Internationales Afrika-Festival Tübingen

Four Days of Pan-African Diaspora Culture

Since its founding in 2007, the International Afrika-Festival Tübingen has become the leading event for the pan-African diaspora community in Germany. The 26th edition, from August 6th to 9th, 2026, on a 5,000 m² festival site, will bring together artists, activists, scientists, and enthusiasts from Africa and its global diaspora to Tübingen. This year's motto "Not Black. Not White." refers to the accompanying thematic focus: Black Excellence in Germany — the achievements, resilience, and shared future perspective of the Black community in Germany and Europe.

Music from Across the Continent

Musicians from West, East, South, and Central Africa, as well as from the Caribbean, Brazil, Great Britain, and the USA, will perform on the festival stages. Afrobeats, Highlife, Soukous, Reggae, Mbalax, Coupé-Décalé, Amapiano, and Hip-Hop will alternate — alongside traditional drumming ensembles and modern fusion projects. The festival is one of the best opportunities in Germany to experience the diversity of African and Afro-diasporic music production in a single weekend. For many artists from the region, it is also the most important platform of the year.

Market, Street Food, and Black Excellence Forum

Around the stages, a vibrant market unfolds with arts and crafts from African countries: fabrics, jewelry, leather goods, basketry, sculptures, books. Food stalls will serve Senegalese Yassa, Ethiopian Injera, Nigerian Jollof Rice, Moroccan Tagines, Mafé, and vegan versions of classic African cuisine. In parallel, there will be exhibitions, street art performances, dance workshops, a children's program with craft activities, and a forum on cultural education — as well as the traditional Sunday parade connecting Tübingen's city center and the festival grounds.

A Political and Cultural Statement

The Africa we want e.V. and the Umoja Initiative explicitly understand the festival as a cultural and political statement. Tübingen, with its long tradition of pan-African research and activism (including the University's Institute for African Studies, which once helped shape German-language African research), is a deliberately chosen venue. The festival is supported by the City of Tübingen, the State of Baden-Württemberg, and church and civil society organizations. It positions itself as a counter-narrative to the one-sided media portrayal of the continent — and as a celebration of what the Black diaspora in Germany achieves and represents.