BERLIN (Sputnik) – This week’s decision to rename a street in central Berlin after Prussia’s first black scholar was marked by a series of rallies against relics of Germany’s colonial past.
Moor Street has long been under fire for taking its name from an old-fashioned word for black slaves, which is today considered derogatory. The city council agreed on Thursday to rename it after Anton Wilhelm Amo, a black philosopher brought to Prussia from Ghana in the 18th century.
Protests against the street’s name have been held annually in Berlin on August 23, the UN-designated International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.
This year, the demonstrators targeted the Humboldt Forum, a huge art centre under construction in Berlin. It will showcase artefacts looted by Germany in what is now Tanzania during a bloody uprising against its colonial rule.
Separately, the staff of Berlin’s Technology Museum and activists disassembled a display on Germany’s colonial past that has been criticized for its insensitive portrayal of black slaves as goods. It was created in 2003 but drew attention amid Black Lives Matter protests.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
