Germany · Black feminism & community
ADEFRA — Black Women* in Germany — is a Black queer-feminist forum for exchange, knowledge production, political intervention, and community organizing. Its work makes the experiences, ideas, and histories of Black women* central to understanding German society.
With roots in the Black women’s movement of the 1980s, ADEFRA connects collective memory with contemporary feminist practice. Its website brings together reflections, documentation, and opportunities for community exchange.
ADEFRA also collaborates with Each One Teach One (EOTO) on the CUZ Community Center project, developing a shared space with Berlin’s communities of African descent. For BGHRA readers, ADEFRA is a valuable resource for Black feminist thought, movement history, and the preservation of knowledge created within communities.
Founding and early organizers
ADEFRA was founded in 1986 by Black feminists and lesbians. Its name abbreviates Afrodeutsche Frauen (Afro-German women). The Europeana historical account names Jasmin Eding, Judy Gummich, Elke Jank, Katja Kinder, Katharina Oguntoye, Daniela Tourkazi, and Eva von Pirch among its founders. This is an inclusive list of documented names, not an exhaustive founding roster.
ADEFRA’s own account emphasizes the encounters among Black women in Berlin in the mid-1980s and the important inspiration of Caribbean-American poet and activist Audre Lorde. Its twentieth-anniversary exhibition at the Museum Europäischer Kulturen also documents the organization’s 1986 founding and the relationship between research, writing, and Black women’s organizing.
A Black feminist and queer history
ADEFRA’s feminist and lesbian roots are central to its history. Its work creates space for Black women to define themselves, produce knowledge, and address the intertwined effects of racism, sexism, and exclusion. ADEFRA and ISD developed within connected networks while building distinct organizational spaces and priorities.
The publication of Farbe bekennen in 1986, edited by May Ayim, Katharina Oguntoye, and Dagmar Schultz, was an important part of this wider movement. Audre Lorde’s contribution should be understood alongside the intellectual and organizing work of Black women in Germany. Read the wider context in Black self-organization: ISD and ADEFRA.
Explore & connect
Image: ADEFRA. Logo or project image belongs to its respective organization.
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