley, Nino Bulling, Pungwe Listening, Semra Ertan, Semra Ertan Initiative, Vitjitua Ndjiharine

IWS CINEMA at OPlatzBox

# Kämpfer*innen: Eine Dokumentationsreihe mit Jennifer Kamau & Napuli Langa, Dahye Kim & Haewon Chae, Killa Kupfer & Schokoofeh Montazeri, Sandra Bello, Carolina Belen Espinosa Barrera, Sharuta Alatrash, Natalie Bayer, Angelika Nguyen, Saraya Gomis, Natasha Kelly, Aurora Rodonò | EN/DE. 2021

# How to resist: the refugee movement in Kreuzberg: Jennifer Kamau Tour | EN. 2020

# A black poem of color: Stefanie Lahya-Aukongo | DE. 2021

# Occupation of the tree at O-Platz: Napuli Langa | EN/DE. 2021

# Break the politics of divide and rule: Sanchita Basu | DE/EN. 2021

# Die enorme Resilienz des Refugee Movement: Peggy Piesche | DE/EN. 2021

# Die Gerhart-Hauptmann-Schule: Erinnerungen an ein Symbol des Widerstands: Mit Lica Stein, Alnour Ahmad-Hassan, Adam Bahar, Jan, Kim | EN/DE, 2021

# O-Platz Eviction | EN/DE, 2014

# 9 Days on the Roof | EN/DE, 2014

Public billboard exhibition in Kreuzberg

International Women* Space (Denise Garcia Bergt, Lica Stein, Pippa Samaya), Muhammed Lamin Jadama, Napuli Langa, Sista Mimi, Jennifer Kamau

@ Oranienplatz | Görlitzer Straße geg. 38 | Wassertorstr. 65 | Gitschiner Straße 71 | Görlitzer
Ufer/Görlitzer Brücke

—

Angela Davis, Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Anike Joyce Sadiq & Judith Hamann with leo & Nino Bulling, Aziza Ahmad, Barby Asante, Clementine Ewokolo Burnley, Denise Garcia Bergt, Hanaa Hakiki, International Women* Space, IWS Radio, Jennifer Kamau, Jo’Art, Lica Stein, Memory Biwa, Muhammed Lamin Jadama, Napuli Langa, Nino Bulling, Oranienplatz Comic Workshop, Pippa Samaya, Pungwe Listening, Sarah Imani, Semra Ertan, Semra Ertan Initiative, Sista Mimi, String Archestra, Suza Husse, Vitjitua Ndjiharine, WeAreBornFree! Empowerment Radio

“The Refugee Movement is the movement of the 21st century. It’s the movement that is challenging the effects of global capitalism. It’s the movement that is calling for civil rights for all human beings.” – Angela Davis on her 2015 visit to Berlin in conversation with refugee protesters occupying the
Gerhardt Hauptman school in Kreuzberg

OPLATZBOX is a mobile archive dedicated to the feminist struggle in the Refugee Resistance Movement with a focus on testimonies and visions of women* and queers from Black, Indigenous, migrant and People of Colour communities. Showcasing films, podcasts, publications and ephemera gathered and produced by International Women* Space / IWS across 10 years as well as art works, performances, radio programs, poetry, music and talks OPLATZBOX is a temporary education centre of migrant anticolonial knowledges open to all over a period 5 days.

A monument to the resistance and worldmaking of Black women that shaped the fabric of the Refugee Movement and its enduring legacy, OPLATZBOX is part of the arts and culture festival “Oplatz wird 10 – Baustelle Migration”. Ten years after the beginning of the occupation of Oranienplatz square, the festival organized by IWS celebrates the empowerment histories of the Refugee Resistance Movement in Berlin and makes proposals for a diverse, postcolonial, grassroots democratic, and postmigrant society.

International Women Space was founded as a radical feminist wing of the Refugee Resistance Movement in Berlin, which emerged from the protest occupation of Oranienplatz square in Kreuzberg in 2012. From the beginning, the self-organized making of culture based on the lives, struggles, histories and visions of migrant women, dykes, intersex, non-binary and trans people has been an important focus in the work of IWS.

