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In 2008, the German magazine «Der Spiegel» published an article with the title «The tourist boom in Germany». It was stated in the article that almost 36 million German people regularly went hiking in their spare time, citing a 2008 study by the Deutsche Wandern Institute (p. 3). The type of activity which was liked by German people, played an important role in the learning process and adaptation for African students in 2021-2022. In condition of limited travelling, online learning, and fear of a spreading pandemic, outdoor activity was welcomed by students and teaching staff. According to Goertz, «a resounding pedagogical rationale for walking as means to facilitate experiential learning that engages the whole student» (p.56). Such practices showed that a black trekker was virtually absent from the whiteness of the German wilderness landscape. Though in contrast, the city of Cologne was distinguished by its mixed and sheer diversity of racial groups. The University of Cologne in this case played an important role in which it became a connecting element between students from Africa and the German countryside. Teachers, as part of the curriculum or for the purpose of spending time together, invited their students to join short-distance hikes. Beginning or starting of academic semesters in 2021–2022 was accompanied by outdoor activity. Thus, hiking contributed to the dilution of the snow-white society in the wilderness. And also it was a tool for integrating African students into German culture during the pandemic of Covid 2019.

Social integration for international students, a complex internal and external process accompaning them while moving from home to a foreign society. For immigrants, it means developing a sense of belonging to the host society (285) (144–145). However, the process of acculturation and communication was complicated during the pandemic of Covid-2019. Thus, a walk in the fresh air was a fairly safe and preferred way of communication. Goertz comments on Walking as «a profound impact on student lives and their academic performance: it orients and connects them to their new community, bolsters creative thinking and intellectual productivity, balances their emotional lives, and provides an accessible form of exercises» (p 56). Although, in the process of self-identification, a non-local student also encounters aggravating external circumstances. For example, to have trips to the wild whiteness of German nature, a black student will have to face stereotypes from the host.

And stereotypes are often associated with derogatory associations and prejudice against groups based on these perceived differences. (cf. Burgoon, 1994 in Thomas, 2009. 15).

Summing up the aforementioned, we conclude that when you change your place of residence and being under the influence of a major culture, minority acculturates (3–4). That is, «habitual behavior» is openly or covertly subject to change. Therefore, there is a need to carry out an ethnographic study in order to examine in detail why the desires and aspirations for the participation of black students in intra-group activities (hiking) at a German university fluctuate, in particular during a global pandemic. To answer this question, the deduction method is used. The written work is divided into three parts. First I examine the role of the university in changing the predominantly Whiteness climate of the «Travel» in Germany. A brief cultural-historical report helps to describe some significant events in the development of walking leisure and the presence of Africans in German society. The impact of the university on changing the habitual behavior of an African student in Germany is shown as well. The cultural interaction of the three components is noted. In the second part, there is a discourse on the physical displacement of Africans into the wild German nature. The focus shifts from historical facts to the cohort of black young people in the German space in 2021-2022. Changing habits and perceptions of trekking «wilderness» before and after moving to a northern country are explored. The second section is necessary to take a closer look at the motives and limitations of the participation of African students in organized trips. And also for the logical continuation of this work, where the second part is a springboard between the first and third parts. In the final section, drawing on the experience of my tourists of color, I describe the impact of the social stigmatization of the «walker image» and analyze Africans’ desire to live up to these norms. In particular, attention is paid to the choice of footwear for participation in outdoor activities. And interviews with my informants allow us to look deeper into the impact of the hiker’s institu- tionalization through communication with his European friends. In conclusion, conclusions are drawn based on the results of the study.

Previous Research

The hiking paths in this work are man-made spaces (244). Moreover, they are endowed with meaning and in today’s world, their presence is a place of continuing interracial inequality. That is, historically, walking areas are a welcoming image of a legitimate white tourist and a non-welcoming image of a black tourist (245–246): (268). (find sources) Some scientists have already tried to explain why black tourists avoid snow-white spaces. Two theories have been developed describing the absence of Africans in national parks: the hypothesis assumption and the marginalization axiom (24–28). The first theory shows that the leisure of colored people has distinctive features from the leisure of white people. The second hypothesis is devoted to low social-economic status for non-African people of color. Racial differences in travel are explored by Carter (2008). Through the use of multiple methods, he concludes that Whitness-related travel spaces cause African discomfort and are not associated with «spaces of leisure». Holland mentions in his book that a racist heritage is a constraint to active outdoor involvement for people of color (2002, 28–30). Marcus and Howard in one section give examples where people of color were perceived as a potential «danger» by rural white society. (146)

Outdoor Leisure in the global north is considered to be a whiteness space. And the academic literature focuses on the reasons for the absence or few participants of colored people in the wild. And only a few people pay attention to the destruction of interracial boundaries in tourism. One of them is Urry and he plays an important role in the post-modern perspective (2000). And he states that travel blurs sociocultural differences as people learn each other’s cultural contexts. Drawing on a range of narratives and less negative tourism experiences, this study identifies ways in which people can celebrate their right to travel and their freedom to participate in hiking in Germany.

