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‘Fühlst du dich als Deutsche oder als Afrikanerin?’: 1 May Ayim's Search for an Afro‐German Identity in her Poetry and Essays
Author(s) -
Michaels Jennifer
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
german life and letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1468-0483
pISSN - 0016-8777
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0483.2006.00364.x
Subject(s) - german , poetry , multiculturalism , loneliness , identity (music) , feeling , context (archaeology) , abandonment (legal) , prejudice (legal term) , literature , sociology , gender studies , art , aesthetics , history , psychology , philosophy , social psychology , political science , linguistics , law , pedagogy , archaeology
Until her suicide in 1996, May Ayim was one of the leading voices among Afro‐German women and the group's most prominent poet. In her poetry and essays, she addresses such topics as marginalisation, multiculturalism and identity formation and describes her struggle to live in a society where she encountered racial prejudice and stereotypes. Her texts map the stages in her development from rejecting being black and wishing to be white to affirming her biracial identity, which she came to view as a source of her creativity. In her poetry she not only depicts aspects of the Afro‐German experience but also powerfully evokes feelings of abandonment, loneliness, love and death. In this article I will set Ayim's work into the context of the Afro‐German experience and highlight issues that were of particular concern to her.