Workshop "Afrika im Bayreuther Alltag"

Africa in Bayreuth - a complicated history

Traces of the African presence in Bayreuth date back to the Baroque period. The University of Bayreuth - more precisely its Institute for Franconian Regional History and the Chair of African History - shed light on this in a wide-ranging public workshop.

The aim of the workshop was to analyse the African presence in the region of Upper Franconia and to highlight the resulting effects on the social structures of the region today. This can lead to a reassessment of the region's history as well as to an increased awareness of the intercultural spaces for exchange and encounters by making previously neglected aspects and voices visible and audible. This also touched on the question of how African art and artefacts were collected, exhibited and interpreted in the region from a historical perspective.