Theoretical Framework

Creating a «new mobility paradigm», Urry classified mobility systems as practical (tangible) and intangible. Practical mobility systems in Hiking, for example, are affected by appropriate equipment and clothing. Intangible mobility systems, in turn, contain affordances () or restrictions. And the possibility or limitation of human mobility is influenced by social scenarios (see ibid.). Thus, with the help of normative representations, «pedestrians» are divided into those who meet the generally accepted conformity or fall out of the norms — tourists.

Stanley in his study considers the specific image of a backpacker presented with the help of social networks. The usual imagery includes «white, male, straight, muscular and strong» (p. 245). This implies the opposite, the diversity of bodies, gender and races is sharply limited in the meta universe. Returning to the German hiking trails, during the field work with my fellow students, I noticed that during the walk we were in the hegemonic «snow-white» flow of tourists with the appropriate equipment. For example, looking at my «white» colleagues and their equipment, one can say that African hikers in this case are «quirt bodies» that are out of the understanding of «normality».

Stanley expands the horizons of Holman Jones and Harris (2018) queering mobility theory, where “weirdness” transcends sexualities (2020, p. 244). «Weirdness» in this work denotes a deviation from the normative view. And the powerful influence of regulations has been criticized. Stanley characterizes «Queering practices» as non-standardized situations that stand out / break from «normality», draw attention to problems, and seek to change widely held and accepted collective beliefs (see ibid.).

I use the phrase «inconspicuous tourists» to mean «quirt bodies». Using this phrase, I do not mean at all that they are invisible. In this particular case, the irony of words can be traced. Since the presence of black people in the German countryside, on the contrary, attracts attention and is easily identified by external signs. The sample for the term-paper includes an international student of African descent with dark skin who has been in Germany for 3 months to 4 years. And the word «inconspicuous» is characterized by its insignificant quantitative relation to the number of white participants. Africans are present in rural German space, but they are quite rare on the way.

This work is focused on the intangible possibilities and limitations of mobility. However, I argue that the two systems of mobility, tangible and intangible, are interdependent and can reinforce or weaken each other. Evidence for this assertion is presented in the last chapter of this work, where hiking shoes are considered as an example of a practical mobility system that promotes the institutionalization of an intangible system.

Methodology

According to Finney, green spaces play an important role in creating a national identity and spreading history (2014, p. 29). The historical analysis in section 1 helps to trace the relationship between three entities: German society, Africans in Germany, and hiking. Consideration of socio-political scenarios will allow us to see how and why the national landscape has changed beyond the city limits. Inquiries regarding tourism access and participation issues should critically consider past events and current socio-political circumstances.

After a brief historical account, I use a combination of the two methods for qualitative research. The first method of this case study is the go-elong method in mixed groups with members of the African community. Go elong method allows a researcher to fully immerse himself in the process of hiking, getting the opportunity to inspect the area, observe the focus group and other participants. There is an opportunity here to be directly involved in actions, to feel the atmosphere of activity with all the senses. Goertz emphasizes that «Walking increases talkativeness, supports the flow of conversation, and walking side-by-side, in particular, allows for more openness and comfort than face-to-face conversations» (p. 61). The refusal of participant observation is explained by the fact that the non-participation of the researcher in hiking separates him from the main group and distances his perception from the practically experienced loads and uncertainties encountered on the way. Kusenbach illustrates “how solitary observations of a field setting, whether conducted from a distant or a close vantage point, fail to access the environmental perception and experience of (other) members” (2003, p. 461). Two time periods and two German spaces were used to collect empirical data. The first hike took place during the summer school in the Eifel National Park in August 2021. 15 participants of which 2 teachers and 4 African students. The second trip took place in winter, in early February, where a group of 11 people went to a neighboring settlement, an hour away by train. And visited «Drachenfels». In the second case, 6 people were from Germany and 5 students from sub-Saharan Africa. Owing to the mixed groups, the topics discussed were often commented upon by the German society. Therefore, for the completeness of the disclosure of empirical data, I also use data received from my German satellites.