“Women who had become refugees in their own regions before attempting to reach Europe through the deadly routes available. Women* fleeing war, poverty, environmental disaster caused by corporation’s greed, women* feeling persecution for not conforming to the gender they were assigned at birth. … we needed to speak to each other to understand the paradox of seeking protection in one of the western countries, knowing the roles they play in destabilizing our regions, through wars and neo-colonialism. In a less insane world this would be the last place we would choose.” – (In Our Own Words. Refugee Women Tell Their Stories, ed. IWS, 2015, p. 4)

IWS propose that listening to one another and creating records of survival in the face of violence, erasure, death and deportation are the base for creating strategies for a common struggle, for working on transformation together. A grassroots archive of resilience, achievement and loss, OPLATZBOX amplifies this Black, migrant, queer feminist take on decolonization put into practice through feminist self-organising.

Addressing the violent repercussions of colonialism, the dangerous migration routes, the fortressed borders to Europe, the realities of deeply engrained structural racism in Germany, the testimonies and reflections document migration as a political movement. A feminist anti-racist, anticolonial movement that connects a multiplicity of BIPOC and migrant histories and struggles in and beyond Germany.

OPLATZBOX is the first manifestation of the transterritorial decolonial feminist network WHEN THE JACKAL LEAVES THE SUN: Decentering Restitution | Pedagogies of Repossession: A decolonial feminist infrastructure for memory politics, art and transformative justice connecting Nairobi, Windhoek, Kigali, Dresden, Dar Es Salam, Dakar, Cape Town and Berlin Initiated by Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Jennifer Kamau, Memory Biwa, Michael Bader, Rehema Chachage, Reneé Akitelek Mboya and Suza Husse with DistrictSchool Without Center, International Women Space, Nyabinghi Lab, SOMA and Wali Chafu Collective

WHEN THE JACKAL LEAVES THE SUN: Decentering Restitution | Pedagogies of Repossession unfolds through six chapters of interventionist and research-based cultural practices, accompanied by international legal expertise and activist engagement. Departing from and deeply engrained in contemporary anti-colonial struggles on the African continent and in Germany, When The Jackal Leaves The Sun embarks on a collective, transdisciplinary process with the aim to create
decolonial tools and interventions.

WHEN THE JACKAL LEAVES THE SUN: Decentering Restitution | Pedagogies of Repossession is funded by the TURN2 Fund of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for
Culture and the Media).

OPLATZ WIRD 10 – BAUSTELLE MIGRATION is funded by Berliner Projektfonds Urbane Praxis.

O-Platz wird 10 – Baustelle Migration

Vor 10 Jahren wurde der Oranienplatz und die Gerhart-Hauptmann-Schule von einer Geflüchteten-Bewegung besetzt. Wir, International Women* Space, haben uns aus dieser Bewegung gegründet und wollen das gemeinsam mit euch feiern! Denn ihr seid wichtiger Bestandteil dieser Bewegung und habt großen Anteil, dass Aktivistinnen, Geflüchteten, Migrantinnen, Gruppen und Einzelpersonen gemeinsam Widerstand leisten konnten. Wir wollen erneut alte Mitstreiter*innen zusammenbringen und neue Menschen mobilisieren, um uns gemeinsam an die Kämpfe geflüchteter Personen zu erinnern und unser Bestehen zu zelebrieren. Um reale Veränderung herbeizuführen, benötigt es zudem Zukunftsperspektiven, denen wir kollektivistisch nachgehen werden.

Mit dem Überfall auf die Ukraine kamen hunderttausende Menschen nach Deutschland und wir konnten sehen: Es ist sehr wohl möglich, mühsame bürokratische Prozesse zu umgehen und Menschen den Schutz anzubieten, den sie brauchen. Wir wissen aber auch, dass dieser Schutz nicht allen Geflüchteten eingeräumt wird. Umso wichtiger ist es, am 10-jährigen Jubiläum der Besetzung des O-Platzes daran zu erinnern, dass der daraus entstandene Widerstand immer noch lebt und weiterhin in die Öffentlichkeit getragen werden muss!

SAVE THE DATE: Vom 5. – 9. Oktober findet unsere Veranstaltung auf dem Oranienplatz in Kreuzberg statt. Wir laden euch alle herzlich ein, Teil des Festivals zu sein. Eine Bewegung lässt sich nicht räumen!

