The Afro-diasporan

Scholarships: What international students in Germany often get wrong

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 14:05:58 -0700

For many international students, the dream of studying abroad often begins with a very practical question: "How will I finance my studies?"

Over the past decade, first as a scholarship holder myself and later working within the academic system, I have had countless conversations with students who believe scholarships are almost impossible to obtain.

Some assume that only students with excellent grades qualify. Others believe scholarships are only available in certain disciplines. And many international students are convinced that funding opportunities are extremely rare.

In reality, the situation is often quite different.

Scholarships do exist, and every year thousands of international students receive funding to pursue their studies abroad, including in Germany and other European countries. However, what I have observed repeatedly is that many students approach scholarships with misconceptions about how they work and how to prepare for them. Understanding the process can make a significant difference.

Scholarships are not only about grades.

One of the most common misconceptions is that scholarships are awarded solely based on academic performance. While strong academic results are certainly important, many scholarship committees also look at broader factors such as:

* intellectual curiosity

* motivation and long-term goals

* social engagement or leadership

* the potential impact of a student’s work

In other words, scholarship committees often try to understand the person behind the application, not just the transcript. This is why a strong motivation letter and a clear academic vision can be just as important as grades.

Many students start searching too late.

Many students begin looking for scholarships only after they have already been admitted to a program. In reality, many scholarship processes, especially Bachelor's and Master's Programmes,...Read More

Why Smart International Students Struggle in German Universities (Pt. 1).

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 13:52:38 -0800

What No One Tells You.

When I first arrived in Germany, I did what had always worked for me at Makerere University in Kampala. I studied hard. I showed up prepared. I respected my professors. I cared about my work.

And yet, something felt… off.

Not in a dramatic, obvious way. More like a quiet, persistent confusion. I was doing everything right — at least according to the academic rules I had learned before — but the feedback I received didn’t quite match the effort I put in. Sometimes it was blunt. Sometimes it was vague. Sometimes it felt like I had missed an instruction that no one had actually given.

If you’re an international student in Germany and this sounds familiar, let me start with something important: You’re not failing.
You’re playing a game whose rules no one explained.

Many international students who come to Germany were top performers back home. They arrive motivated, capable, and used to succeeding through discipline and hard work. So when things suddenly feel harder — not intellectually harder, but structurally harder — the first instinct is often self-doubt.

Maybe I’m not good enough.
Maybe everyone else understands something I don’t.
Maybe I’m just not cut out for this system.

But in most cases, intelligence is not the issue.
The issue is the hidden curriculum.

German academia runs on expectations that are rarely spelled out explicitly. Professors expect independence, but what that independence should look like is often left unsaid.

You’re expected to think critically, however, the form of critical thinking can differ from what you learned before. Rarely is this addressed or exemplified in foundational...Read More

When survival mode becomes home

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 13:00:16 -0800

Listen when people who love you, respect you, and genuinely care about you tell you that you have changed — not in a flattering, glow‑up kind of way, but in the quiet, concerned tone that suggests something is off.

When my mother visited me in Germany for the first time, she noticed it immediately. I was no longer the bubbly, smiley, sometimes witty person who struck up conversations with strangers and made small talk feel effortless. Instead, I was tense. Guarded. Permanently braced.

She told me my body seemed to arrive in a room before my mind did — shoulders tight, eyes scanning, breath shallow. Worse still, this rigidity had followed me into our relationship. I was impatient, distracted, always half‑elsewhere. At first, I brushed it off. Germany is stressful, I told myself. Adulthood is demanding. Everyone feels like this.

But then I started paying attention to my mornings.

I would wake up with a racing heart, before the alarm had a chance to go off. My first thoughts were never gentle. They sounded more like an interrogation: Did I miss a deadline? Who am I behind with? What have I forgotten to do? The list felt endless, and it greeted me before my feet even touched the floor.

Slowly — reluctantly — I put two and two together. Years of trying to recreate and rebrand myself in a country whose language, systems, and cultural codes were foreign to my own had taken a toll. What I had normalised as ambition, discipline, and resilience was, in fact, survival mode.

And survival mode is a deeply exhausting place to live.

When it becomes your default setting, everything feels urgent. You perform constantly. You people‑please reflexively. You aim for perfection not because you want to, but because you are afraid of what happens if you stop. Your nervous system never quite comes down from high alert.

