Africanist who nurtured the continent’s culture

1964-2016

HENRIKE Grohs, one of at least 19 people who died in an al-Qaeda terror attack in Ivory Coast last Sunday, made a huge impact, and many friends, when she lived in South Africa for almost five years.

Through her work at the Johannesburg branch of Germany’s international cultural organisation, the Goethe-Institut, between 2009 and 2013, she played a key role in several arts projects. She was that rare individual who managed to turn her passions into her life’s work, positively affecting many people in the process.

A woman who embodied joie de vivre, adored Africa and meaningfully engaged with new cultures, Grohs embraced Johannesburg with a zest that endeared her to fellow residents from all walks of life. Her infectious laugh and capacity for “eating life whole with juices running to her elbows”, as her colleague Cara Snyman described it, dominate the portrait.

Born in Berlin, Grohs studied ethnology, art history and religious studies at Berlin’s Free University and in Marseilles. Her father was an Africanist scholar and her mother an ethnologist, so Grohs spent part of her childhood in Africa, her love affair with the continent beginning early.

Following a year’s voluntary social service in Botswana in 1983-84, Grohs worked in Senegal, Mali, Benin, Sierra Leone and Kenya.

Back in Germany she became an assistant professor at the Institute of African Studies at Cologne University in 1994, and by 1999 she was managing partner of an agency for cultural and scientific projects. As the project manager for the education programme of the Berliner Philharmoniker from 2003 to 2007, she set up a youth choir and the “Rhythm is it” dance initiative for schools.

But Africa was calling and in 2009, Grohs arrived in Johannesburg, where she melded her enthusiasm for the arts with her love of people, pioneering cultural partnerships and drawing in communities. To give talented artists a platform, she staged events in the Maboneng Precinct, and at the Drill Hall, in Joubert Park, an area where migrants from across Africa have settled.

Grohs was instrumental in bringing participants from around Africa to Drama for Life, a multidisciplinary, activist-based approach to the performing arts at the University of the Witwatersrand. She also helped establish the Music in Africa Foundation, which brings together the continent’s musicians.

Grohs had a talent for finding interesting, creative corners. Workouts at George Khosi’s Hillbrow Boxing Club became her fitness fix, long before it became trendy.

Her passion for local music found a focus in BCUC (Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness), an indigenous funk-soul band which Grohs loved to watch perform live.

When she left Johannesburg in late 2013, she had several farewell parties, and her send-off at the Goethe-Institut was packed.

She directed the Goethe-Institut in Abidjan from December 2013 until her death.

Grohs is survived by her brother, Florian. — Ayesha Kajee