According to a 1952 Das Parlament newsmagazine article, about 94,000 babies born in Germany were fathered by American soldiers during World War II. These children were called occupation babies. Almost 3,100 of those children had Black fathers. Little Ika Hugal-Marshall was one of them. She was born and raised in a community where no Black people worked, lived or visited. She had no other Black people to comfort her during her childhood; a time that coincided with the Jim Crow era in the United States.

The title of Ika Hugel-Marshall`s memoir, Invisible Woman, aptly mimics Ralph Ellison`s Invisible Man. Ellison`s protagonist fit into none of the acceptable Black environments and was never accepted in the white world. Likewise, as the child of a German mother and an African-American father, Hugel-Marshall was ostracized.

Although throughout her memoir, Hugel-Marshall makes a point to stress that her mother, grandmother and sister loved her, they are coerced to disassociate from her because she is Negermischling or mixed race. Her mother is forced to place her in a Christian children`s home where she is physically and emotionally abused and the Sisters try to exorcise the black demon from her.

As an adult Ika is denied jobs and repeatedly informed of her inferiority. She eventually marries a white man but soon separates herself from him when he refuses to have children with her. Despite the racism she encounters, Ika`s intellect, industry and willingness to fight rescue her from her fate as a pariah. She grapples with self-hatred and struggles to improve her situation and those of the children she eventually works with as a social worker.

Through her work as a social worker, educator and feminist activist, she not only befriends poet Audre Lorde shortly before her death but she hesitantly discovers fellow Afro-Germans and continues to search for her American father`s family in the United States. These series of events impact her analysis of Germany`s racism and the flawed feminist movement, helping her move toward self-acceptance.

Most readers will not be surprised by how closely Hugel-Marshall`s sometimes shocking racist encounters mirror those of her American brothers and sisters, but her persistence and progression to consciousness becomes inspiring as her story continues.

Invisible Woman is a straightforward 158-page read that offers insight into who these so-called occupation babies, parted from their American brothers and sisters, are. Ika Hugel-Marshall reminds readers that the roots of the African Diaspora extend into the least expected places and affirms the rights of Afro-Germans, a marginalized group in a place where many people wouldn`t even imagine their existence. People of African descent living in North America, South America and the Caribbean are openly acknowledged but what about those in Europe and Asia? How insistent is the grip of a Black presence on Earth? These questions tumble from the subtext of Invisible Woman.

With the assistance of a translator, Ika Hugel-Marshall has given readers a thought-provoking, personal work that challenges the stereotypes that a nation can have about its own people, be they German, Black or both.

Tara Betts teaches with Young Chicago Authors and co-hosts the monthly open mic/performance series Women OutLoud! Her work is anthologized in ROLE CALL, Bum Rush the Page, That Takes Ovaries!, Power Lines and These Hands I Know.