Left unchecked, this way of living fast‑tracks you to burnout, chronic stress, and — for many —...Read More

The Art of Ordering Bread in Germany

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 16:01:10 -0800

Where Words Failed and Bread Saved Me

There is nothing quite as overwhelming as stepping into a German bakery.

During my Au Pair year, I remember being sent to buy bread for breakfast. My host family preferred freshly baked bread from the most famous (family-owned) bakery in Wuppertal. I always dreaded stepping into that bakery. Not because I never saw Black people buy bread there, but mainly because the shelves were populated with so many different types of bread that I almost got dizzy trying to understand how each one differed from the other.

At the time, I was also not yet articulate in the German language. I feared that my heavily accented Ugandan tongue would betray me—refusing to pronounce some of the names of these loaves with the respect they deserved. And honestly, the bread names didn’t help. In this bakery, bread is named according to the type of wheat used, the seeds or oats sprinkled on top, how crusty it is, and sometimes the region it is associated with. How exactly was I supposed to choose one?

Once you step into this highly sought-after bakery, you are expected to abide by the German shopping netiquette. When the salesperson asks, “Was bekommen Sie?” (translated as “What would you like to have?”—although in all honesty it sounds much closer to “What do you want?”), an audible, confident, eloquent, and fast response is expected.

So there I was, squeezing myself into the 10-square-metre showroom with eight other clients, all of whom knew exactly what they were buying their families for breakfast. They pointed at different types of bread and rolls by name, specifying the exact number of kilos per loaf to be packed into brown paper bags.

Audible. Confident. Eloquent. Fast.

It was almost impressive—quite a sight to behold.

I did not only marvel at the efficiency on display during what was, for me, a deeply overwhelming experience. When I was second in line, I decided to prepare myself. I too...Read More

On moving abroad to study

Fri, 18 Feb 2022 11:34:28 -0800

If I could turn back the hands of time, I would tell my 23 year-old-self to remain calm. "You're going to be okay. You will exceed your dreams and everyone's expectations," I would say to her.

The decision to move to a country whose language is not native to my tongue, whose culture is so foreign and exotic from and whose people look so different that I stand out was scary but also appealing. For these and more reasons, no one in my family actually thought I was going to last more than a year in Germany. "Yes you speak the language," said my uncle "but German can not bring food to the table of an African person!" I do not know where he got his certainty from but he sounded very convincing. Other friends that knew about decision to pursue further studies with the goal of working in Germany said that they had only associated the country with the Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, VW and Audi they never considered it a study destination nor a "fun place" to work. "Why not at least Amsterdam?" they asked.

In hind sight, I am grateful that I did not waiver from the road that was guided by my gut. The journey to the pinnacle of my career has been a roller coaster with many highs and lows. If I...Read More

On my shelf: Four novels by Bernadine Evaristo

Fri, 12 Mar 2021 09:08:50 -0800

I have chosen to start the On my shelf book series with four novels by my favourite writer, British novelist and 2019 Booker Prize winner Bernadine Evaristo. My interest in Evaristo's novels was sparked in 2011. Then an undergrad, I attended a literature class on novels about British slavery. We read her novel Blonde Roots (2009) and I was completely sold from then on. If you have read at least one of the novels I am about to introduce below, you might just understand why I think Bernadine Evaristo is, in my opinion, excellent at what she does. There will be no spoilers!

1. The Emperor's Babe (2001)

It is difficult to imagine leading women in legends and films about the Roman Empire without having a specific image of Cleopatra. Women in films about the Roman Empire tend to look like Sophia Loren in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) or the Jessica Green in the short-lived Netflix series The Roman Empire (2016) both. The fictional character of Zuleika does not fit this popular Hollywood image. She is of Nubian heritage. Her parents flee from what we know now as North and South Sudan. Zuleika is not only beautiful, witty and smart...Read More

My PhD journey: Seven things I would do differently

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 11:16:43 -0800

1. Use a beginner-friendly bibliography tool

Whether it's Endnote, Mendeley or Citavi, acquiring on a bibliography tool as early as your first year is a wise decision. Keep track of quotes and general ideas of the articles and books you have read in the annotation or abstract sections of your tool. Use a tool that only allows you to produce a bibliography of only those sources that you have cited. Take a foundational course on the tool of your choice. Otherwise you risk having scraps of paper with notes everywhere and losing track of where to find what.

