On January 7, 2026, approximately 150 people gathered to commemorate the killing of Laye Condé 21 years ago and 13 years of emetic torture in Bremen. The memorial rally took place opposite the Gerhard Marcks House, where the city of Bremen’s final official memorial site will be erected in September 2026.
Laye Condé’s family in Guinea sent a short message of greeting:
On behalf of the family, we would like to thank you all for all the work you have done since the death of
Laye Alama Condé.
His absence in the family still affects us deeply.
Laye meant everything to his mother, his brothers, and his relatives.
May his soul rest in peace.
Your support will always be appreciated by us as a family. Thank you all very much.
(Bangaly Condé, brother of Laye Condé, Conakry, January 7, 2026)
This was followed by a contribution from the Justice for Lorenz initiative in Oldenburg. 21-year-old Lorenz was shot dead by the police in the city center on April 20, 2025.
Listen here: Contribution from the Justice for Lorenz initiative (Only German)
Last year, the initiative conducted lengthy interviews with two other survivors of emetic torture in memory of Laye Condé. These were presented afterwards and some excerpts from the interviews were read out:
Today we remember Laye Alama Condé and the many people who were subjected to emetic torture by the Bremen police in over 1,000 cases between 1991 and 2004.
Official records on the exact number and identity of those affected allegedly do not exist. In recent years, we too have rarely been able to get in touch with those affected and hear their stories—stories and life stories of young Black people who came to Bremen from various countries on the African continent in the 1990s. Many of them fled political persecution, sought a way out of economic hopelessness, or sought a professional and private future in Europe. They came as young, hopeful people with the desire to learn, go to school, make friends, start an apprenticeship or a degree, further their education, or start a family.
Instead, they experienced institutional racism, consisting of camps, exclusion, threats of deportation, legal hopelessness, everyday racism, and emetic torture—a state regime of violence and border control that completely destroyed their dreams.
The emetic torture system has committed countless crimes against humanity against these young Black people, and it is our duty to ensure that this is not forgotten. That is why it is of central political importance to us that their stories must be heard, because they are also the starting point for the struggle for justice, for comprehensive social recognition of the suffering caused by emetic torture – combined with the central demand for full financial compensation.
We are therefore deeply moved by the trust placed in us by two victims who gave us a long interview in September 2025. In this two-hour conversation, they talked about their arrival in Bremen, their initial hopes, their gradual disillusionment, disenfranchisement, and precariousness due to the institutional racism of the immigration authorities, the violence they experienced as a result of racist residence laws – and at the center of their stories: the cruel experiences of racist police violence through emetic torture. They reported on the shocking experience of being confronted with this extreme form of state violence, on the physical damage, deep emotional injuries, and trauma they suffered as a result, and on the consequences of which some of them still suffer today.
These biographical accounts left us deeply shaken, saddened, and angry. Despite our many years of engagement with the subject, these stories brought home to us in a vivid and realistic way how terrible and cruel the system of emetic torture was for countless Black people.
We are all the more grateful to the two victims for having the courage and strength to share their stories with us and for providing us with the important insight that many more victims still live in Bremen today, are in contact with each other, and that we still have many stories to hear. This will require patience, trust, and time until the victims find the courage to talk about their experiences and stand up for their rights.
The two interviews are therefore a crucial starting point for the fight for justice, against racist violence, and for compensation. We are moved to now be able to read you some of the slightly edited excerpts from the interviews in their original form, without going into explicit detail about the descriptions of the emetic torture – even though these make up a large part of what was recounted.
Introduction to the interviews
Excerpts from 2 interviews with survivors of emetic torture in Bremen, September 2025
Finally, a speech was given in memory of many other people who were killed by the police in Germany last year: “…In 2025, 17 people were killed by police gunfire alone, many of them in exceptional mental health situations. Eight more people died last year in police custody or in prisons under unexplained circumstances – one of them, Nelson, was only 15 years old…”
Full text of the speech for the minute of silence (ENGLISH)
2025
Commemoration rally on the 20th anniversary of the death of Laye Alama Condé
Tuesday, January 7, 2025
5:30 p.m.
Am Wall 208, 28195 Bremen
January 7 marks the 20th anniversary of the killing of Laye Alama Condé by institutionalized emetic torture.
His death was the result of deeply rooted racism in the police, judiciary, politics, medical profession and majority society.
We commemorate in order never to forget.
We commemorate in order to change.
Stop racist profiling – stop racism!
Commemoration Rally 7th of January 2024
Commemoration day 7th of January 2023
On the 18th anniversary of Laye Alama Condé’s death, more than 200 people gathered for a memorial rally at Goetheplatz on January 7. In a greeting, Bangaly Condé, a brother of Laye Alama, spoke of the family’s continued grief over the loss and brutal death of Laye Condé and expressed his hope that other family members will be granted residency rights in Germany:
Greeting words by Bangaly Condé (spoken in French)
Greeting words by Bangaly Condé (translated into German)
A spokesperson for the initiative emphasized that the initiative will now increasingly turn its attention to the issue of compensation and will contact several survivors of emetic torture in the near future to this end.
The initiative gave a brief overview of the current artistic tender for the memorial to be realized by the end of 2023 on the square near the Gerhard-Marcks-Haus (next to the Kunsthalle Bremen). The concrete artistic implementation will be decided by a selection committee, in which mainly people affected by racism and other forms of discrimination are represented.
Speech by the representative of the selection committee (in German, English, French)
In a minute of remembrance, as every year, Laye Alma Condé and Oury Jalloh, who was murdered in a Dessau police station on the same day, were commemorated, as well as the many other people who have been killed by police violence, by institutional racism and by the consequences of a brutal migration policy.
To a funeral song by the Malian singer Oumou Sangaré, which had been chosen by Bangaly Condé for the memorial rally, those present laid roses at the Mobile Memorial in memory of Laye Alama Condé and lit candles.
Coverage of COMMEMORATION DAY (taz, Jan. 6, 2023):
Remembering Bremer victims of forced administration of emetics
SLOW GRINDING MILLS OF REMEMBRANCE.
A memorial is to be erected in Bremen to commemorate the emetic death victim Laye Alama Condé. Artists can now express their interest.
COMMEMORATION DAY JANUARY 7, 2022
Memorial rally on the 17th anniversary of Laye Condé’s death in Neustadtspark.
On Jan. 7, 2022, over 250 people gathered in Neustadtspark to remember those affected by Emetic Torture in Bremen and to commemorate Laye Condé. Speakers of the Initiative in Memory of Laye Alama Condé and the Initiative in Memory of Achidi John from Hamburg made clear in their speeches that state policy has always had a racist slant and called for no let-up in the fight against racism. Thus, the speech of the Initiative in Memory of Laye Alama Condé states:
“The emetic torture is history. But the racism in authorities, in police and politics, the racism on the streets, the racism in the minds, is brutal present – and it is life-threatening.”
Reference was also made at the meeting to the place of remembrance for Laye Condé and 13 years of forced administration of emetics, which the state of Bremen plans to realize in the next few years.
The Mobile Place of Remembrance can be visited at the Goetheplatz till the End of 2023.
An overview of past commemoration days can be found under COMMEMORATION DAYS January 7.
