Dr Christian Ayivi

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Dr Christian Kodzo Ayivi is the founder and CEO of Afrotopia (“culture + innovation”), a think tank and cultural centre for Black, African and Afrodiasporic people that he established in 2020 in the former Bugenhagenkirche, a deconsecrated Evangelical-Lutheran church in Hamburg-Barmbek. Afrotopia hosts discussion, exchange and practice on societal, political, cultural and Africa-specific questions, approaching them from a decolonial and anti-racist perspective. Ayivi has described the project as a home and safer space for Hamburg’s Black and Afrodiasporic community, and drew its name from Senegalese economist and writer Felwine Sarr’s book Afrotopia.

Originally from Togo, Ayivi studied German literature (Germanistik), theology and business administration at institutions including Lomé, Saarbrücken, Heidelberg, Hamburg and Washington, D.C. A trained theologian and Germanist, he worked for around 20 years in information technology — most recently at Hamburg Commercial Bank — before leaving that career to build Afrotopia. He frames his work through the lenses of both disciplines: as a theologian concerned with meaning, community and values, and as a linguist attentive to the role of language and culture in identity.