Partout. It's the same everywhere. [African Europeans by Olivette Otele]
Conventional wisdom holds that Africans are only a recent presence in Europe. But in African Europeans, renowned historian Olivette Otele debunks this and uncovers a long history of Europeans of African descent. From the third century, when the Egyptian Saint Maurice became the leader of a Roman legion, all the way up to the present, Otele explores encounters between those defined as "Africans" and those called "Europeans." She gives equal attention to the most prominent figures -- like Alessandro de Medici, the first duke of Florence thought to have been born to a free African woman in a Roman village -- and the untold stories -- like the lives of dual-heritage families in Europe's coastal trading towns.
African Europeans is a landmark celebration of this integral, vibrantly complex slice of European history, and will redefine the field for years to come.
I’ve always known Black people are everywhere and have been everywhere but it always tickles me to learn more about the universality of the diaspora. And I tend to immediately think of Blackness primarily in the context of the Americas and Africa, really nowhere else. Despite being aware of Afro-Brits and Afro-Italians. Despite being hyperaware of the central role Europe played in the transatlantic displacement of Africans and the movement of the diaspora outside of the continent. I know that people of African descent are to be found everywhere, and yet there's a disconnect when I think of Afro-Europeans outside of select European countries.
And I would love to say that it's refreshing that the Afro-diasporic experience is near the same everywhere, but it's near the same everywhere. Should I be surprised? Absolutely not. It's a racial mindset that's been ingrained, a hierarchy that's been that's persisted post-colonialism and post-encounter. Because the origins of every Afro-European do not trace to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but, as Olivette Otele's African Europeans demonstrates, is a story as old as transcontinental empires. And so in learning about the legacies of African Europeans, one sees how it's same old, same old. How much changes? A fight for acceptance, in the structures of oppression, might see some form of acceptance. But, as in the case of Angelo Soliman, is the inevitable end reduction and ridicule? Of course, one has movers and shakers who radically shake up the status quo, but will the actual speed of change ever approximate the needs of the oppressed? Probably not. Probably never.
What I'm taking away from my read is a heightened awareness of this old history and how it's social interplays have looked through the ages. This was a shorter read, just seven chapters. And of course there are pros and cons to be highlighted for a shorter length versus longer length text. Where I am a bit unsure is with the fact that it is at once comprehensive and at once shallow. Am I the intended audience, as a person in the diaspora in the Americas? Otele, an African European herself, is based out of the U.K. and thereby references back to the U.K. Is this book for other members of the diaspora or for those without the diaspora looking to learn of the existence and experiences of African Europeans? Any history book written on the African diaspora by a member of the diaspora is always going to ring true in undertones of global shared experience, so determining how much I enjoyed my read can be chalked up to that is critical in finalizing a rating, I would say.
Realistically, I'd say I'd give this read 4.5 stars. A rounded 5 stars of course, because I can't say I feel eager to the max about my read, whether in reflection or recommending it further. But I won't say I don't feel eager to the max. It might depend on my audience. So yeah, essentially 5 stars.
African Europeans (ISBN: 9781541619678) was published May 2021.
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