Berlin reflects on its colonial past

THE Berlin Council has made a decision to rename Mohrenstraße (Moor Street) in the city’s Mitte district after the country’s first black philosopher, Anton Wilhelm Amo who was brought to Berlin as a child slave from what is now Ghana in 1707.

In 2018 the council voted to rename three other streets in Berlin’s African quarter which celebrate Germany’s colonial era which saw control of a number of countries in Africa.

This latest change is the most recent step in a long-running struggle to fight anti-Black racism by highlighting Germany’s 350-year involvement in slavery and colonialism.

There are also plans afoot to change the name of the local Mohrenstraße underground railway station but the first choice of Glinkastrasse as a new name proved controversial due to a possible link to a Russian composer of that name who was strongly anti-Semitic.