Amadeu Antonio Kiowa


Amadeu Antenio Kiowa was a contract worker from Angola. He was one of the first known deaths of far-right violence in the Federal Republic of Germany since reunification. The verdicts in the trial of the perpetrators have been widely criticized. While the court charged the perpetrators with Körperverletzung mit Todesfolge and were sentenced to a maximum of four years in prison, the political public and the media have often classified the act as murder.

Life

Kiowa was born in 1962 in Quimbele, northeast of the Angolan capital Luanda. He was the eldest of twelve children of his mother Helena Alfonso. He completed training in Brazil, Portugal and the Soviet Union. On 3 August 1987, Antonio, together with 103 other Angolan contract workers, came to the German Democratic Republic. He hoped to study aircraft engineering, but, like many Angolan contract workers at the time, was trained as a butcher. Antonio worked in the slaughter and processing fabric of Eberswalde. He lived in Eberswalde, where he also met his girlfriend. The situation of the young couple, who were expecting a child in 1990, changed abruptly with the turnaround. During this time, many former contract workers lost their jobs. Their residence status was unclear due to the cancellation of contracts with the countries of origin.

Death

On the evening of November 24, 1990, neo-Nazi Skinheads from several villages had gathered in the apartment of an Eberswalde Neonazi. They joined forces with about 50 other young people from a nightclub with the intention of "beating other-looking people". On the night of November 24 to 25, 1990, the group met Kiowa and two men from Mozambique. Kiowa was brutally beaten up by members of the group. One of the perpetrators jumped on the head of Kiowa lying on the ground with both feet. The 28-year-old suffered serious head injuries. He did not wake up from a coma and succumbed to the aftermath of the attack 11 days later. The two Mozambicans attacked by the same group, who were also attacked with knives, managed to escape with serious injuries.

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