Afrodeutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte (the English translation was published under the title: Showing Our Colors. Her view that voices of those silenced, invisible or met with indifference should be heard encouraged Afro-German women to write the book Farbe Bekennen. Especially important was Audre Lorde’s presence for the birth and development of an Afro- German movement. For nothing in the world would we white women have given up the debates, friendships, contacts and political work which resulted from that configuration. This cooperative effort enlarged our vision and made possible our constructive dealing with differences in daily life. We accomplished our goal to become a working team composed of Black and white women. We published her novel, her essays and part of her poetry, including a bilingual volume of 42 poems she herself selected from her work during her last summer. 1 My friendship with Audre Lorde had a profound influence on the development of Orlanda Frauenverlag.

From Audre Lorde’s conversations and readings held in the Federal German Republic, Switzerland, East Berlin and Dresden, many white women learned to be more conscious of their privileges and more responsible in the use of their power. And whenever women wanted to meet with her, she was there to share her experience and opinions with them, to encourage them to find ways of working together, to urge them on to a mutual exchange of thoughts and feelings. The more frequently she came to Germany – from 1984 to 1992 each year except in 1985, the more intensively did she concern herself with political developments and the conflicts between white and Black woman as well as the difficulties that Black women, immigrants and Jewish women had among themselves. We have to turn that around, not by pretending they do not exist, but by looking into how we can put them to our own uses.” (Lorde in tageszeitung, ) Again and again she would ask white German women about their relations to and with Black women, migrated and Jewish women. If we fail to learn how to use our differences constructively, they will always be turned against us.

Farbe bekennen. by Dagmar Schultz