Afrekete included six issues in total, and each issue centered on a theme that underscored the significance of intersectional and international politics. Moreover, Afrekete was a motif that some African American and Afro-Caribbean authors used in their literary works. According to Henry Louis Gates Jr., Afrekete became a key symbol of the diaspora, serving “as a sign of the disrupted wholeness of an African system of meaning and belief.” Their ability to draw inspiration for the magazine’s name from Lorde also linked them to her and African indigenous spirituality. Lorde had long integrated African religious entities into her literature and invoked Afrekete in her works and signed some of her letters “in the hands of Afrekete.” She used Afrekete as a source of female strength, claiming that the traditional nature of women’s power in Africa could inform Black women’s consciousness and activism. Black German women’s reference to Afrekete connected them to a network of Black women. They integrated diverse Black diasporic styles, symbols, and histories and celebrated Black queerness in all its variety and depth. Inventing new traditions, Afrekete gave Afro-German feminists an opportunity to establish an intellectual community, develop their literary voices, publish their work, and influence Black German literature.

— Mobilizing Black Germany by Tiffany N. Florvil