Who are we without the recognition of our human body? An essential part of our image of humanity is the official recognition of our remains. Even if we die alone, we are still connected to our loved ones. In order to feel part of society, our documentation counts. We understand ourselves through grief. By seeing how humanity expresses and shows itself, we experience access to our feelings. Only then can we enter into collective understanding and healing in the community. Especially when it comes to our pain or anger. Because when it comes to injustice, transformation does not happen alone. Who has access to the human remains from the colonial era?
Under the motto "We want them back", the initiative's motto is wewantthemback.berlin. They are fighting for the repatriation of human remains from the colonial past. The initiative's database was created in collaboration with 15 institutions, including those in Jena, Gotha, Berlin, Marburg and Tübingen. Current figures show that in Germany around 17.000 human remains from a colonial context. 9.490 of these are unlawful and so far only 222 rightfully returned. Whoever is in possession of human remains also holds the responsibility of human history. Having access to the past means having access to humanity.
wewantthemback was first published in February 2022 by the coordination office at Decolonize Berlin e.V. published.
Our renowned educational institutions such as Freie Universität Berlin or Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin have shaped our image of humanity through the use, devaluation and generalization of human remains from the colonial past. Human remains can still be found in these institutions today. At Freie Universität we speak of 16,000 bone fragmentswhich can be assigned to at least 54 to 107 people. But we are also talking about other "Skeletons in the closet"which stem from colonial and Nazi crimes. While scientists elevated themselves, they dehumanized others through their inhumane pseudo-scientific racial research aimed at hierarchizing humanity.
Decolonizing means uprooting the hierarchies in our image of humanity from the colonial past. One example of this is Aminata Belli, who traces the colonial legacy of German guilt in Namibia and the genocide to perish. Because the first genocide of the 20th century was of the "60,000 Ovaherero and 10,000 Nama by German colonialists". Even in our Decolonial city tour we dedicate ourselves to Nambia and the German colonial era. With Swakopmund Street in our program, we give an alternative city tour in the African Quarter to this colonial area monument that anchored the German colonial power.
Victims of colonial human crimes belong back where they should NEVER have been taken, abducted and turned into foreign property. The "Human Remains Project" is dedicated to the task of critically confronting and returning the origin of human remains from the colonial era. After a long time, the Charité has also begun the repatriation of 20 skulls to Namibia a first step has been taken.
Memorials serve to commemorate, mourn and remember. It is a process that is of fundamental importance for social orientation today and for the future. We all need a historical walk as well as places of remembrance and monuments as access to our humanity. Because being human does not happen in isolation. The victims of colonial crimes against humanity teach us the value of respect. It is an attitude and behavior towards the experiences suffered by the victims that must be honored and appreciated. Dealing with the human remains is a task of sharing an intergenerational communal bond. Because it is a question of freedom when we talk about people from colonial captivity. Keeping the human image of victims to survivors in our hearts and in our collective memory is ultimately our human image of humanity.
On this occasion, we cordially invite you to take part in our Decolonial City Tour, which takes place every Saturday and Sunday from 11 am to 1 pm. We would also like to invite all educational institutions, especially the student body, to join this tour with regard to dealing with the human remains from the colonial past.
Walk the past, change the future.
I am nobody
Without the recognition of my body,
I am not officially seen
as a part of society.
And though we die alone,
we remain connected to the living,
this is how humanity is shown,
through mourning and burning
our anger away,
transforming
ourselves into the masses
of injustices.
That's how, today,
collective healing can surpass this,
by reclaiming our human remains.T. N.