Black Story Month: Mirrianne Mahn "Issa"

In the organizer's words:

Issa doesn't actually want to go on this trip. Pregnant, she is on a plane to Douala, driven by her mother, who fears for her daughter's life as she is about to give birth. In Cameroon, the country of her childhood, she is supposed to follow the healing path of rituals under the eagle eyes of her grandmothers. But it's not that easy when you're too black in Frankfurt and too German in Buea.

For Issa, the visit becomes a confrontation with her own family history and the certainty that both trauma and the unconditional will to love and live are hereditary. Mirrianne Mahn artfully interweaves the fates of five women whose lives are more than a century apart and yet are connected by the lines of colonial exploitation and the pursuit of self-determination.

An empowering, powerful and haunting debut. Mirrianne Mahn will be a personal guest and read from her impressive novel. Mirrianne Mahn was born in Buea/Cameroon in 1989 and grew up in a small village in the Hunsrück region. She now lives in Frankfurt, where she works as an activist and theater maker against discrimination and racism.