Description

In 2016, alongside many people seeking protection, a writer from Afghanistan also came to Germany. A work grant from the Heinrich-Böll-Haus Langenbroich association took Taqi Akhlaqi (1986) to the city of Düren.

Before this trip he had only seen Europe through its literature and art and knew Germany through its writers and philosophers. He therefore left Kabul with many wonderful ideas about what would await him in Germany. Among other things, he was convinced that Germans, when spoken to in a friendly manner on the street, would give him lines off the cuff Thus spoke zarathustra could recite.

The Germany that Taqi Akhlaqi reveals is so wondrous and full of surprises that at the end of his scholarship stay he returns to Afghanistan to reflect on what he has seen and experienced. He does this so thoroughly, so ruthlessly self-critically and with so much humor that anyone who reads his observations is inspired to question their own customs, everyday rituals and ways of thinking, to “alienate themselves”, as the author puts it, and the to discover your own society with new eyes.

His texts tell of escape, exile and raw violence, but always put these moments in a perspective that breaks the pure shock effect and behind it makes visible the - for us - unknown continent of the world in which such fates take place. The author also lends his voice to a child and even animals; and, unusually enough, he continues to build bridges between Afghanistan and Germany.

- Angela Schader from Berlin Artists Program

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In Germany, everything was foreign, including the toilets, says the Afghan writer Taqi Akhlaqi. In his book 'Understand the Germans' he manages to combine funny things from everyday life with serious topics.

“You learn a lot about Afghanistan and even more about the outside view of everyday German life, including its sometimes strange quirks, which makes the book an enjoyable and enlightening read. This view from outside is needed more often in Germany, simply because it helps to appreciate the advantages of a free democracy and not always take everything else so seriously.”