Aktivistin Angela Davis wird da sein und unsere Kämpfe vor Ort unterstützen. Freut euch auf spannende Podiumsdiskussionen, Konzerte, Fotoausstellungen, Kunst-Performances, einen Zine-Workshop und vieles mehr! Das detaillierte Programm werden wir in den kommenden Tagen über unseren Instagramkanal und auf oplatz.net veröffentlichen.

Lasst uns zusammenkommen, gemeinsam erinnern, unsere Errungenschaften feiern und über unsere derzeitigen Kämpfe diskutieren. Wir freuen uns auf Euch!

Feministische und solidarische Grüße
International Women* Space

Unser Widerstand lebt. O-Platz lebt.

O-Platz turns 10 – Migration Construction Site

Art- und Culture Festival at O-Platz, 5. – 9. October 2022

10 years ago Oranienplatz and Gerhart-Hauptmann-School were occupied by a refugee movement. We, International Women* Space, were founded out of this movement and want to celebrate it together with you! Because you are an important part of this movement and have played a big role that activists, refugees, migrants, groups and individuals could resist together. We want to reunite old and new comrades and mobilise people to remember the struggles of refugees together and celebrate our existence. In order to bring about real change, it also requires future perspectives, which we will pursue collectivistically.

Since the Russian war on Ukraine, we know it is possible to bypass tedious bureaucratic processes and provide people with the protection they need. Now is the time to highlight the developments of the last ten years and the origins of the occupation at Oranienplatz to continue our fight. The 10th anniversary of the occupation of O-Platz is a perfect occasion to celebrate the resistance and to show that we must continue to bring our fights to the public!

From October 5 – 9, our event will take place at Oranienplatz in Kreuzberg. We invite you all to be part of the festival. A movement cannot be evicted!

Activist Angela Davis will be there to support our struggles on the ground. There will also be exciting panel discussions, concerts, photo exhibitions, art performances, a zine workshop and much more! We will publish the detailed program in the coming days via our Instagram channel and on oplatz.net.

Let’s come together, remember together, celebrate our achievements and discuss our current struggles. We are looking forward to seeing you!

Feminist and solidarity greetings
International Women* Space

Our resistance is alive. O-Platz is alive.

#oplatzwird10

When the Jackal Leaves the Sun is a decolonial feminist infrastructure for memory politics, art and transformative justice connecting Nairobi, Windhoek, Kigali, Dresden, Dar Es Salam, Dakar, Cape Town and Berlin

Initiated by Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Jennifer Kamau, Memory Biwa, Michael Bader, Rehema Chachage, Reneé Akitelek Mboya and Suza Husse with District*School Without Center, International Women* Space, Nyabinghi Lab, SOMA, Wali Chafu Collective

whenthejackalleavesthesun.com

“Colonialism will burn you like the sun on a jackal’s back.”
– Hendrik Witbooi writing to Theodor Leutwein, 1894

…Then the Jackal came where the Sun was sitting. And said: ‘Oh what a pretty girl!’ And he said: ‘Come let me carry you on my back, my daughter!’ And he took her. Then, after he carried the Sun she burned him. ‘O, my daughter, in the name of God let me go, so that I can take you off. Get down first I want to go and urinate’. Then the Sun said: ‘No, I was sitting on the ground.’ Then the Jackal ran and went under a tree. And he dug around the root of the tree. And he went in. Then the Sun said: ‘No, I will not get off. You carried me on your back.’ Then he said: ‘Oh my sister, my back is burning out and I am powerless. I carried you on my back just because of love, but I now realize something about you, so get down from me first.’ At that moment the Sun replied to the Jackal and said: ‘No, I will not get off. I will sit on your back. You carried me on your back. As I am here when my brothers carry me, they don’t ask me to get off their backs. They take me off their backs. Am I not a pretty girl of yours? Why do you want to take me off now? Let us get to your home.’

Source: Audio Haneb; Fabel vom Schakal und der Sonne; VII W 7003, VII W 7004; Beschreibung: Sammlung Lichtenecker, Walze 3 und 4 Übergebenes; 1931. Translation & transcription from Damara language by Levi Namaseb & Memory Biwa. Published by Basler Afrika Bibliographien in Annette Hoffmann’s What We See (2009).

