Who is the woman on the cover?

Shortly before the reopening of the adult education centres, we photographed a few volunteers in and in front of the houses. In situations that could also take place according to the current hygiene concept. Dr. Marie Biloa Onana was present at the funny action. Now we want to know more about the woman on the cover page.

Marie, today you taught the third day after the reopening of the adult education center. How did you feel the last 15 weeks with the pandemic?

For the first time in my life I had a lot of time to myself. and for my family. At the beginning of April I realized that I was getting scared. This feeling that comes from looking through windows at empty streets. My family in Cameroon was very worried about me when the virus began to spread in Europe. The media around the world have been promoting people’s fears. Suddenly I started asking myself these existential questions: What is safe? What does it mean to live? What is happiness? I have always worked a lot. During this break, I was forced to reflect on myself. What do I wish for? What do I need?

When it became clear that this would not be over after a few weeks, the Berlin Volkshochschulen began to offer further training for online teaching courses for course leaders. I registered, but didn’t understand the tools. I couldn’t stand the fact that I wasn’t penetrating this online teaching. My great strength is the interaction with my participants.

“If I can’t do this anymore, how can I pass on my knowledge in the future?” I asked my son. Who am I if I cannot teach? So I catapulted myself into the digital world. I attended four or five web seminars a day. I registered for every seminar that was offered without looking at the titles. (laughs) I was a terrible repeat offender. I used a second computer to simulate the interaction between instructor and participants.

Now I can say: I can do that. The potential to offer online courses is now part of my competence.

Cover page of the program booklet 2020, second semester

You have been a German course instructor at the Volkshochschule for almost 10 years. I’ve looked you up: In over 250 courses you have taught about 3500 participants. In Turmstraße, Antonstraße and Linienstraße. How did this come about?

I wanted to become a lawyer or a pediatrician, then I had an encounter with a wonderful German teacher at the grammar school in Douala in Cameroon. She was so sensitive, gentle, natural and attentive. A radiant figure. And she awakened my love for German language and literature and the desire to become a teacher myself.

Teachers* have a role model function. We can move so much. A teacher must have this aura and the ability to make students smile. We teachers motivate our participants. My teacher at the time gave everything, so I gave everything. This is how I see the teacher function: to move people in such a way that they want to achieve something better. My son says I am impatient. In the classroom I am a completely different person. The world of work is important to me. I do everything with my heart and I don’t have half the stories. I am a perfectionist! (laughs)
How did it happen? I completed my bachelor and master studies in Yaoundé in the subject German literature “Modern German Literature”. Then I was in Berlin twice on a DAAD scholarship. In 1996 for my master’s thesis (“Maitrised’ allemand”) on Heinrich Böll at the Free University (FU) and in 2003 for my doctoral thesis at Humboldt University. Parallel to the Magister I graduated from the University of Education and received my recognition as a German teacher.

In the mornings Pedagogy, in the evenings FU and in between my son Wilfried was born. (laughs) My professors trembled before every exam, whether I would appear in the morning in the ninth month or turn off to the delivery room before. (of course she laughs here and the laughter doesn’t stop in this interview)

Working as a German teacher in Cameroon was easy. I had homogeneous groups, everyone spoke the same language of origin. But here at the adult education centre, I have developed my intercultural competence. Every course is different. Different people, a different atmosphere. I learned so much about other countries. Teaching is also a kind of further education. Not only professionally, but also to know people. The participants are my great source of strength. They are happy with my teaching and they show me that.

You told me that your experience at the adult education centre was mostly good. I suppose you say “mostly” for a reason?

Let’s take the first day of classes in Corona: In the house where I teach, the registration for the German courses took place at the same time. Because of the hygiene concept, the new participants waited in a row for their appointment. My colleagues and I walked past the line to go to our course rooms. I was the only one who was stopped and asked to stand in line at the back of the queue of customers. Twice I had to explain that I am the course leader here.

Or let’s take the sentence in the lecturer’s room that I sometimes hear: “But you speak German well.” And I answer: “Unfortunately, that’s not a compliment. That’s my job!”

As a non-native German teacher, I’m sure I teach differently. With the glasses of someone who once learned German herself. And that’s no disadvantage, quite the contrary!

I tell you, I could write books about structural racism, even in its subtle form.

On the streets of Berlin and the world no books are being written right now, but maybe history is being written. Ten years ago you wrote your doctoral thesis with the title “The slave revolt of Haiti. Ethnic difference and ideals of humanity in 19th century literature” (Böhlau, 2010) published. A colleague lent me your book the other day. How do you see the current Black Lives Matter movements in Germany and the world?

I am one hundred percent sure: Something will move!

In the last few years, I have co-organized so many demos, fought for the renaming of M-Straße in Mitte, was involved in the networking of post-colonial associations. And now the BVG, for example, is announcing that it will simply rename the underground station M-Straße because it rejects “any form of racism or other discrimination”. A “Moor”, a term from slavery, where people from African countries arrived in Europe via the Caribbean and were allowed to be stared at as exotics. Hurtful. This quick turnaround is the Floyd effect! At the big Black Lives Matter demo at Alexanderplatz I felt it: a chapter of German history is being written.

There are many kinds of racism, but there is a hierarchy. And all of a sudden black people become visible, dark-skinned people are invited on podiums. There is a debate about our Basic Law, where the word “race” is still there, which only manifests what it is supposed to resolve. Racial profiling by the police etc.

How did you come to Haiti for your book?

The subject of Haiti was a coincidence at first, until I realized it was about more than that. The slave revolt was in the 18th century, but racist thinking and stigmatization are highly topical. Through Haiti, I have approached my own history and the history of black people. This cross-cultural analysis was something new in German studies at the time. The horizon for Germanists at that time ended at the borders of Germany.

I didn’t just want to write about Goethe and Kleist. How was the historical event perceived and literarily portrayed in Germany, France and Haiti? How were ethnic differences processed and how did this event considerably intensify and polarize the “race” discourse? That is what appealed to me. Of course, I also had to understand colonization and analyze the debate on racism. But for colonial history there are historians and Africanists.

I spent endless hours in dark libraries in Berlin and Paris back then. I was researching the 18th and 19th centuries and was dependent on reference books that you weren’t allowed to copy or take home with you! (She shakes her head as if she could no longer imagine that in today’s library) I didn’t notice much of the life outside during this time.

And since then? What does a normal week in your life look like? Post-doc and pre-corona?

Family, teaching a lot, choir in my Christian community, volunteer work, social and political commitment, anti-racist education, a little research. In any case without laziness and boredom!

Thank you very much for the interview.

With an inspired feeling and a long list of reading tips for the summer in Berlin, I say goodbye to Dr. Marie Biloa Onana, who will spend the evening with her family in Kreuzberg.

The interview was conducted by Anne Nguyen, Volkshochschule Berlin Mitte, in July 2020.