Table Of ContentBLACK EUROPE
AND THE
AFRICAN DIASPORA
THE NEW BLACK STUDIES SERIES
Edited by Darlene Clark Hine
and Dwight A. McBride
A list of books in the series
appears at the end of this book.
BLACK EUROPE
AND THE
AFRICAN DIASPORA
EDITED BY
DARLENE CLARK HINE,
TRICA DANIELLE KEATON,
AND STEPHEN SMALL
UNIVERSITY OF
ILLINOIS PRESS
Urbana and Chicago
305.896
H58B
2009
© 2009 by the Board of Trustees
of the University of Illinois
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
IAZASSCRZAZAaN
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hine, Darlene Clark.
Black Europe and the African diaspora / edited by Darlene Clark
Hine, Trica Danielle Keaton, and Stephen Small.
p. cm.— (New black studies series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-252-03467-1 (cloth: alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-252-07657-2 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Blacks—Europe. 2. Blacks—Race identity—Europe.
3. Blacks—Europe—Social conditions. 4. Europe—Civilization—
African influences. 5. Europe—Race relations. 6. African diaspora.
I. Keaton, Trica Danielle. II. Small, Stephen. III. Title.
D1056.2.B55H56 2009
305.896'04—dc22 2009000570
CONTENTS
Foreword ix
Philomena Essed
Preface xvii
Darlene Clark Hine
Acknowledgments xxi
Introduction: The Empire Strikes Back xxiil
Stephen Small
Section 1. Historical Dimensions of Blackness in Europe
1. The Emergence of Afro-Europe: A Preliminary Sketch 3
Allison Blakely
2. Blacks in Early Modern Europe: New Research from
the Netherlands 29
Dienke Hondius
3. Now You See It, Now You Dont: Josephine Baker's Films
of the 1930s and the Problem of Color 48
Eileen Julien
4. Pictures of “US”? Blackness, Diaspora, and the
Afro-German Subject 63
Tina M. Campt
5. The Conundrum of Geography, Europe doutre mer, and
Transcontinental Diasporic Identity 84
T. Sharpley- Whiting and Tiffany Ruby Patterson
Section 2. Race and Blackness in Perspective: France, Germany,
and Italy
6. “Black (American) Paris” and the French Outer-Cities:
The Race Question and Questioning Solidarity 95
Trica Danielle Keaton
7. Black Italia: Contemporary Migrant Writers from Africa 119
Alessandra Di Maio
8. Talking Race in Color-Blind France: Equality Denied,
“Blackness” Reclaimed 145
Fred Constant
g. My Volk to Come: Peoplehood in Recent Diaspora Discourse
and Afro-German Popular Music 161
Alexander G. Weheliye
10. No Green Pastures: The African Americanization of France 180
Tyler Stovall
Section 3. Theorizing, (Re)presenting, and (Re)imagining
Blackness in Europe
u1. Black Europe and the African Diaspora: A Discourse
on Location 201
Jacqueline Nassy Brown
12. Theorizing Black Europe and African Diaspora:
Implications for Citizenship, Nativism, and Xenophobia 212
Kwame Nimako and Stephen Small
13. The Audacious Josephine Baker: Stardom, Cinema, Paris 238
Terri Francis
14. Pale by Comparison: Black Liberal Humanism
and the Postwar Era in the African Diaspora 260
Michelle M. Wright
15. Another Dream of a Common Language: Imagining
Black Europe... 277
Gloria Wekker
Afterword: Black Europe's Undecidability 291
Barnor Hesse
Notes on Contributors 305
Index 311
©
a
FOREWORD
PHILOMENA ESSED
Black Europe is an anthology about being black in Europe and Europe
turning black. It is also about the (historical) quality of life in Europe for those
identified as or identifying as “black European.” The persistence of “Othering”
and the denial of racism form a red thread throughout the volume. Over the
past decades, there has been ample finger wagging among European Union
members about the spread of racism in Europe. But when it comes to account-
ability, each and every member state looks the other way: racism might be out
there, somewhere else, but never here, not in their own country. Frequently
used, but misleading, arguments include the following: You do not understand
“our” culture; “our” history is very special; racism is an American thing; we do
not have the word “race” in our language, therefore there is no racism; we used
to send immigrants to other countries, therefore we would never discriminate;
“our” country is the most tolerant in Europe, therefore our traditions preclude
racism; we fought against the Holocaust, therefore “we” are above sentiments
such as racism. The lived reality for black Europe is different. Being European
and being brown, black, and/or Muslim are perceived as mutually exclusive
categories. A case in point was the assassination of the Dutch columnist and
filmmaker Theo van Gogh. I wrote in my virtual notebook:
The evening of the assassination the air is thick with emotion. The country is
in a state of shock: a ritual murder by an Islamic fundamentalist in defense of
Islam and the prophet Mohammed! Van Gogh had made no secret of his anti-
Islamic feelings: he had ridiculed and humiliated Muslims, Allah and the prophet
Mohammed in the name of freedom of expression. In the center of Amsterdam
40 to 50,000 people flock together in grief and rage on the Dam Square. “Keep
your hands off! Freedom-of-the-word!” The crowd is overwhelmingly white,
but certainly not exclusively so: young, old, men, women, scarf, no scarf, public
