May Ayim

May Ayim (3 May 1960 in Hamburg – 9 August 1996 in Berlin) is the pen name of May Opitz (born Brigitte Sylvia Andler); she was an Afro-German poet, educator, and activist.

The child of a German dancer and Ghanaian medical student, she lived with a white German foster family when young.

Born Brigitte Sylvia Andler in 1960 in Hamburg-Altona, Germany, she was the daughter of unmarried parents Ursula Andler and Emmanuel Ayim.

Her father, a Ghanaian medical student, wanted to have her raised by his childless sister, but German law made 'illegitimate' children a ward of the state and did not give rights to biological fathers.

After a brief time in a children's home, Andler lived in a foster family called Opitz, who raised her with their biological children.

She grew up in Westphalia, where she later said that her childhood was unhappy.

She considered her foster parents to be strict and spoke about how they used physical violence against her.

This was one of the issues she explored in her later poetry.

She later said that the family threw her out of the family home at the age of 19, which the Opitz family denied.

She continued to keep in touch with them.

That same year she graduated from Friedenschule, the Episcopal School in Münster, and passed her Abitur.

She attended teacher training college in Münster, specialising in German language and Social Studies.

Opitz attended the University of Regensburg, majoring in Psychology and Education.

During this period she travelled to Israel, Kenya and Ghana.

She found her biological father, Emmanuel Ayim, then a professor of Medicine, and developed a relationship with him and his family.

She co-founded Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland (Initiative of Black People in Germany) to that purpose in the late 1980s.

Combined with contemporary materials, it was published as the book Farbe Bekennen: Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte (1986).

This was translated and published in English as Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out (1986).

It included accounts by many women of Afro-German descent.

Ayim worked as an activist to unite Afro-Germans and combat racism in German society.

In 1986, it was the basis of the book, Farbe Bekennen: Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte (published in English translation as Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out, 1986).

Opitz edited this with Katharina Oguntoye and Dagmar Schultz, having added many accounts by contemporary Afro-German women.

At this time she also co-founded the Initiative Schwarze Deutsche (Initiative of Black People in Germany).

Contemporary Afro-German women discussed their struggles growing up black in Germany, and how individuals explored their homeland and multi-ethnic identity.

In some cases, it meant trying to find black fathers; in cases of adoption, they sometimes tried to find both parents.

Opitz, Oguntoye and Schultz decided to allow as many generations as possible to speak in this book.

As the editors met with other Afro-German women and became involved with them, they connected with each other in a new way through this shared ancestry.

The Afro-Germans began sharing their experiences with each other and contacting other Afro-Germans, as they searched for and discovered their history.

The editors and writers said they did not want to have to explain their existence anymore.

They wanted to be sure of their identity and able to assert it to others.

The editors went public with their experiences in this book, discussing their histories and the prevalence of racism, while sharing their own personal experiences.

Opitz, Oguntoye and Schultz felt that as they pushed for Afro-Germans to become more visible, future generations of Afro-Germans would feel less isolated and marginalized.

This group identified as Afro-German, in part to prevent being defined by others.

Opitz helped found the Initiative Schwarze Deutsche und Schwarze in Deutschland (Initiative of Black Germans and Black People in Germany).

It is known in short as Initiative Schwarze Deutsche (ISD), pushing for Afro-Germans to unite in mutual support.

After reconnecting with her father and his family in Ghana, in 1992 she took his surname for a pen name.

Opitz wrote a thesis at the University of Regensburg, "Afro-Deutsche: Ihre Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte aus dem Hintergrund gesellschaftlicher Veränderungen" (Afro-Germans: Their Cultural and Social History on the Background of Social Change), which was the first scholarly study of Afro-German history.

She used May Ayim as a pen name from 1992 to reflect this connection.

May Opitz's thesis at the University of Regensburg, Afro-Deutsche: Ihre Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte auf dem Hintergrund gesellschaftlicher Veränderungen (Afro-Germans: Their Cultural and Social History on the Background of Social Change).

This was the first scholarly study of Afro-German history, ranging from the Middle Ages to the late 20th-century present.