2. Realise that a thorough literature review takes time

My PhD (in the humanities) is an interdisciplinary project that combines several approaches from literary studies and the social sciences. The fields within my project have been widely researched on so that trying to get a glimpse of the state of the art required a lot of time and a lot of wide reading. If you are faced with the same fate, don't fret. Take your time to navigate the fields in order to get a precise idea about what is out there and what you are adding to the debate.

3. Treat the PhD as a job, not as a hobby!

I have always been passionate about the topic of my dissertation and certainly enjoyed every 'aha!' moment of research. May be that is why it was so easy to mistake my research...Read More

Preparing to defend your PhD online

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 03:17:17 -0800

It's March 2021 and we are still in the middle of a global pandemic. In February this year I was told I was to defend my PhD online - on ZOOM. This was not exactly the way that I had conjured up my defence. I thought I would be standing at a pulpit before an audience of professors and fellow peers presenting the results of my project to a live audience.

To be fair, the online defence was still as professional and vigorous as a live one would have been. This is because I paid particular attention to a few things that prepared me for what I would like to call the colloquium of my life. I will share five things that I think are helpful for doctoral students preparing for their online PhD defence.

1. Attend PhD defences in your department

It is somewhat a tradition at my department that peers are allowed to attend defences of PhD students. The examination regulations for PhD studies at my university allow for this. I highly encourage all PhD students to attend at least two defences in your department/faculty during your PhD journey. This not only gives you a rough idea about the general atmosphere of academic exchange that goes on, it also mentally prepares you for that moment when it is finally your turn to take the hot seat.

2. Read the doctoral degree regulations thoroughly!

I am sure every university and department has a set of doctoral degree regulations. Ideally, these regulations should contain a clear framework about how a defence is to be conducted, who is allowed to attend, how long it should last and about the type of doctoral defence in...Read More

Before beginning a Humanities PhD in Germany

Mon, 04 May 2020 12:31:25 -0700

The ABCs of beginning a PhD in Germany

Statistics say that the average time to complete a PhD in the Humanities in Germany is at least 5 years and I dare add that 6-7 years is nothing out of the ordinary. Among the many things that surprised me about doing a PhD in Germany is that in most cases, you are left to your own devices. You will not find so many structured PhD programmes and Graduate Career Centres that will take you through the ABCs of beginning a PhD.

So, what are some important things to consider before beginning a Humanities PhD in Germany? Here are a few tips for both international and local students:

1. Choose a research topic that you are passionate about

It's been five and a half years on my long PhD journey and I find that above all else, this is what keeps me going -- I am passionate about my research topic. Ask yourself whether the topic, field of research you are interested in is one that you can identify yourself with years after completing your PhD. Ask yourself: Is your desired research topic worth investing 5+ valuable years of your life?

2. A structured or a 'traditional' doctoral programme?

Germany prides itself in a long tradition of research-orientation in its institutions of higher learning. "The country of poets and thinkers" only opened its doors to Bachelor's and Master's degrees in the late 2000s. The 'traditional' research-oriented PhD is a reflection of Germany's research tradition. This traditional PhD track requires a high level of independence.

Five 'must-reads' this summer

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 03:22:29 -0700

Not to burst your bubble, but judging from the current pace of things, it is possible that we might still be home-bound this summer. If indeed this nightmare becomes a reality, I will most definitely spend most of my free time outdoors in the sun reading all of these must-reads on my current wish list - and I think you should too! As a PhD major in literatures of the African diaspora, I can't help but be biased in my selection ...

1. Girl Woman Other (2019) by Bernadine Evaristo

Bernadine Evaristo is without a doubt my favourite author. If I could turn back the hands of time, I my PhD would have been about her works especially my favourite novels: The Emperor's Babe, Lara, Blonde Roots, Mr. Loverman and possibly Girl, Woman, Other (which I have yet to finish reading). But not to worry, one of her novels is on my PhD corpus. I am amazed at how Ms. Evaristo carefully crafts her characters and clothes them with wit, sarcasm, irony and a grain of (dark) humour. All the more enthusiastic I am about how she skilfully weaves together the stories of 12 Black women of different faiths, classes, heritages and social backgrounds in there latest novel. Also because the novel earned her the Read More