Alain Missala

In Germany, racism against Black communities is prevalent but unacknowledged, causing invisible barriers for Black voices to enter societal discourse. Among all, Black men face deeply negative stereotypes that limit their ability to fully participate in German society. Alain is building a movement of Black men connected through their identity as fathers. He encourages Black men to reclaim their space in society and strengthens Black narratives in critical cultural spots, so the next generation of Black and underrepresented youth grow up knowing they belong.

Alain is celebrating and strengthening the caregiver identity of Black men in Germany to eradicate the stereotypes attached to this community, foster belonging for all Black people in society, and create a more inclusive and multicultural self-identity for mainstream society. Alain’s drive to realize this vision stems from his feelings of isolation and exclusion as a Black father of three bi-racial children in Germany. To counter the racism and micro-aggressions he and his children face daily, Alain realized that a shift in culture was needed: in the perceptions of Black people in public space, in the stories being told by and for them, and in the institutions that amplify these stories through society. Through Black Dads Germany (BDG), Alain helps lift Black fathers out of systemic isolation, bringing them into a peer network in which they can thrive and develop personally (in their self-esteem and agency), relationally (as better partners and parents), and vocationally (as “micro-entrepreneurs” and changemakers). As the dads start to take up space in public and foster positive images of Black fatherhood in culture and institutions, they promote the systemic embedding of Black-centered narratives in wider society.

In a three-fold approach, Alain first invites Black men in Germany to connect around their role as fathers – many of whom did not perceive fatherhood as one of their primary identities. The BDG community allows fathers to connect to themselves and their children, thus strengthening their identity as caring fathers – an important foundation to redefine how others view them. Second, by organizing meetups and events in public spaces, such as playdates on public playgrounds and readings with the dads in public libraries with attendants from all races, Alain brings visibility to the role of Black dads and fosters a new, more inclusive image of fatherhood. Third, Alain is leveraging culture and education, using tools such as children’s books and storytelling to strengthen overall representation of Black persons in society. To that end, Alain collaborates with cultural institutions such as public libraries and publishing companies to bring new Black-centered narratives into their curational strategies, thereby shifting their approaches and creating new demand for more diverse representation in culture, literature and beyond.

By encouraging the fathers to start their own local groups and adopt BDG’s low-threshold formats, Alain introduces a highly replicable approach to organize and scale the BDG community while activating the Black dads across Germany to become changemakers in their own localities. In only two years, the movement is already spreading throughout Germany, and publishers are shifting their mindsets and standards of diversity and representation. Alain’s vision is to first scale the movement to German-speaking countries like Austria and Switzerland, and eventually have his model replicated throughout Europe.

People of African descent, whether as descendants of colonialized peoples or as more recent immigrants, are among the most marginalized groups in the world. In many countries, people of African descent still have limited access to quality education, health care, adequate housing, and social security. In Germany, where more than one million people identify as part of the African diaspora, anti-Black racism is deeply embedded within society and institutions. In the 2020 German Afrozensus, the first major survey of the realities of Black people in Germany with nearly 6,000 respondents, over 98% of respondents said they had experienced discrimination, while 93% said they are not believed when they speak out about racism. In the European context, Germany reports much higher rates of discrimination against Black people than most other countries. In a 2023 study commissioned by the European Agency for Fundamental Rights of people of African origin in EU countries, Germany performed worst: 76% of those surveyed said they had experienced discriminatory treatment in the past five years because of their skin colour, origin or religion, while 45% was the average in the 13 EU countries surveyed. Many studies show that systemic racism is a key cause of social segregation and isolation, which in turn leads to many negative consequences for those affected, including mental health issues, poor self-image, low self-esteem, and low agency.

Systemic discrimination creates cultural and economic barriers that further contribute to feelings of inadequacy and diminished self-esteem among Black Germans. While a 2023 study shows that the employment rate for Black people in Germany is 73% (so not so far below the general employment rate of 80%), they are employed more often than average in so-called “elementary occupations” (21% compared to 7% in the population average), and around 35% work in a job for which they are overqualified. These barriers intersect with the expectations and challenges that apply particularly to men in German society, where the role of the traditional male breadwinner, in which men are expected to be the primary earners for their families, continues to dominate. At the intersection of the negative effects of racism and patriarchy, the systemic underemployment of Black men also takes its toll on this community. Men feel powerless and unconfident when they are not “the breadwinner” of the family. This lack of self-esteem and toll on mental health can also have negative effects on the men’s father role, in which they could be emotionally (if not physically) absent and risk reproducing inherited traumas to their children.