The Jackal and the Sun is a popular children’s tale that was transformed many times as it was passed on orally and traveled from the Arabic regions and North Africa and, with influences of the European fable Reynard the Fox, arrived to Southern Africa. The ancient tale of the Jackal trickster getting their back burned from trying to carry the Sun away continues to appear and intervene in the colonial archives of German colonization in Namibia. The voices of Haneb and Wilfred Tjueza, young farmers in Namibia, are recorded telling the story in 1931 to the ears and sound recording device of a white anthropologist.

The story was told in different locations and languages over generations to become an anchoring metaphor for people’s experiences of colonial oppression and injustice. Prominently, Hendrik Witbooi, leader of the Nama people’s resistance against German imperialism, in a letter to Samuel Maherero in 1890, used the metaphor to express his grave concern against signing the so called protection treaty with the German Empire:

“But what you have done now, surrendering yourself over to the government by another, by White people, thinking it is wisely planned that will become to you like carrying the sun on your back.” (Lau 1995, p. 55)

German colonial agreements and contracts were used to bind only one side and later ignored and overstepped by the colonisers at will. With the arrival of the colonising forces, anti-colonial resistance begun, too, in the form of counter-narratives carrying African cosmologies like in Hendrik Wittboi’s letter or in the form of armed resistance by Ovaherero, Nama, San and the Khowesin people against their dispossession and displacement. The violent colonial war and genocide in Namibia was the response by the German Colonial Empire to this anticolonial struggle.

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What does it take, for the Jackal, to leave the Sun?

The transnational exploitative relations created by German colonialism persist to this day, albeit often in a new guise. The continuous, intersecting systems of domination live on not only along economic lines, but through cultural and social structures. Restitution and redistribution of stolen land and cultural artefacts as well as reparations for the countless dead are mostly absent, the unspeakable traumas of colonialism are present all around. Thousands of bodies of ancestors of many African communities to this day remain in the basements and archives of German museum and university collections: without a grave, without a memorial.

“Germany is in violation of its human rights obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The repatriation of ancestral human remains is a human and fundamental right of those persons whose human remains are stored in the archives of German institutions in an inhumane manner, and of their descendants.” – Sarah Imani

On the occasion of the first return of twenty bodies that had been despoiled during the colonial war in Namibia for scientific research in Germany, to Windhoek in 2011, practices of repossession were carried out by a delegation of representatives of the descendants. Through an interaction of speeches, sartorial, and site-specific performances at the Charité and other sites in Berlin, the delegation activated memory in a reciprocal exchange between ancestors and the living that opened up new relationships to the self and the collective. When The Jackal Leaves The Sun takes inspiration from these embodied forms of building memory through repossession as procedures to reclaim bodies and counter the violent dispossessions of colonialism.

When the Jackal leaves the Sun aims to amplify descendants’ and indigenous communities’ demands for return, repair and land redistribution and to foster artistic and political forms of countering colonial dispossessions on a cultural, educational and spiritual level.

“It is not that Europe has denied its colonial history – that would be too crude. It is instead that Europe has developed a way of telling the story of its colonial history that ultimately seeks to erase that history.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Like the Jackal’s marks from the Sun, our cultures and ecologies, our relationships and economies are marked by colonialism. When the Jackal leaves the Sun connects an intersectional spectrum of artists, curators, activists, lawyers, cultural practitioners and collectives, to create interventions and pedagogical tools that attend to both the processes that led to the historical catastrophe of colonialism and to the powerful legacies of anti-colonial resistance.

Grounded in radical Black, queer and feminist positions, the project’s objective is to decenter restitution discourses and practices of hegemonic institutions and move toward the co-creation and dissemination of pedagogies of repossession.

To achieve this, When The Jackal Leaves The Sun creates an independent and transterritorial infrastructure and platform for artistic and transdisciplinary collaborations on memory, cultural and educational work from summer 2022 to spring 2024 in Nairobi, Windhoek, Kigali, Dresden, Dar Es Salam, Dakar and Berlin.