Why a South African writer turned down Germany's prestigious Goethe medal

In a bold and principled stand against injustice, author Zukiswa Wanner, the first woman from the African continent to be awarded Germany's prestigious Goethe Medal, recently sparked attention by rejecting the honour.

"I thus find myself unable to stay silent or keep an official decoration from a government that is this callous to human suffering," said the novelist, explaining her protest action.

Rather than being the most vocal in condemning another genocide following the Holocaust, Germany instead has emerged as one of the two largest arms exporters to Israel, the author said in her statement.

"I wish that the German government, in reflection and saying 'never again' would acknowledge that never again should be for anybody," she wrote.

In 2020, Wanner was awarded the Goethe-Medaille, an official decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany awarded by the Goethe Institut, which recognises individuals "who have rendered outstanding services to international cultural exchange and the teaching of the German language."

Speaking to TRT World about her decision to surrender the award, which she attributed to cultural and political reasons, Wanner asked, "What does being an artist mean if one can't hold a mirror to society and critique and also applaud it?"

Transcendental voices

A trip to the occupied Palestinian territories for the Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest) in May 2023 prompted Zukiswa Wanner to draw parallels with the apartheid regime of South Africa, where her father, a political exile, originated from.

She described her experience as "eye-opening" in the sense of engaging with Palestinian artists and activists who defied Israel's apartheid system, finding ways to travel, communicate, and support each other's families when individuals were imprisoned.

Recounting her trip, she highlighted how South Africans, during negotiations to end apartheid, were granted the right of return, while Palestinians have no such right. The similarities in the segregation policies, curfews, and restrictions on movement she observed in Palestine reminded her of the experiences of black and brown people in South Africa.

"In South Africa, black people were put in ethnic lands known as Bantustans. These are precursors, I feel, to the alleged "Area A" in Palestine that are allegedly governed by Palestinians independently, but Israeli forces can come in and take people hostages from there arbitrarily," she said.

As she reflects on these observations and her South African legacy, Wanner said she perceives the anti-colonial resistance as a transcendental movement where any conscientious soul would speak up.

"One did not need to be from a country with a history of apartheid to see the daily injustices and indignities visited on Palestinians," she stated when announcing her decision to return the medal.

'Petty Apartheid'

Since October 7, 2023, Germany has been distancing itself from artists due to their stance on the colonial state of Israel, despite Israel's failure to adhere to the Oslo Accord, according to Wanner.

The author further noted that during the Berlin Film Festival when the Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham were recently awarded the best documentary prize for their film "No Other Land," which exposes the destruction of Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank, the German Cultural Minister applauded solely for the Israeli half of the filmmaking duo.

"South African history has a phrase for this: Petty Apartheid," she added.

Above all, Wanner maintains that the Global South has generally been supportive of each other regarding injustices worldwide, while states with colonial legacies are experiencing a widening gap between themselves and their people over time.

"The UK, key to the Commonwealth –although we're unsure who the commoners in that wealth are– are also dealing with serious problems since it appears many Britons have their eyes open now to how complicit their government (and leading opposition are)," Wanner told TRT World.

Wanner's act wasn't just a rejection of a symbolic accolade; it represented a critique of the involvement of global colonial powers in oppression worldwide and urged Germany to confront its historical legacy of violence in Namibia, Tanzania, and Palestine.

The activist writer, born in Zambia to a South African father and a Zimbabwean mother and now based in Kenya, was shortlisted for many international awards, such as the South African Literary Award, the Commonwealth Best Book Africa and the Herman Charles Bowman Award.

In addition to establishing her own publishing house to promote African literature within the continent, she is spearheading projects aimed at fostering greater literary engagement among the people of Africa.