It has been approximately one week since I became a German citizen, and no, I haven’t given up my Guyanese citizenship to attain it. Prior to January this year, when the monumental citizenship law passed in the Bundestag (Germany’s Parliament) foreigners were required to renounce their own citizenship if German citizenship was the path they wanted, with exceptions made only under specific circumstances.
Like my last name, this would have been a hard thing for me to sever ties with. As old people would say “mah navel string bury in Guyana”. Names and all other aspects that are instrumental in shaping one’s family lineage such as nationality, culture etc form such an integral part in influencing and contributing uniquely to one’s life experiences. Therefore, they make the tangible parts like documents, passports etc become more than “just paper”. If anything it sets you off with your core purpose.
I had imagined feeling different when the process was taking place, relieved and at ease even. But what I felt overcome with was a sense of guilt and later on fright. We are reminded throughout the process in the form of exams and documents made to sign on the day of Germany’s past and the chaos caused when the country plunged the world into the Second World War. Germans massacred millions of Jewish people and thousands from other minority groups with many made to do forced labour.
From its reparative justice to museums to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, which was intentionally not rebuilt after being bombed by the Allied Forces to serve as a memorial against war and destruction, it is virtually impossible to not see the continuous effort to deliver justice and remembrance in all its forms. But even as the guilt of the society is transformed and remembrance reigns supreme it feels like the lessons have been lost on many and if anything, societies here and everywhere have somehow forgotten the red flags that arise before ugliest parts of mankind’s capabilities are revealed.
At this point, even the UN feels like a piece of decoration. We have become so reluctant to draw parallels and even more selfish in refusing to understand the interconnectedness of communities beyond our borders.
We need look no further than Palestine and Lebanon for the most horrific examples. Over the past year, as democratic as Germany pledges itself to be, we have seen excessive police brutality involving protesters, censorship, raids and outright harassment. We have heard of secret meetings with members of the far right political party, AFD and of discussions surrounding Nazi-style deportation policies. Across Europe, we observe the growing momentum of far right politics and the openness to share these views.
For many, migration to North America and Europe may appear as a dream as it offers economic security and even a healthy break from constant blackouts at home, but don’t for a second imagine a whole new world where you are far removed from problems when you leave our shores. If anything, you get a closer look at how global powers wield their might on the rest of the world.
