Germany: Aminata Touré, first black woman appointed regional minister
In Germany, Aminata Touré, appointed to the post of Minister of Social Affairs in the Schleswig-Holstein region, has become a symbol for the integration of “Afro-Germans”.
© Photo taken by RAT1, Wikimedia commons
Text by: Pascal Thibaut Follow
3 mins
The German Federal Parliament has a few deputies of African origin, but a page of history was written this Wednesday, June 29, in the Schleswig-Holstein region, with the appointment of Aminata Touré, whose family is from Mali, as Minister of Social Affairs.
A first.
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From our correspondent in Berlin,
“
I am a young black woman who decided very early on to go into politics and take on responsibilities.
I knew that my age, my origins and the fact of being a woman would play a role, but I did not imagine what dimension it would take.
In her book
We Can Be More, The Power of Diversity
, Aminata Touré describes the incredible interest in her meteoric career.
Aminata Touré has become a symbol for the integration of those who are called "Afro-Germans".
Her parents had fled Mali in the early 1990s. The young girl, born in 1992, grew up first in refugee homes with an unstable status, before obtaining German nationality at the age of 12.
It was at this age that his father left his wife and four daughters.
With a mother who works as a caregiver, the family is not rolling in gold.
Aminata Touré can study political science and French thanks to a scholarship.
At the same time, she became involved in the youth movement of the Green Party in her region, Schleswig-Holstein.
Alongside her studies, she completed her classes in politics as an assistant to an ecologist deputy in the federal parliament in Berlin.
A job that could have opened up prospects for her in the German capital, but she returned to her land in 2017 after being nominated for the elections in her region.
Elected in 2017, she became vice-president of the regional parliament in Kiel two years later.
It is committed to social issues such as anti-racism, migration issues, women's equality or religious issues.
“I want more people from diverse backgrounds to get into politics”
Aminata Touré took with another woman the list of the Greens for the regional elections of May in Schleswig-Holstein.
Environmentalists, who are on the rise in Germany, won with 18.3% and became the second force ahead of the Social Democrats.
The outgoing Minister-President, the very popular Christian Democrat Daniel Günther, is the big winner of the election and is close to an absolute majority in the regional diet with his party.
He governed in recent years with environmentalists and liberals.
Henceforth, the CDU forms a coalition with
the Greens
.
Aminata Touré becomes a member of the government, unsurprisingly.
His ministry brings together Social Affairs, Youth, Family, Seniors, Integration and Women's Equality.
Aminata Touré has therefore become a symbol.
The magazine
Der Spiegel
thus describes a scene during the recent election campaign, a meeting in the street between the candidate and a black mother with her daughter.
For the little one, Aminata Touré is a model.
The candidate takes the young girl in her arms and has to hold back her tears.
“
I want more people from diverse backgrounds to go into politics, but it also requires a lot of discipline, strength and hardship
,” writes Aminata Touré in her biography.
In an interview, she was just asked if Germany was ready for a chancellor with an immigrant background.
Answer: “
It is already no longer a utopia.
It could be done right now.
»
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