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Forms of Belonging, Afro and Asian Diasporas in Berlin
Exhibition „Crossings“

I think the inspiration for this project stems from my childhood memories in Afro Shops and Hairsalons. My mom and I would drive to the nearest bigger city to get hair products, groceries (and my mom would always buy them in bulk then) and to get our hair done. The distance to find these spaces to care for ourselves and for my mom to find familiar products and food item, would always annoy and confuse me when I was younger.
Fast forward to living in Berlin, I wondered where those spaces inhabit room on the cities map. Where do different diasporas from the African Continent go with their children to buy Maggi, Palmoil, Ground Nuts, Shea Butter und Egusi? The list goes on…

Here a snippet of the description I wrote:
>>The process of mapping Berlin’s Black Afro-Shops highlights their value, stories of existence, and importance to the city’s landscape and their connected diasporas.
German Afro-Shops that are owned by people of African descent are often overlooked and not included in the national narrative of Germany’s identity. The presence of Black people and people of African descent in Germany succumbs to the marginalization of Black history and to the scattering of diasporic communities, which is enhanced by the structure of a city that was built to erase their mark.<<