2. Black African Conference in Dessau
ENGLISH:
- Black African Conference in Dessau - Racist Police Killings and Criminalisation of Africans and Blacks in Germany (06.01.2008): https://thevoiceforum.org/node/666
FRENCH:
- Meurtres policiers et criminalisation des noirs et des africains en Allemagne - Dessau (06.01.2008)https://thevoiceforum.org/node/665
DEUTSCH:
-Pressemitteilung Black African Conference in Dessau (06.01.2008) https://thevoiceforum.org/node/664
ENGLISH:
Protocol of the meeting in (06.01.2007):
AFRICA COMMUNITY CONFERENCE DESSAU - RACIST POLICE KILLINGS AND CRIMINALISATION OF AFRICANS https://thevoiceforum.org/node/667
-Information in Deutsch, English and French
Oury Jalloh: Afrikanischen Community-Konferenz in Dessau (06.01.2007)
https://thevoiceforum.org/Afrikanischen_Dessau https://thevoiceforum.org/node/427
-Oury Jalloh: Forderungen der Schwarzen Gemeinschaft Deutschlands https://thevoiceforum.org/BLACK_COMMUNITY_DEMANDS
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AFRICA COMMUNITY CONFERENCE DESSAU
RACIST POLICE KILLINGS AND CRIMINALISATION OF AFRICANS AND BLACK IN GERMANY
In memory of Oury JALLOH: 2nd Anniversary of his racist killing by white German police
Held on January 6, 2007 in Dessau
Protocol of the meeting
On January 6, 2007 an African conference in remembrance of the killing of Oury Jalloh was held in Dessau a few hundred meters from the police station, where Oury Jalloh was burned on January 7, 2005. The conference was organized by the African Refugee Initiative Dessau, The Voice Refugee Forum, the Refugee Initiative Brandenburg (Flüchtlingsinitiative Brandenburg FIB) and the Initiative of the Black People in Germany (Initiative Schwarzer Menschen in Deutschland ISD).
In the morning a press conference was held for local news agencies and representatives of the media. After playing the pan-African anthem the conference started at noon with inputs from different African organizations and a family member of Dominique who was killed on April 14, 2006 in Dortmund by the police. After the inputs there was a discussion about the subsequent topics:
1) How to connect the different campaigns of police brutality victims together
2) How to achieve the unity within the black community and the different groups and organizations in Germany
3) To decide on the next steps
Inputs of family members, individuals and organizations
The inputs were given by the subsequent groups: A member of the family of Dominique Koumadio from Dortmund, Black Community Hamburg, African Refugee Initiative Dessau, Refugee Emanzipation, Afrika-Rat, Oromo Center, Flüchtlingsinnitiative Brandenburg, Initiative Schwarzer Menschen in Deutschland, The VOICE and other African communities initiatives from different part of Germany.
The husband of Dominique’s sister expressed the sadness of loosing someone in such a brutal way and sympathized with the family and friends of Oury Jalloh. He emphasized the need to understand the reasons for such incidents and the need for people to be active in order to avoid further similar cases of police brutality and attacks in future.
A representative of The VOICE in Bremen brought his greetings from Bremen, where at the same hour a demonstration took place in remembrance of Layé Konde, who was killed on the same day like Oury Jalloh. The case of Layé Konde was presented to the audience and how the state tries to drop the case. People from Bremen demonstrating for Layé Konde expressed their solidarity and promised to be in Dessau one day after the conference and to participate at the demonstration in remembrance of Oury Jalloh’s killing on January 7, 2005.
Delegates repors from the podium:
The Sister from Afrika-Rat Berlin spoke about the perspective of mothers and suns and daughters of victims of police brutality. She brought the greetings of her mother to the audience. When her mother had heard about the case of Oury Jalloh she could feel the pain of Oury’s mother. She had experienced herself police brutality against her son. She was with her son in the city of Wuppertal, when he was brutalized and beaten up by the police. She was unable to protect her son and felt the powerlessness. Because of her own experience she could feel how the mother of Oury Jalloh must have felt. Sister … asked Mouctar Bah present in the conference: -
“Mouctar, how could you bring this sad news to the mother of Oury Jalloh?” She showed respect for him, because without rest he had put all his energy and effort to bring light into the case of Oury Jalloh.
“Mouctar, your fight is our fight! Your struggle is our struggle” she said and added that the call for conference impressed her, because it made clear that we are all Oury Jalloh. When it comes to police brutality, everyone has the same experience no matter what kind of passport or residence permit you have, no matter if you are a German citizen or a refugee, independent of the place you are at, at train stations or on the street or in the police cell. We are all one in our fight for our basic rights. We have to understand how everything has happened, how everything happens and how we can avoid it. To clarify one case means to make the future safe. If not, we will be all Oury Jallohs.
