Berlin conference opens with pledges to take responsibility for colonialism—a crime with deep wounds

Rev. Dr Kenneth Mtata, World Council of Churches (WCC) programme director for Life, Justice, and Peace, spoke of how political leaders met in Berlin 140 years ago to partition Africa.

“They didn’t want to have a conflict over how they were going to share the resources of Africa,” said Mtata. “But today we are not to celebrate the decisions they took.”

Rev. Christopher Easthill, chair of the Council of Churches in Germany, reflected that many churches were complicit in those decisions.

"At a time when righting the wrongs of racism and colonialism itself is coming under significant pressure and criticism, and in fact even acknowledging the sinfulness of our colonialism is being attacked, this conference is very timely,” he said. “I also commend your choice of venue, returning, so to speak, to the scene of the crime.”Speakers acknowledged that, while they cannot unmake the 1884-85 conference, they could remake the conference so that it sends a very different message.

“We are at the crime scene,” agreed Mtata, “hopefully this time not as complicit in the crimes.”

Dr Silke Lechner, Protestant Church of Germany, a member of the EKD Council, and deputy commissioner for churches and religions for the City of Berlin, referred to the conference 140 years ago as a power grab.

“The predecessors of the German churches have played a role in this development of racism,” she said, suggesting that, 140 years later, churches turn that agenda upside down.

Mtata responded that Lechner’s vision was a powerful one. “One of the major challenges of colonization was at the level of knowledge production: who knows, and how is that knowledge shared?” he said.

Rev. Dr Dagmar Pruin, president, Bread for the World (Germany), said that the relationship between churches and colonialism is one that we continue to examine with honest humility and courage.

“Our institutions, our way of working, and even our understanding of development have been shaped by colonial legacies,” she said. “Acknowledging this is not about blame—it is about responsibility.”

Rev. Rainer Kiefer director of the Association of Protestant Churches and Missions in Germany, gave an overview of the planning for the conference, and how those plans became more than just logistics but spoke to the very heart of what will become a long journey even after the conference closes.

Having recently published “Decolonizing Mission,” Kiefer expressed the vision of continuing to translate that vision into work across the globe.

Former WCC general secretary Konrad Raiser capped off the opening by grounding the conference’s purpose in the longstanding struggle of the ecumenical movement against racism and racial discrimination.

“May God bless your work together during these days here in Berlin,” he said.