The second method of this qualitative research involves 6 semi-structured interviews with black students between February and March 2022. A prerequisite for the selection of participants was hiking experience in Germany from the start of the training process. This was done in order they are able to adequately appreciate the diversity of green areas in North Rhine-Westphalia and already see the hospitality of the rural environment for themselves (Page 144). The interviews used Zoom, a tool for making remote video and audio calls. At the request of my informants, we did not record our conversation. During our conversation, I took notes in a notebook. And then, after the conversations, she built the structure of our dialogue from memory. The names of the students have also been changed in order to protect personal data. The results of qualitative content analysis by Margrit Schreier are discussed in his paper (2012). Since by examining the reasons for the participation of the African minority in outdoor activities, the discourse is focused on explaining the reasons for the choice of the African cohort. The interview method was chosen as a complement to the go-long method, and allowed to obtain and process more in-depth knowledge. The questions asked were open-ended and expected a detailed response from my African interlocutors. Each interview lasted no more than half an hour. And covered two spatial categories. The first category included home (country of origin) and the questions were about the experience of my interlocutors in an African country. Walking culture in the global south was the main focus of my research. The second category included Germany (rural). In the second territorial space, my interlocutors discussed why they went on a hiking trip. I had the goal of “come closer to representing the context and integrity of [a person] than do questionnaires and graphs” (Anderson and Kirkpatrick 2016, 631) and prepared questions kept my participants from being distracted by unimportant topics for this study.

Thus, this term paper discusses why communication, cultural exchange and German escort of Africans into the wild local nature has a positive effect on the blurring of racial boundaries. And there is an attempt to explain how contact with local people and familiarity with the countryside can help expand opportunities for participation in Outdoor Leisure for black people in Germany. But first, let’s turn to history and find out the relationship between the three components of this work involved in creating a special space of interaction.

History of walking in Germany

Nowadays, about 40 million Germans are attracted to long walks (p. 3). Walking in Germany has not always been a popular pastime. The beloved activity in the modern sense has developed since the end of the 20^th century, when older people who did not work walked for several hours (Grober, 2011; Dirk and Jansen-Meinen, 2017, p. 71). However, before that, this type of recreation went through several significant historical stages of development. Which also had a political impact on racial diversity outside of urban spaces. Therefore, it is necessary to take a critical look at the development of the attitude of German society towards campaigns.

In a historical context, people with strong ties to religion have taken to hiking (Dirk and Jansen-Meinen, 2017, p. 67) . Pilgrimage was and still is the reason why people go on long hiking trips at certain time intervals throughout the year. However, this was not the only motive for traveling on foot. Tramps, merchants and others also moved with the help of campaigns. And in the middle of the 18th century, in the era of romanticism, the inhabitants of Germany went on hikes in order to get to know nature better and were in search of their reflection in it (Dick, 2010) . But the development of the railway in the middle of the 19th century had a negative impact on hiking.

On the one hand, people in Germany were given the opportunity to travel farther and reach new unexplored places faster (Dirk and Jansen-Meinen, 2017, p. 69). However, the flip side of this breakthrough was a reduced demand for short walks. Later, from the middle of the 19th century, the institutionalization of walking began to take place due to the accelerated development of the urban environment (also, p. 69). It was accompanied by the emergence of sports associations. And walking during this period acquired a different meaning. It has been made safer by the efforts of hiking clubs to create routes and signposts. Walking began to bring pleasure, and nature was no longer perceived by the Germans as something «foreign.»

The national landscape of the country in general and the countryside in particular changed dramatically with the spread of the Nazi world view. All spheres of life, including leisure, were seen as a means to the socio-cultural reorganization of the Aryan man on the basis of racial ideology (Ferienwandern, 2008, p. 7). The countryside was no longer free from political control and influence. And hiking was no longer seen as a way to relax and get closer to nature. Any entertainment of that time was supposed to develop patriotism and help in the creation of a new purebred German nation (Dirk and Jansen-Meinen, 2017, p. 70). All of Germany was whitewashed during the Hitler regime.

After the end of the Second World War, walking returned to the list of leisure activities for pleasure. West Germany began to actively support walking clubs. Today, there is a “walking boom” among the German population (Dreyer et al., 2010) . In modern Germany a free access policy to national parks and the countryside is a common practice (p.135). And traveling on foot also has a positive effect on stability in different directions. For example, it has a positive effect on regional economic development. Walking is an affordable physical activity for the majority of the population in Germany. And also a means and a place for cross-cultural communication, especially during the spread of the global pandemic. Walking is a bridge that connects people from all regions of the world and helps to better understand the cultural characteristics of the host society and contributes to the acculturation of the African cohort in Germany.

