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Theodor Wonja Micheal Library to be opened in Cologne in his honour to mark Black History Month

A new library will be opened in memory of Theodor Wonja Micheal as part of the activities to mark Black History Month on Saturday the 19th of February in Cologne.

German-Cameroonian Theodor Wonja Michael
Theodor Wonja Micheal who was one of the last black survivors of Nazi terror at the time of his passing at age 94.

The Theodor Wonja Micheal Library was set up by the Afro-Diasporic association Sonnenblumen Community Development Group e. V.

Theodor Wonja Michael died in Cologne on a Saturday 19 October 2019, aged 94. He was the oldest living German of African descent.

Michael, who was born on 15 January 1925 as the youngest of four children to a Cameroonian father and a German mother, was one of the few remaining Black Germans who lived through the horrors of the Nazi era to tell the story.

He survived through the terrors of Hitler’s regime and the Second World War and narrated his experience in his autobiography Deutsch Sein und Schwarz Dazu (“To Be German and Black”).

READ MORE: German-Cameroonian Theodor Wonja Michael Germany’s first Black Federal civil service office celebrated by Google doodle

Oldest living German of African descent, Theodor Wonja Michael, passes on

Theodor had a collection of books that will be added to the library among other books donated in different genres like; Non-fiction and children’s books by Afro-Germans, African, Afro-American and Afro-Caribbean authors.

The African courier wrote that the library is meant to strengthen children and young people with African roots in particular. It is also intended to counteract overall prejudice and racism towards people of African descent and Africa in society by providing a resource centre for knowledge and their history.