Afroeuropeans Net
Network for African European Studies

 

https://uni.ms/afroeuropeans

The Afroeuropeans Network hosts a mailing list that allows subscribers to exchange CfPs and information about African European Studies. The list has recently migrated from Tampere University to Uni Münster; Deborah Nyangulu took over as list-coordinator from Leonardo Da Costa Custódio. The current administrator of the list is Can Çakır.

To join the list, click here.

The 8th Biennial Afroeuropeans Network Conference was held at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB):

Intersectional Challenges in Afroeuropean Communities
22 – 24 September 2022
The conference programme is online!
With several exciting keynote speakers, including:  

Professor Olivette Otele (SOAS London)
Mireille-Tsheusi Robert (Bamko)
Professor Kehinde Andrews (Birmingham City)

Click here for further information.
 

 

History of the Afroeuropeans Research Network (2004-)

Here is an overview of biennial Network conferences that can be found online, followed by a sketch of the History of the Afroeuropeans Research Network.

Black Europe in Brussels
Online Event in Anticipation of the 8th Biennial Afroeuropeans Network Conference
1-15 July 2021
Click here for further information.

Black In/Visibilities Contested
7th Biennial Afroeuropeans Network Conference
University of Lisbon
4 – 6 July 2019
Click here for further information.

Afroeuropeans: Black Cultures and Identities in Europe VI
6th Biennial Afroeuropeans Network Conference
University of Tampere
6 – 8 July 2017
Click here for a conference report by Carol Ann Dixon.

Afroeuropeans: Black Cultures and Identities in Europe V
5th Biennial Afroeuropeans Network Conference
University of Münster
16 – 19 September 2015
Click here for further information.

 

The Afroeuropeans Network: A Short Historical Overview

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The international multidisciplinary research group Afroeurope@s: Culturas e Identidades Negras en Europa [Afroeurope@ns: Black Cultures and Identities in Europe] was established in 2004 at the University of Léon by Professor Marta-Sofía Rodriguez-López with other academics, artists, and writers. It soon grew into a research network connecting academics, artists, activists and cultural workers committed to the study of black cultures in different countries and institutions across Europe. The comparative study of the culture, literature, history, and theory created by African Europeans in the last decades has aimed to explore cultural specificity, heterogeneity, and dialogue among black communities in Europe. The varied connections to Africa and across its diasporas are also considered. The Network’s remit continues to evolve, adapting to developments in black cultures in Europe and beyond.

Linguistic, cultural, and political barriers within Europe have impeded communication between stakeholders working within different disciplines and in distinct languages. The Afroeuropeans Network has been committed to transcending these barriers by creating a virtual workspace, shared by artists, academics, and activists working in, among other languages, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, and English. It also has acted as a link between research groups and private and public institutions such as Casa África (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) and The George Padmore Institute (London) working in adjacent and related fields who share the aim of promoting dialogue with Black communities. It strives to stimulate more collaboration between the Global South and the Global North – from anti-essentialist, inclusive, and transdisciplinary perspectives. The reflections put forward by this Network are designed also for the benefit of policy makers and those invested in the process of evolving a culture of dialogue and equal exchange in the context of an irrevocably heterogeneous Europe and an increasingly globalized world. The formation of a multidisciplinary and translocal Network linking up Afroeuropean practitioners working in different locations with representatives from different academic disciplines constitutes a decisive step towards the development of open-minded, pluralized, and hybridized European identities and a more inclusive Europe.

The Research Group initially received funding from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spanish Ministry of Education and Science) for three phases (2004-07; 2009-12; 2013-6), with partners in Spain (Universidades de León, Cádiz, Alcalá y Salamanca), the UK (Universities of Nottingham Trent and Leeds); Germany (Universität Münster); the US (University of Maryland); and Finland (University of Tampere). During this period, the group evolved into a Research Network that is characterized by its open format. It has no formal executive structures and no formal membership. Given its continuing development, the Network also appeals to younger generations of scholars and reaches out to further constituencies across Europe and beyond, mainly through its conference series, publications, and mailing list.

