„Verantwortung, die uns aus der Geschichte erwächst“ – Responsibility that arises from our history.
This sentence concludes the memorial plaque at Bremen’s anti-colonial monument. Since the 1960s, initiatives and individuals from various sectors of society in Bremen have been advocating for a more just world and greater solidarity — driven by a sense of responsibility arising from Bremen’s colonial past.
In the summer semester of 2025, students from the BA Cultural Studies and MA Public History programs curated a mobile exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of the “Bremer Afrika Archiv” (BAA e.V.) and its Namibia project — a significant chapter in the history of solidarity-based work in Bremen. The BAA’s Namibia project was initiated by committed members of the BAA and the SWAPO Delegate for Western Europe (Scandinavia). It was conceived as a cooperative effort grounded in solidarity with the exile schools of the Namibian liberation movement SWAPO. The goal was collaboration on equal footing and a “double decolonization.”
Taking this initiative as its starting point, the exhibition explores how solidarity-based alliances were formed in Bremen, the challenges they faced, and their contributions to critically engaging with Germany’s colonial past. The exhibition aims to spark urgently needed debates about solidarity in (post-)colonial contexts, social justice, cultures of remembrance, and historical responsibility. Is it enough to critically address colonialism and to remember? How can we prevent remembrance from becoming a substitute for genuine decolonization? How can one act in solidarity in transnational and structurally unequal settings? Visitors are invited to comment on the exhibition using Post-its provided.
The exhibition aims to foster multi-perspective remembrance by including the voices of historical witnesses, historians, experts in memory politics and colonial continuities, as well as decolonial activists.
Feel free to contact us: solidaritaet2@gmail.com.
With the support of: Martha Akawa-Shikufa, Norman Aselmeyer, Aïssatou Bouba, Katharina Hoffmann, Virginie Kamche, Margrit Kaufmann
In cooperation with
