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Black German Adoptees Create Community, Lead New Research: An Interview with Rosemarie Pena

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Shannon_GibneyThere are so many stories, so many people, and so many communities throughout the adoption community that have not yet had the opportunity to share their voices and experiences. This may have to do with their intersectionality, their status as existing betwixt and between multiple communities, as well as their access to various media. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that their silence renders our understanding limited at best, false at worse—a situation that can only be remedied by providing space, ears, and eyes to listen. That is what Gazillion Voices (GV) is attempting to do, via the conversation below, with Black German adoptee and scholar Rosemarie Pena (RP).

As Yara-Colette Lemke Muniz de Faria writes in “Reflections on the ‘Brown Babies’ in Germany” (see link at end of story), “Between 1945 and 1955, an estimated 67,770 children were born to soldiers of the occupying forces and German women in the Federal Republic of Germany. Of these children, 4,776 children were the children of African American and Moroccan soldiers. The fate of this generation of Afro-German children (or ‘brown babies’ as they were called in the U.S.) was the focus of public interest both in West Germany and the U.S.”

Pena is president of the Black German Heritage and Research Association based in New Jersey, and also a Ph.D. student of childhood studies at Rutgers University, Camden. She believes that the coming together of adoptees within and across racial, ethnic, geographic, and other communities to share stories can help bridge the profound sense of isolation that many of us feel. This has been a dominant theme in her own life, and one she hopes to share through her work.

GV: Tell me about the Black German Heritage and Research Association.

Rosemarie_PenaRP: My organization facilitates the documenting and sharing of the Black German experience that includes, but is not limited to, the experience of adoptees. Our main project is the Convention that has occurred annually from 2011-2013. This year we made a decision to adopt a biennial schedule so our next event will be held in 2015.

GV: How is the group both similar to and different from other adoptee groups out there?

RP: Similar themes between our group and other adoptee groups: birth family searches, reunions, cultural identity displacement, overcoming the trauma of separation from our original families. Some differences are: we do not necessarily see ourselves reflected in the mainstream society in our country of origin, similar to other mixed race adoptees following war that come from Asian countries like Korea and Vietnam. Therefore, it has been important to us to connect with other Black people in Germany and those in other places around the world with whom we share a connection to Germany.

Although it has been relatively obscured, Black people have a very long history in Germany that has been documented since before medieval times. It has been important for some of us to learn about that history and record it as a means of empowerment and locating ourselves within a socio-cultural continuum.

Although at the time, the assumption was made that we (the adoptees) would fit seamlessly into the African American community, some feel differently. Some adoptees identify strongly as mixed race and have expressed feelings of marginalization within the mainstream African American community. Others identify as Black and identify completely as African Americans or as a unique community within the African diaspora. Our cohort was a finite group and we are all now between 50-70 years old, so there is not much activism such as exists in the broader adoption community concerning adoption in general.

I believe that I am somewhat unique in that sense because my academic interest is also in adoption, particularly international and transracial adoption. Others in my cohort are more concerned to create support groups for those still struggling with adoption related issues and also to document their personal experience through life writing and documentary films.

I am also concerned that our presence is not generally noted in the literature that speaks to the history of international adoption, so there is little awareness of our group in the adoption community. Along with others, I hope to change that with the work that my organization is doing and with my own research, writing, and conference presentations. There has not yet been an ethnographic study on the Black German adoptees, but I am aware that I and other scholars are working to accomplish this.

GV: What are some of the specific concerns of the Black German adoptee community?Black_Germans

RP: Some of us have the desire to obtain dual citizenship in Germany and the U.S., if only to validate our belonging to both countries. Because all of our adoptions were closed, many do not have access to original birth and adoption records and some only obtain limited information about their former lives and original families after the death of their adoptive families. In some instances, this has been problematic in a practical sense. Some adoptees are unable to obtain passports and have concerns in terms of the validity of their United States citizenship.

GV: What has been your personal experience in connecting with other Black German adoptees?

RP: Growing up, I, like others of my cohort, really felt isolated. When we found each other online in the early 2000s, we each thought we were the only ones. So, meeting all of them was about getting to know who I am, what my history is, and connection to the world is. It has been extremely important to learn about the experience of other adoptees, because it normalized my experience as an adoptee. As an adoptee, you always sort of feel like, “It’s only me, especially from my generation.” So it has been very healing.

Because I have been very interested in children and the experience of children, it takes my experience of trauma to ensure that other children do not have the same negative experiences as I had, or are able to overcome them. I also try to inform those who facilitate adoptions in terms of what is important. I guess I feel like I am as healed as I can be.

GV: What are some contributions that Black Germans are making to the larger adoption discourse?

RP: We can contribute to the understanding of other mixed race or international adoptees from other countries who are Black adoptees—like Ethiopia. There is an assumption that just because they are Black they automatically belong in an African American home. But, children have rights to their own culture and heritage. A child adopted into an African American family, who is Ethiopian, still has a right to an Ethiopian identity, for example.

I am also excited to continue to link up with the broader adoption community. It is connecting with another social community and family, just like connecting with the Black German community. There are certain things that you do not have to say or explain to other adoptees that they just understand, just from being adoptees.

~ Shannon Gibney

 

To Find Out More:

BGHRA: http://www.blackgermans.us

Adoptee history: http://www.aacvr-germany.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=136&Itemid=11

German American news article:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-s-brown-babies-the-difficult-identities-of-post-war-black-children-of-gis-a-651989.html

 

© Copyright. Gazillion Voices. 2014. All rights reserved.

 


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