In this book, drug dealer profiles* appear first in the mother-tongue of their subject, as displayed in the exhibition “Dealer Homelands: Origins and Migration Routes of Berlin Park Drug Sellers” at the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum – Berlin (2017/2018). When unable to read Igbo, Mandinka, Wolof, Bambara or Linguala, exhibition visitors were obliged to bow down to retrieve English and German translations placed at the figure’s base.

The profiles, by Scott Holmquist, describe the built and natural features of the dealers’ hometowns, as well as their migration routes to Europe. Satellite and other images of each place further situate the living materiality of otherwise abstracted persons who are either pitied, or hated, as petty-criminal African men.

The book’s thirteen profiles are based on interviews conducted by Holmquist in Berlin parks between 2015 and 2017. They represent the only interviewees, among 159, who agreed to reveal their mother tongue, place of origin and migration route. In 2017, the Gambian refugee-activist and social worker Moro Yapha provided important translation assistance during interviews.

*In January 2019 the dealer profiled as “J” began serving a three-year sentence in a German prison for possession of cannabis with intent to sell in Görlitzer Park.

Editor: Philipp Muras-Krasznahorkai

Texts: Scott Holmquist

Translations: Ikenna Stanley Anigbogu (Igbo) Ramata Doumbia (Bambara) Bernd Hendricks (German) Learn Lingala (Lingala) Wolof 101 (Wolof) Moro Yapha (Mandinka) and two people who wish to remain anonymous.

Research: Scott Holmquist and Sara Stenczer

Copy editing: Christiana Hoppe and Kelly Miller

Photos: Hans-Georg Gaul Graphic production: Polina Tikk