Being Black is not seen as a part of the German identity. "Only white people can be German," says Afro-German researcher and activist Eva Apraku about the dominating view of history in the country. "As a result, Black history is still not perceived as German history." Yet, because of the absence of discourses on the issue in German media and the education system, and the general lack of visibility of Black people in all areas of society, many Germans remain in denial about this reality. History textbooks in schools barely mention Germany’s colonial history, and media accounts indicate that several states don’t include the topic in their curriculum at all, while others only treat it on a superficial level. This omission perpetuates ignorance and biases among students, reinforcing stereotypes. Additionally, it is still commonplace for children’s and educational books found in German libraries today to contain racist slurs and images. This context is compounded by the absence of positive Black role models in mainstream German media and literature, which further marginalizes Black fathers and their children. Afro-German children growing up in this environment face numerous challenges. They often grapple with a dual identity, feeling disconnected from both their African heritage and their German identity. The lack of positive role models and representation in media and educational materials exacerbates feelings of isolation and alienation and can have long-lasting effects on their mental health and well-being – continuing the vicious cycle of intergenerational trauma.

In comparison to countries like the United States, the landscape of networks, movements and organizations connecting, supporting and promoting the rights of Black people in Germany is extremely small. There are very little opportunities for Black people to connect around a shared identity not related to race, such as that of father or mother. Parenthood support organizations are either not equipped to deal with the particular challenges Black parents face, or are focused on the institutional level, such as parent associations at schools. While some offers of support and community for fathers of all races exist, they do not offer a safe space for Black men to bond over their unique experiences and work through their intergenerational trauma. Within the current context of pervasive yet unacknowledged racism, Alain sees an opportunity for the Black dads to promote empathy and counter divisive rhetoric in mainstream society through the shared experience of parenthood.

Alain is seeking a profound transformation of society on three levels: at the individual level for Black fathers, strengthening their self-identity and increasing their self-esteem and agency; at the intergenerational level, having an impact on their families and children, as well as other families in the majority society they come in contact with; and at the cultural and institutional level, as Black narratives shift the way society sees itself.

With the BDG community, Alain is working to end the systemic isolation of Black men in Germany as both the foundation of his strategy and one of its end goals. To that end, he connects Black men in a peer network, aligns them around a new shared identity of fatherhood, and creates spaces where Black fathers can meet and share their experiences in a judgement-free setting. In this safe and trust-based environment, they can let go of the “Black” label and connect just as fathers – many for the first time. This is a crucial step in helping them heal from their personal trauma as well as their shared systemic and racial trauma, in which they are often reduced to their Black identity in a predominantly White society.

In the spaces Alain facilitates, the fathers themselves become mentors and coaches to one another. This gives them a renewed sense of purpose and strengthens their confidence and self-identity. Moreover, the dads gain new parenting skills, tapping into the expertise of community members and allies to address topics such as toxic masculinity and mental load in the household, or attend workshops such as how to care for their children’s hair. BDG organizes activities in which fathers spend dedicated time with their children without the presence of their mothers, they build up deeper and stronger relationships with their children, and the entire family benefits as a result.

As the fathers transform, they also start transforming their environment. So, in the next step, Alain brings his community of Black dads and their families into the public eye, aiming to replace negative images and stereotypes of Black individuals. At the core of this effort are Black Dad Readers, a key format which takes place all over Germany and serve as an opportunity for the dads to build connection around the experience of parenthood, independently of racial background. During these events, a father from the community reads children’s books with positive, Black-centred narratives to children of all backgrounds. These events are always hosted in public spaces, such as public libraries, to foster visibility and empathy – allowing as many people as possible, from walk-in visitors to passers-by, to witness the dads as caring, well-educated members of the community. So far, BDG has held over 100 events in two years with around 5,000 people attending. Additionally, the local groups that make up BDG’s national network, led by dads from the community, organize their own activities such as playdates or market visits. This provides an opportunity for Black fathers to appear as a group in public spaces: if in a small town, where they are always in the minority, 15 to 20 Black dads gather at a playground, they suddenly have the local population’s attention – and, together with their children, begin to normalize the image of Black men as caring fathers.

Choosing public spaces for events is also a strategic choice for Black families. In Germany, Black-majority spaces are nearly non-existent, so these gatherings allow Black parents, often for the first time, to see themselves and their children surrounded by others who share their experiences and identities, creating a powerful sense of belonging and acceptance. Thus, Alain facilitates intergenerational healing for Black and interracial families. At the same time, Alain and BDG generously invite the white majority to join in and simply listen. This strategy highlights both the uniqueness and the simplicity of Alain’s approach: allowing the dads to take space and become more visible not by highlighting their “otherness” but by focusing on their shared humanity through a wide range of lived experiences. The Black Dads Readers format is complemented in this regard by the Listening Circles, which invite Black fathers throughout Germany to share their personal stories and experiences with predominantly non-Black audiences. The community selects fathers from diverse backgrounds and biographies, showcasing the richness of diversity among Black fathers in Germany. These interventions, simple to adapt and replicate, contribute to fostering a new, more nuanced image of Black men within German society.

In order to counter the structural lack of cultural embedding of Black-centered narratives in Germany, Alain strategically leverages traditional cultural institutions such as public libraries and media such as children’s books as tools to foster black representation both now and for future generations. For that purpose, BDG has begun building strategic partnerships with public libraries and publishing companies across the country.