After studying the behavior of German society outside the urban space, I turn to the history of the black population in Germany. Based on historical records and observational results during the Go-elong method, I give an estimate of racial diversity in urban and rural space.

Africans in Germany

The German city of Cologne is located in the western part of Germany and is an example of how different representatives of racial and ethnic groups coexist side by side in one space. Walking around the neighborhood, a person regularly encounters colorful residents. To understand whether Cologne has always been a «Bright» city, you need to turn to history. Morris, who explores the changing racial mood in Germany, begins his discourse with the Second World War. Back then, black people were referred to as «the very lowest rung of evolution» (p. 2–3). The ideas of Nazi propaganda built a negative attitude of the German public towards colored Germans, thus the white population did not demand satisfaction for the oppressed sections of society (p. 4). However, towards the end of World War II, African-American soldiers arrived in western Germany. This event was reflected in the national landscape. The barracks for the soldiers were located mainly in the countryside, but near the cities. Through their kindness and generosity, the African-American soldiers won over the Germans, especially the local girls (p. 10, p.16-17). Some soldiers found that German society had become «more welcoming and friendly» than even those from the American home (p. 11). However, the social norms inculcated by the Nazi Party still manifested themselves in the rising generation of white Germans (p. 12, 25). After a few undulating mood swings, German society “recovered from the intense racism of their past quickly in an effort to distance themselves from Nazism as much as possible in as short a time as possible.” (p. 31). After the Second World War, the country gradually recovered and developed economically. This has caused it to become an alluring destination for economic migrants, refugees and students from the African continent.

Thanks to funding in education since the 1960s. western Germany attracted international students from the global south, including children from families of African established elites (p. 28). After 60 years, only 5,740 foreign students from all over the world studied at the University of Cologne. Due to the lack of statistics by country of origin, it is not possible to indicate how many African students were studying in 2021-2022. But according to the head of the «international department» of the University of Cologne, Dr. Stefan Bildhauer, young people from Nigeria and Kenya are currently showing an increased interest in learning in English.

So, the city of Cologne is a permanent or temporary home to a diverse inhabitance. However, when leaving for the suburbs, the diversity of the national landscape is replaced by the German majority, where Africans become invisible tourists.

Africans and hiking.

On the basis of the two previous sections, one can clearly see the volatility of moods in German society towards hiking and towards black Africans. Non-material mobility systems have been described where germany in general and the countryside in particular underwent racial transformation. This part combines two variables from the previous two sections. Here I will examine the emergence of a relationship between the beloved German leisure and African international students. Complex socio-political regimes in the past have negatively affected the cultural and racial diversity of those involved in hiking. However, the welcome atmosphere in the present opens up new opportunities for changing the snow-white rural climate in Germany.

The idea to carry out qualitative research on why unobtrusive tourists avoid out-of-town spaces arose during my walks outside the city walls. Hiking in this work refers to day trips without spending the night in nature in rural areas, but urban areas can also be partially affected. During hikes in the vicinity of North Rhine-Westphalia, I noticed a significant contrast and the predominance of the white population.

Wondering why hiking is not so popular among the black population, I came across an article by Emma Veidt (2021). A white girl journalist and my colleague, discusses and calls for work on inclusiveness and accessibility of outdoor spaces. Lack of support for Africans in society, misunderstandings between white and black participants and stereotypes are listed as reasons why Africans avoid certain events. The racial exclusion of people in green spaces is still too pronounced in our time. Even though Germany’s wilderness areas are open to everyone, the imagination of the exception creates the social meanings of footpaths (p. 244).

The culture of leisure and leisure is a good example of how Africans change their habits and adjust to the surrounding German cultural environment. And the University in this case contributes to changing the national landscape and invites unobtrusive tourists to get acquainted with the countryside. Tin order to avoid social stagnation, Freshmen and continuing students need to develop friendly relations with the local population. In part, it includes imitating the behavior of an indigenous person (ibid., 286((285))), such as going on day trips on foot. During the pandemic, this was practically the only way the University offered to get to know teachers and other colleagues in person. Due to the spread of the virus by airborne droplets, visits to the University were sharply limited, canteens either did not work, or their visits were sharply limited, visits to libraries were made by appointment and obligated to maintain a two-meter distance between visitors. Extra-curricular locations such as museums, bars, cafeterias were closed in the first two quarters of 2021, and from June 2021 entry into indoor rooms was restricted to non-vaccinated individuals. So the Germans’ favorite walks (p. 71) in the countryside became a space where students at the University of Cologne hung out and contributed to the erosion of the constraints of non-material mobility systems.