Women's Place Bilillee Machbuba

Who was Bilillee Machbuba? 

An audio walk created in collaboration with FrauenOrten Brandenburg.

Bilillee Ajiamé Machbuba – A Short Life, A Long Memory

Bilillee Ajiamé Machbuba was born around 1825 in what is now western Ethiopia, likely in the Guumma region of the Oromo territories. She was abducted during one of the many regional slave raids that ravaged East Africa in the 19th century. From there, she was trafficked via Gondar to Khartoum, a central hub in the north-eastern African slave trade (Wikipedia, 2024; Wien Museum Magazin, 2023).

Who was Bilillee? Audio about Bilillee Machbuba (produced by the students):

In 1837, whilst travelling in Egypt and Sudan, the German aristocrat Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau encountered and purchased the teenage Bilillee at the slave market in Khartoum. From that point on, she was known as Machbuba—a name meaning ‘beloved’ in Arabic, though it was likely imposed upon her during her captivity. Pückler brought her to Europe, where she was presented in Vienna and Muskau as an exotic curiosity. This was in keeping with the Orientalist fascination and racialised aesthetics of the time, which viewed non-European women, particularly Black women, as symbols of beauty and difference but rarely as fully human subjects (Vester, 2023).

Machbuba lived on Pückler’s estate at Schloss Muskau, in what is now eastern Germany. Despite the affluence of her surroundings, she experienced cultural alienation, isolation and declining health. She died young—on 27 October 1840, possibly from tuberculosis—when she was only around 15 to 17 years old. Pückler had her buried in the landscape park of his estate, beneath a stylised tombstone inscribed with orientalist motifs. Her grave remains to this day, situated in Bad Muskau, and stands as a physical marker of how colonial-era Europe consumed and silenced Black lives whilst aestheticising their presence (Wikipedia, 2024).

In her 2023 workbook ‘gelebt – Das kurze Leben der Bilillee Ajiamé Machbuba’, Patricia Vester reclaims Machbuba’s story from the margins of European history. She presents her not simply as an exoticised object of 19th-century fantasy, but as a symbol of historical injustice, forced displacement, and cultural erasure—and simultaneously as a person of dignity whose life speaks to resilience and memory (Vester, 2023). Vester draws on Afro-German memory practices and decolonial approaches to reinterpret Machbuba’s short life as a lens through which we can interrogate the intersections of racism, gendered oppression, and forgotten colonial violence in German history.

By remembering Machbuba, we are invited to rethink who is commemorated, how stories are told, and whose lives are honoured in our public spaces. Her story becomes part of a broader project of decolonising memory culture, not just by acknowledging suffering, but by actively restoring agency and visibility to those whose histories were silenced.

References

• Vester, Patricia. gelebt – The Short Life of Bilillee Ajiamé Machbuba. Workbook, 2023.
• “Machbuba.” Wikipedia, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machbuba
• “The Story of the African Woman Machbuba.” Wien Museum Magazine, 2023. magazin.wienmuseum.at/die-geschichte-der-afrikanerin-machbuba

BTU4Future is an interdisciplinary and participatory course at BTU Cottbus that brought together students from diverse backgrounds to explore climate protection through creative and critical approaches.

In the summer semester of 2025, the course focused on cultural sustainability and the critical reflection of memory cultures, with a special emphasis on colonial history and marginalised perspectives. As part of the project, students collaborated with FrauenOrte Brandenburg to design a commemorative space for Bilillee Ajiamé Machbuba—a historical figure whose story speaks to colonial violence and forgotten resistance.

The course included a mix of online and in-person sessions, excursions in Cottbus and Berlin, and hands-on group work. It was led by guest lecturer and artist Patricia Vester, who introduced creative and decolonial methods of learning and remembering.

Through this process, students not only deepened their understanding of justice, but also actively shaped the university as a space of transformation and collective memory.

Reflections from BTU4Future Students

Working on the Machuba monument opened a quiet door in my heart where forgotten voices could finally speak ❤️ (Yasmine)

Building the Machbuba memorial was like bringing her story back to life. It showed me that sharing forgotten stories helps create a world where everyone’s voice counts and we all feel connected. (Nejla)

 I feel very fortunate to have been able to help rewrite this history. (Abnet)

Construction Day

On 9 July, the hands-on construction day took place, during which the BTU4Future students further developed the women’s memorial by planting plants and building a tree bench. 

During the semester, the students worked on various ideas and sketches for the memorial site. Only a few of these were ultimately realised. However, all the students produced excellent design ideas for the memorial site:

• Design Proposal for the Bench by Sanoop Kizhakkinipura Unni
• The Broken Crown – A Memorial for Bilille Ajame by Rakshita Bhatt
• Machbuba’s Voice (Legacy) A Memorial Journey in Cottbus by Yasmine Mezraoui
• Design proposal for a glass house and plants by Liji Alex and Vadakkeveedan Shaji Adhithya
• Machbuba’s Voice by Nejla Kuebra Cosgun and Abnet Mengesha Bekele

Furthermore, some students worked on study projects by addressing the following questions: How is Black history represented in Cottbus? Reflect on the existing commemoration of a historically marginalised person (e.g. from your home country) who has a connection to your life in Cottbus: How is this person remembered? Who created the memorial and from what perspective? When was the memorial created? How might it need to be rewritten or redesigned? Here are some of the final reports from the study projects:

• Remembering Nangeli by Liji Alex and Vadakkeveedan Shaji Adhithya
• Remembering Ahmed Baba al-Timbukti by Yasmine Mezraoui

Here is a collection of images showcasing all the great ideas – perhaps some of them might be adapted in the future:

Literature on the topics covered in this module

(we have printed copies available in our office in LG10 – please contact us if you would like to borrow one)

Museums associated with Bilillee Machbuba

• Cottbus City Museum
• Prince Pückler Museum Foundation, Branitz Park and Palace
• Bad Muskau Castle & Muskauer Park

Further Contacts

• Patricia Vester
• Brandenburg Women’s Policy Council & Brandenburg Women’s Places