John A. Kantara

John Alfons Cofi Amoateng-Kantara was born in 1964 in Bonn, where he also attended school before going on to

study political science at Freie Universität Berlin and international journalism at City University in London. From 1993 to 2000 he was an editor at the Die Zeit TV magazine in Hamburg and Berlin. Since 2000 he has worked as a freelance journalist and television writer for channels including ARD, ZDF, 3Sat and Arte. He also writes for various domestic and foreign newspapers. In May 2011 he was appointed professor of journalism at the DEKRA academy in Berlin. Kantara has received several awards for his scientific programmes and articles. His documentaries BLUES IN SCHWARZWEISS profiling four black German life stories, as well as UND WIR WAREN DEUTSCHE were shown at the Berlinale and other festivals in Germany and abroad. About the roles of Afro-Germans in the local media, he explained in an interview: “Clichés are important in Germany; it’s important which drawer people get stuck into. And what for a long time we haven’t managed to do here in Germany – but I think we are getting better about it – is to step out of this drawer. I think a lot of producers, who have the

power to bring ethnic minorities into the media, don’t trust the audience enough. Reality is not reflected in the dream factory.”