Renaming a street in Berlin from 'Moor' Street to honor Anton Wilhelm Amo, the first African-born doctoral recipient in Europe, is insufficient for genuine decolonization efforts. Despite local resistance, a legal decision permits the name change. Historically, the term 'moor' has negative connotations tied to the enslavement of Africans. The street runs through significant historical areas tied to Germany's colonial past, including the site of the 1884 Berlin Conference, which initiated the division of Africa among colonial powers and Germany's subsequent actions in Namibia.
Decolonization does not happen by changing a few street names," Afro-German political scientist, human rights activist Joshua Kwesi Aikins told DW after it was announced that a central city street whose name many regard as racist would honor Anton Wilhelm Amo, an Afro-German Enlightenment philosopher who in 1734 became the first African-born scholar to receive a doctorate from a European university. "Moor, in its Greek roots, means dark or black but also 'stupid or primitive,' Aikins explained, the latter having been historically adopted in German usage.
"In the words of Berlin-based British-Ugandan writer Musa Okwonga, the major European colonial powers gathered at that conference 'discussed how they might divide up Africa.' The conference would also kickstart Germany's genocidal colonial rule in Namibia."
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