For over fifteen years, the Afroeuropeans Network has regularly hosted major international conferences across the European mainland, from Spain to the UK, from Germany to Finland, from Portugal to Belgium¹. These events have been very well-attended by delegates and speakers from around the globe and from a wide range of academic disciplines and fields, including also writers, artists, activists, publishers, and other cultural workers. The biennial Network conferences stand in a relationship of entailment: the torch is passed on from one team of conveners to the next, supporting dynamic growth, dialogue, and continuity. In this way, emphasis, perspectives, and work modes shift from one conference to the next, while the overall aims continue to be shared.

The 2017 conference held in Tampere ended with a plenary discussion focusing on ways to continue the network’s aims and conferences beyond the Spanish funding scheme. A Call for Conveners was circulated and publicized widely; several proposals were received from teams across Europe. These were reviewed and compared (with respect to the conference topic, its innovativeness, aspects including inclusivity, diversity, conference format and work modes, feasibility, and funding options) and as a result Lisbon (2019) and Brussels (2021) were invited to host the next two conferences. The 2021 conference was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, we are excited that it's happening between 22-24 September 2022 in Brussels, where we can convene in person once again. Discussions regarding the venue of the 2024 conference will be held around the conference period in September 2022.

Since 2004, the Network has not only grown larger and become more diverse, it has also published a volume of essays titled Afroeurope@ns: Cultures and Identities (López 2008) and published the peer-reviewed e-journal Afroeuropa (2007 to 2009). Further book publications include Brancato 2011, Beezmohun 2016, Rastas 2019, and Espinoza Garrido et al. 2020.

From Afropean to Afrosporic, from black British to afrodeutsch, from diasporic to Black, from Afroeurope@n to African European, the terminology embraced in different languages and contexts by individuals, collectivities, organisations, and disciplines is highly diversified, nuanced, and not undisputed. Terminological choices made by academics, artists, and activists are often tied to specific debates, struggles, and histories; terminology can change its semantic meaning, its function, and even its appeal as it travels across time, place, and constituency. Without the many initiatives, projects, and organisations founded by Afroeuropeans, without the wealth of cultural, political, and academic work that has already been achieved, this Network could not have developed. It is therefore vital to see the Afroeuropeans Network in the wider context of other initiatives, projects, research fields, organisations, and publications that have evolved across and beyond Europe. A short bibliography can at best gesture at the context’s academic and cultural diversity as well as its intellectual vibrancy and political urgency.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This update of the history of the Afroeuropeans Network would not have been possible without the information and critical readings provided by Marta-Sofía Rodriguez-López, Deborah Nyangulu, Maya García de Vinue de la Concha, Asuncion Aragon, Elisabeth Bekers, and Sophie Withaeckx.
Thank you all! [Mark Stein]

______________
¹ 2006 and 2008 in León; 2011 in Cádiz; 2013 in London; 2015 in Münster; 2017 in Tampere; 2019 in Lisbon; 2021 online; 2022 in Brussels.

Select bibliography:

