Joshua Kwesi Aikins is a political scientist, human rights activist and researcher at University of Kassel's Department of Development and Postcolonial Studies, where he is completing his PhD. His research interests include the interaction between western-style and indigenous political institutions in Ghana, post- and decolonial perspectives on 'development,' cultural and political representation of the African Diaspora, equality data, coloniality and the politics of memory in Germany. Aikins studied at Freie Universität Berlin and at University of Ghana. Later work in Ghana included serving as an associate researcher for the Ghana Constitution Review Commission2010/11.

Aikins’ advocacy in Germany include the presentation of parallel report on Germany to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (2015) and serving as an expert member of a Commission of inquiry on racism and discrimination in the parliament of Thuringia (2017-19). With Berlin-based NGO CFE he co-developed a differentiated equality data instrument that enables intersectional analysis, including all dimensions protected under Germany's Equal Treatment Act. He advocates for decolonising public space and shifting the perspective of commemoration regarding colonialism in Berlin. Aikins serves on the advisory board of Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland (Initiative Black People in Germany).