The Journey of a Banana

2023

11:59 min

What happens when six Black people walk through the center of Berlin with a wheelbarrow full of bananas? For the music video “Deutschungshoheit” by Malonda, we created a performative intervention in which the banana served as a tool of resistance — its racist, sexual, and political connotations were subverted and transformed into a symbol of Black empowerment. At sites of Black resistance history in Berlin, we were surrounded by the police, interrogated for over an hour, and released with the words: “It doesn’t fit the image of the city.” This ambiguity reflects the lived realities of Black people in Germany.