Adebajo, Adekeye, and Kaye Whiteman, eds.       2012. The EU and Africa: From Eurafrique to       Afro Europa. London: Hurst.	Maureen Maisha Eggers, Grada Kilomba, Peggy       Piesche, and Susan Arndt, eds. Mythen, Masken       und Subjekte. Kritische Weißseinsforschung in       Deutschland, 2nd ed. UNRAST, 2009.
Andrews, Kehinde. 2018. Back to Black:       Retelling Black Radicalism for the 21st       Century. London: Zed Books.	McEachrane, Michael, ed. 2013. Afro-Nordic       Landscapes: Equality and Race in Northern       Europe. Routledge Studies on African and       Black Diaspora 5. New York, NY: Routledge.
Anim-Addo, Joan, and Suzanne Scafe, eds.       2007. I Am Black/White/Yellow: An       Introduction to the Black Body in Europe.       London: Mango.	McLeod, John. Postcolonial London: Rewriting the       Metropolis. Routledge, 2004.
Aydemir, Fatma and Hengameh Yaghoobifarah,       eds.Eure Heimat ist unser Albtraum .       Ullstein fünf, 2019.	Nasta, Susheila and Mark U. Stein, editors, The       Cambridge History of Black and Asian British       Writing. Cambridge University Press, 2020.
BDG Network. 2018. The Black Diaspora and       Germany: Deutschland und die Schwarze       Diaspora. Münster: Edition Assemblage.	Olusoga, David. 2016. Black and British: A       Forgotten History. London: Pan Macmillan.
Beezmohun, Sharmilla, editor. Continental       Shifts, Shifts in Perception. Black Cultures       and Identities in Europe. Newcastle upon       Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2016.	Opitz, May, Katharina Oguntoye, and Dagmar       Schultz, eds. 1986. Farbe bekennen:       Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer       Geschichte. Berlin: Orlanda Frauenverlag.
Bekers, Elisabeth, Sissy Helff and Daniela       Merolla. Transcultural Modernities:       Narrating Africa in Europe. Rodopi, 2009.	Opitz, May, Katharina Oguntoye, and Dagmar       Schultz, eds. 1992. Showing Our Colors:       Afro-German Women Speak Out. Translated       by Anne V. Adams. Amherst, MA: University       of Massachusetts Press.
BEST—Black European Studies. www.best.uni       mainz.de/modules/news/       index.php?storytopic=4.	Otele, Olivette. Afro-Europeans: A History. London:       Hurst, 2020.
Brancato, Sabrina, editor. Afroeurope@an       Configurations: Readings and Projects.       Cambridge Scholars, 2011.	Piesche, Peggy, ed. "Euer Schweigen schützt Euch       nicht": Audre Lorde und die Schwarze       Frauenbewegung in Deutschland. 2012. Orlanda,       2018.
Brancato, Sabrina. Afro-Europe: Texts and       Contexts. Berlin: Trafo, 2009.	Piesche, Peggy. AufBrüche: Kulturelle Produktionen       von Migrantinnen, schwarzen und jüdischen       Frauen in Deutschland. Ulrike Helmer 1999.
Broeck, Sabine. Gender and the Abjection of       Blackness. Suni Press, 2018.	Pirker, Eva Ulrike. Narrative Projections of a Black       British History. Routledge, 2011.
Campt, Tina. 2005. Other Germans: Black       Germans and the Politics of Race, Gender,       and Memory in the Third Reich. Social       History, Popular Culture, and Politics in       Germany. Ann Arbor, MI: University of       Michigan Press.	Ponzanesi, Sandra and Daniela Merolla. Migrant       Cartographies: New Cultural and Literary Spaces       in Post-Colonial Europe. Lexington Books, 2005.
Chatterton Williams, Thomas, Unlearning Race:       Self Portrait in Black and White. 2019. John       Murray, 2020.	Procter, James, ed. Writing Black Britain,       1948–1998: An Interdisciplinary Anthology.       Manchester University Press, 2000.
Clark Hine, Darlene, Tricia Danielle Keaton and       Stephen Small, eds. 2009. Black Europe       and the African Diaspora. Urbana, IL:       University of IllinoisPress.	Rastas, Anna and Elina Seye. “Music as a Site for       Africanness and Diaspora Cultures: African       Musicians in the White Landscape of Finland.”       African and Black Diaspora: An International       Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, 2016, pp. 82-95.