Refugee Emancipation Brandenburg and Pan AFRICAN Women Liberation then pointed out that the mother of Oury Jalloh has lost one son, but the son has left one son as well. Where is he? Will he ever know about his father and what has happened to him? She stated that it would be important to take parental care for Oury’s son. She proposed to give him a name. Oury never wanted to give his son for adoption. With respect to this she wanted to know from the community of Dessau and Oury Jalloh’s former partner, who had the responsibility that this child was given free for adoption. “Was it the racism in this city?” she asked. She said, that the former partner of Oury Jalloh should be invited to our struggle like all the other friends, brothers and sisters of all the victims that are not with us anymore. It is part of our struggle to take responsibility for the relatives and friends of the victims and their integration into our struggle. These children are children of our brothers and sisters; therefore they are as well our children.
“The elephant was injured and now he must be killed!”
The speaker from the platform of the black community started with: “The elephant was injured and now he must be killed!” He reminded the audience about the time of colonization and how Africa was divided like a cake by the European powers in Berlin in the year 1884. “African countries are prisons!” he said and explained why. In his country of origin more than 284 ethnic groups live and not only there. When he was welcomed by Mouctar Bah in Dessau, they found out that they have the same mother language despite the fact that their countries are far from each other. “We have to be conscious, that all the borders on our continent are fictive borders! Hence, we should start here in Dessau to destroy them in our heads.”, he added.
Oury Jalloh was killed because he was black. Here in Germany, a black is not seen as a human being but as a black. That is what unites the blacks, and that is why everyone should start to talk about the African Unity here in Germany.
The representative of the black community, African community from Germany, talked about the importance of self-organization. Refugees explain their problems and needs through the context of the “white dominance” in Germany. The question is how networks of the people and refugees can be built that work in solidarity with each other. Organizations that empower own people to stand up for their own rights, through their own organizations, through their own structures.
A brother from the initiative of the black people in Germany (Initiative schwarzer Menschen in Deutschland ISD) presented the history of the initiative and their aims. The initiative was funded to define a new definition of the black people and their history in Germany which is generated by the black people themselves. The aim of the ISD is to demask the tendencies present in the German society. First, that racism does not exist in Germany, and second that Germany is not an immigration country.
The next speaker, from the Black Community in Hamburg, talked about the death of Achidi John, who was killed in the same way like Layé Konde. They both died two and five years ago respectively after the police forced emetics down their throats. He talked about the death of Maryama Sar (?). The case against the police was dropped in her case, and her husband who was a witness had committed suicide. There is no information about the children of sister Maryama, and most probably they will never know what happened to their mother. In all the racist killings, no African government has taken any responsibility to follow up the cases. This shows clearly the relationship between the European and the African countries. The western dominance continues in Africa, and African governments are puppets of the old masters. While the French law allows the French government to follow cases of killed French citizens everywhere, African governments take no step to do anything.
No matter where you are, you are killed because of your color. It is the same as during the colonization and it affects everyone. To confront the racism it should be our common goal to achieve unity. Self-organization, self-defence and self-protection should be enforced, because the police do not protect you. The first priority should be to ensure you are not alone, because police brutality might happen to you at any time and at any place. Therefore unity among Africans is the main priority.
A Sister from Berlin was the next speaker. She talked of daily racism and how resistance can be built up and expanded. All the cases of police brutality continue because there is silence. The stories of killing, raping, humiliation and oppression have started 500 years ago. Two conferences changed her life, the First Pan-African conference in Uganda in 1994 and the second was an African Conference in Potsdam. In the first, she learnt that it is important to revive the struggle with our own means, in our own structures, and in our language against the oppression. In Potsdam she learnt to overcome the divisions in bodies, in the mind and in the language. The divisions and limitations have been posed upon us to destroy us all. We have to learn to welcome ourselves and in this way overcome everything what divides us. The Europeans made the borders in Africa and through this borders we have learnt to hate each other. We have to say, where the problems come from. Independent of the social situation of everyone we appear as blacks and as long as we are separated we can be maltreated.
During the discussion the psychological effects of racism in Europe were discussed and how they lead to disorder and non-organization. It was stated that fear leads to failure and solidarity and cooperativeness should be built up between the different groups and individuals.
Discussion
There was first an agreement to formulate the demands of the conference in the case of Oury Jalloh. The demands are as follows:
1. We demand a speedy prosecution and sentencing of the police officers involved in the murder of Oury Jalloh and their removal from office.
2. We demand the resignation of the Dessau`s Chief of Police.
3. We demand the payment of reparations to the family of Oury Jalloh.
4. We demand the end of all police racist controls, brutality and killing of Blacks.
5. We demand justice and reparations for all victims of institutionalized racism, police and state violence against Blacks and for their families.
Linking of the Campaigns against police brutality
Following proposals were made to connect the different campaigns of victims of police brutality:
1) Consider the rights of the children involved, what happened to the child of Oury Jalloh, to the children of Maryama Sar
2) Plan a special day to be organized each year for the families and victims of police brutality
3) Create and spread the idea to see oneself as part of one family
4) Develop the idea of a tribunal for the victims against the state terror
5) Generate a white book and document all the anti-black discrimination and publish it, bring it to the United Nations or the German government
It was agreed to organize an evaluation meeting of the conference in the first weekend of February in Berlin.
Evaluation Meeting on February 3 and 4, 2007 in Berlin. Place and exact time to be communicated.