First, Alain is seeking to shift publishing companies towards recognizing the importance of diverse representation. Collaborating with 14 publishing companies, including major ones such as Simon & Schuster Publishing and Carlsen Verlag (one of the leading publishers of children’s literature in Germany), Alain persuades them to sponsor BDG reading events with children’s books that represent Black narratives, as well as to gift the books to Black families in attendance. By generating this new demand for diverse children’s books, Alain aims to prompt internal requests within publishing companies for more Black authors and narratives – a strategy which has proven successful: as a result, Carlsen Verlag decided to include two new Black-centered children’s books in their catalogs. Moreover, Alain enables these publishers to adopt more diverse strategies and open to new markets, presenting this as a competitive advantage.

Secondly, through the Black Dads Readers events, he introduces Black literature and the Black community to public libraries. These events also offer valuable insight into which books will resonate with audiences, creating demand and aiding libraries in their curation decisions. Alain actively engages with library curators and coordinators, advising them on topics such as racist literature and inclusion, while also recommending potential sources for inclusive literature. As part of this collaboration, Alain has successfully lobbied for the inclusion of the new Black-centered books into the libraries’ catalogues – diversifying the collection of at least 7 public libraries thus far. Due to internal communication structures from one local library to another working on DEI topics, Alain’s book suggestions were able to spread to many more libraries all over Germany than he was ever in personal contact with.

Finally, to further drive demand and accelerate the proliferation of positive narratives about Black children and families, Alain recently launched an online, crowdsourced library featuring Black children’s books created by the BDG community and additional Black creatives. Here, Alain was able to scale his impact by securing a partnership with Audible (the largest audio book platform with over 200,000 titles in the German market) to have the Black children’s books created by the BDG community translated into seven standard languages, as well as translated by the community in many more African dialects, making them the first books ever in Germany to become accessible in non-colonial African languages. Empowering the community to share their stories, Alain enables Black dads and their children to fully own their narrative and contribute to a virtuous cycle of positive self-image, representation, and systemic narrative shift.

Through an easily replicable open-source franchise-like structure that has already spread to 9 German cities (Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Nurnberg, Ulm, Leipzig, Hannover, Hamburg, Dortmund) Alain provides the fathers who want to start local groups with resources and support for them to be able to manage their sub-communities successfully – both ensuring the rapid scaling of BDG and, as fathers report, empowering them as changemakers and entrepreneurs. Alain first helps the fathers connect with each other locally through social media outreach, instant messaging groups and word-of-mouth, and then helps them organize their own local events such as playdates, market visits, and brunches, as well as joint public events under the BDG umbrella organization. Local groups are provided with branding, social media marketing, merchandising, as well as networks to local partners such as publishing companies, and resources for event planning. With a nationwide Facebook group and yearly BDG events in Berlin, Alain connects these groups to foster best practice learnings and further build a shared identity. That this movement managed to mobilize more than 1,000 dads in less than three years is noteworthy, considering Alain was not able to work full-time on the implementation of his new idea (something he only started doing a few months ago). Alain seeks to replicate his dissemination strategy to other German-speaking cities in Austria and Switzerland, in which the isolation of Black fathers and the lack of representation of Black narratives is as much the case as in Germany. Once the German-speaking communities are on board for this change, Alain hopes to scale his idea across Europe.

Growing up in Cameroon without a father, Alain understood the importance of a father’s presence at an early age. In the absence of a biological father, Alain's grandfather played an important role in teaching him practical things – like how to put on a tie – as well as emotional and cultural nuances – like taking care of others in your community. Upon losing his grandfather, Alain took on the role of primary male caregiver of his family at the age of 16. When he came to Germany for his second Masters, married a German woman and started raising his biracial kids in Germany, his caregiving practice also evolved. Despite facing systemic discrimination himself, he became responsible for explaining the issue of race to his kids, which became even more relevant to him after his two-year-old daughter declared in 2020 she was White and not Black. In the attempt to provide his daughter with positive role models of Black culture, Alain searched for existing resources in public libraries hoping to find children’s books with Black role models or at least characters. When he couldn’t find any, he started contemplating the fact that every citizen in Germany pays equal taxes but not everyone benefits from the public resources equally. After he failed to convince Berlin’s Integration Officer and the head of public libraries – to whom he had reached out at first – to establish a Black library curated by Black citizens, he started connecting with other fathers through social media. This initiative later turned into the very first pilot of Black Dads meetings.

Since then, Alain has been recognized as a strategic advisor by several public institutions and closed a deal with Audible, one of the biggest online libraries worldwide. For three years, he developed Black Dads Germany as a side project while working for the Norwegian Refugee Council and supporting his three children, mother, and sister. In March 2024, he left his job to dedicate himself fully to his mission of positively shaping the narrative of Black fathers in German society, both now and in the future.