Diedrich, Maria I. and Jürgen Heinrichs, eds.       2011.From Schwarz to Black: Cultural       Crossovers between African America and       Germany . East Lansing, MI: Michigan       State University Press.	Rastas, Anna and Kaarina Nikunen, editors,       Contemporary African and Black Diasporic       Spaces in Europe. Spec. issue of Open Cultural       Studies vol. 3, no. 1, 2019.
Eddo-Lodge, Reni. Why I’m No Longer Talking to       White People About Race. Bloomsbury,       2017.	Rastas, Anna, and Kaarina Nikunen. 2019.       “Contemporary African and Black Diasporic       Spaces in Europe.” Special issue, Open Cultural       Studies 3 (1).
El-Tayeb, Fatima. European Others: Queering       Ethnicity in Postnational Europe. University       of Minnesota Press, 2011.	Rastas, Anna. “The Emergence of Race as a Social       Category in Northern Europe.” Relating Worlds of       Racism: Dehumanization, Belonging and the       Normativity of Whiteness, edited by Philomena       Essed et al., Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp.       357-81.
Espinoza Garrido, Felipe et al., editors.       Locating African European Studies:       Intervention —Intersections—Conversations.       Routledge Studies on African and Black       Diaspora 10. Routledge, 2020.	Reichl, Susanne. Cultures in the Contact Zone:       Ethnic Semiosis in Black British Literature.       Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2002.
Gerzina, Gretchen Holbrook. 1995. Black       London: Life before Emancipation. New       Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.	Sandhu, Sukhdev. London Calling: How Black and       Asian Writers Imagined a City. HarperCollins,       2003.
Gilroy, Paul. Against Race. Imagining Political       Culture beyond the Color Line. Harvard       University Press, 2000.	Small, Stephen. 2018. 20 Questions and Answers       on Black Europe. Decolonizing the Mind 8. The       Hague: Amrit.
Glynn, Martin. 2016. “Invisible Outsider:       Reflections from Beyond the Ivory Tower.”       In Blackness in Britain, edited by Kehinde       Andrews and Lisa Amanda Palmer, 24–33.       London, New York: Routledge.	Stein, Mark U. Black British Literature: Novels of       Transformation. Ohio State University Press,       2004.
Innes, C. Lyn and Mark U. Stein, editors. African       Europeans. Special issue of Wasafiri: The       Magazine of International Contemporary       Writing, vol. 23, no. 4, 2008.	Thomas, Dominic, ed. 2014. Afroeuropean       Cartographies. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge       Scholars. ---. Black France: Colonialism, Immigration, and       Transnationalism. Indiana University Press,       2007.
Kelly, Natasha A. Millis Erwachen. Schwarze       Frauen, Kunst und Widerstand. Orlanda       Frauenverlag, 2018.	Wekker, Gloria. “Another Dream of a Common       Language. Imagining Black Europe.” Black       Europe and the African Diaspora, edited by       Darlene Clark Hine, et al., University of Illinois       Press, 2009, pp. 277–89. ---. White Innocence. Paradoxes of Colonialism and       Race. Duke University Press, 2016.
Kilomba, Grada. 2010. Plantation Memories:       Episodes of Everyday Racism. 2nd edn.       Münster: Unrast.	Wright, Michelle M. Physics of Blackness: Beyond       the Middle Passage Epistemology. University of       Minnesota Press, 2015.
Knudsen, Eva Rask and Ulla Rahbek. In Search       of  the Afropolitan. Encounters,       Conversations, and Contemporary       Diasporic African Literature. Rowman       & Littlefield, 2016.	Zeleza, Paul T. “Diaspora Dialogues: Engagements       between Africa and its Diaspora.” The New       African Diaspora, edited by Isidore Okpewho       and N. Nzegwu, Indiana University Press, 2009,       pp. 31-5.
Kraft, Marion, ed. 2015. Kinder der Befreiung:       Transatlantische Erfahrungen und       Perspektiven Schwarzer Deutscher der       Nachkriegsgeneration. Münster: Unrast.
López, Marta Sophia, editor, Afroeurope@ns:       Cultures and Identities. Cambridge       Scholars, 2008.
Matusevich, Maxim, ed. 2007. Africa in Russia,       Russia in Africa: Three Centuries of       Encounters. Trenton: Africa World Press.