Report from a decolonial rally in Berlin.

On 25 May 2020, George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis by white police officer Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee into Mr Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 45 seconds. Worldwide protests erupted in the weeks following Floyd’s murder. Police violence and systems of racism became a global conversation. In response, nearly 200,000 people took to the streets in Germany. Angela Davis called these global protests the biggest rebellion since the 1960s.

Weeks later, protesters at a UK Black Lives Matter Demonstration threw the statue of the British slave trader Edward Colston into the Avon river. Images and videos went viral, shedding light on the decolonial politics of remembrance as a part of the global anti-racist struggle. This also struck a chord in Germany.

Sunday, 23 August could have been like every other year. People gathered in Berlin Mitte to demand that a street called Mohrenstraße(Mohr is an old derogatory term for Black people. However, it is still widely used for streets and pharmacies.) be renamed – but this year was different. As two people active in the global movement for social and economic justice, we gathered decolonial perspectives knowing their political purchase held new promise.

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First published 14. October 2020: Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Bruxelles Office