Anticolonialism – “What I do must be bigger than I do”

You work as a singer, educational officer, anti-racism trainer and curator. As a political activist, they organized demos nationwide after the murder of George Floyd 2020, and they also study communication design. How do you reconcile so many different activities?

Where do I get my strength from? First I get my power from all the people around me who support me very much: above all my mom, which always has an open ear for my dreams and activities, and also my team, with whom I have been working for two years. And then at some point I learned: what I do has to be bigger than me. For me it is important to give other people opportunities and open networks. And of course the Congo is important to me: I can’t save the country, but I can’t sit around and just do nothing. I have to use the privilege that has been given to me: in general the opportunity to speak for people who are marginalized by the system.

What role does it play for you that you came to Germany from the Congo at the age of eight?

I came to Germany through family reunification. That shapes me. Our personal story shapes us all: whether our parents have education or not whether they are rich or poor, which is given to us or not. The fact that we can live such a good life in Germany is usually only possible because other countries have been colonized because we continue to exploit them or are ignorant of human rights – all of this plays a role.

Where do you find your identity?

I have a German passport, but I’m a congolese. I think I feel closer to Congolese history than the German. This also means that what happens in Africa also has something to do with me. At the same time, I have the feeling that even if I had this special look at African culture and history, I would have made it clear from the outside to have to have this look: because I am classified as an African woman, as a person who is not part of German history, although our stories are closely interwoven through colonialism.

How does it live as an African woman in Germany?

The question is: where do I feel seen and heard and as part of society? This is also and especially a structural question. At the end of the day, everything has something to do with access. Where can I get my resources – and where not? Before real structural equality, we could at least accept ourselves as equivalent. For example, if I live in a city like Munich, where the search for an apartment is a disaster, I do not want the promise to be made dependent on whether my name is Kharis Petronelle Ikoko or Thomas Müller.

Are Congo and Colonialism an issue in your workshops on anti -racism and critical whiteness?

Thanks to the anti-racism and critical whiteness work, I would like to build bridges, open different perspectives. At the same time, I would like to show how people are treated. I would like to question the structures and privileges given to us and maybe also create innovative opportunities for living together. An understanding of each other is very important to me: in truth, we are so strongly connected that it is almost absurd that we can be brought apart through little things and are ready to destroy our surroundings, our environment – and nature also comes into play.

Which in turn leads us to the Congo.

There is this saying: “Where it smokes, there is usually also a fire.” In the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the resources are the fire. Without you, we could not make calls with cell phones or work with our laptops. Nowadays, uranium, a central raw material for warfare, is of particular importance. During the transatlantic colonial period, the Congo not only used valuable raw materials such as rubber, ivory, copper, tin, zinc, gold and diamonds, but also enslaved people.

The Congo is considered the most resource -rich country in the world and would therefore have to prosperate.

The fact that the resources from the Congo are so important for us lets us ignore where they come from and how we humans exploit. The problem is: If all of this would be aware of it, we would have to do without a lot – and we would have to start treating ourselves as an equal footing worldwide. And that’s something that most do not want. Nobody likes to make power voluntarily.

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What role does music play in your work?

If there is a constant in my life, it is really the music. I can’t remember a single day where music was not part of everything I do: today as well as as a child in the Congo. When I write my music, I’m usually all alone with myself. Music is my healing and my opportunity to exchange ideas and build bridges. It is a language that brings everything together and all. If I address injustice with music, it is different from a speech on a demo.

As an artist, they call themselves coconry.

Kokonelle consists of “Koko” by Ikoko and “Nelle” by Petronelle. This has a deeper meaning for me: I take the two syllables out of my name and put them together again. So I also explain my life: that is very related to tornness. Over the years I have learned what it meant for me to have been torn from my surroundings, family, culture and tradition and get into a world in which there is sometimes little understanding of people like me. This is also reflected in my music: in its diversity and diversity.

What gives you hope?

People who provide resistance to injustice and do not stop.