	GRADA KILOMBA ESSAYS (online) THE MASK AfricAvenir 2007 There is a mask of which I heard many times, during my childhood. (...) Formally the mask was used by white masters to prevent enslaved Africans from eating cocoa beans and sugar cane, while working on the plantations, but its primary function was to implement a sense of fear and speechlessness. THE N-WORD Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung 2009 (...) An interesting combination of words, in which a positive word 'beautiful' is followed by a very traumatic one, 'N.'. It is a game of sweet and bitter words that makes it difficult to identify racism. Kathleen is being called both: 'beautiful' and 'N.'. The first masquerades the second; the second however, asserts her position as inferior. AFRICANS IN ACADEMIA AfricAvenir 2007 Every semester, on the very first day of my seminar, I play a quiz with all my students. I start by asking very simple questions such as: What was the Berlin Conference of 1884-85? Who was Queen Nzinga? (...) Who knows what? And how is knowledge related to power and racial authority? What knowledge is acknowledged as such? And what knowledge is not? Who is acknowledged to have the knowledge? And who is not? WO KOMMST DU HER? Heinrich Böll Foundation 2006 GradaKilomba©

GRADA

KILOMBA

ESSAYS

(online)

AfricAvenir 2007

There is a mask of which I heard many times, during my childhood. (...) Formally the mask was used by white masters to prevent enslaved Africans from eating cocoa beans and sugar cane, while working on the plantations, but its primary function was to implement a sense of fear and speechlessness.

THE N-WORD

Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung 2009

(...) An interesting combination of words, in which a positive word 'beautiful' is followed by a very traumatic one, 'N.'. It is a game of sweet and bitter words that makes it difficult to identify racism. Kathleen is being called both: 'beautiful' and 'N.'. The first masquerades the second; the second however, asserts her position as inferior.

AFRICANS IN ACADEMIA

AfricAvenir 2007

Every semester, on the very first day of my seminar, I play a quiz with all my students. I start by asking very simple questions such as: What was the Berlin Conference of 1884-85? Who was Queen Nzinga? (...) Who knows what? And how is knowledge related to power and racial authority? What knowledge is acknowledged as such? And what knowledge is not? Who is acknowledged to have the knowledge? And who is not?

WO KOMMST DU HER?

Heinrich Böll Foundation 2006