The term “Madgermanes” is used in Mozambique to refer to the approximately 15-20,000 people who worked as “contract workers” in the GDR between 1979 and 1991 – and were subsequently deported from the GDR, having been cheated out of most of their wages by Mozambique.
In the comic strip of the same name by Birgit Wehye, stories are now told that were kept quiet for decades. Stories full of work, false promises, hope and the confrontation with everyday racism and neo-Nazi violence in the GDR. Wehye allows some of those affected to speak for themselves, fictionalizes at other points, and thus forms three representative biographies from the researched material.
Meanwhile, the struggle of former contract workers for unpaid wages continues today – for more than twenty years, with public demonstrations and actions such as the brief occupation of the German embassy in Maputo in 2004. “Madgermanes” is a corruption of “Made in Germany” and “Mad Germans”. A designation that gives an idea of how difficult it is for those who have returned with their experiences, stories and demands, even today in Mozambican society.
Brigit Wehye 2016: Madgermanes. Berlin: Avant-Verlag
If you don’t have a bookstore worth supporting near you, you can also buy the book from the alternative non-profit online bookstore links-lesen.de, which supports political projects with the profits. The link to the book can be found here.