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The Blurb On The Back:
”Afropean. Here was a space where blackness was taking part in shaping European identity ... A continent of Cape Verdean favelas, Algerian flea markets, Surinamese shamanism, German reggae and Moorish castles. Yes, all this was part of Europe too.”
Afropean is an on-the-ground documentary of the places where Europeans of African descent live their lives. Setting off from his hometown of Sheffield, Johny Pitts makes his way through Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm, Moscow, Rome, Marseille and Lisbon, through council estates, political spaces, train stations, tour groups, and underground arts scenes.
Here is an alternative map of the continent, revealing plural identities and liminal landscapes, from a Cape Verdean shantytown on the outskirts of Lisbon to RInkeby, the eighty per cent Muslim area of Stockholm, from West African students at university in Moscow to the notorious Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. A Europe populated by Egyptian nomads, Sudanese restaurateurs, Belgo-Congolese painters. Their voices speak to Afropean experiences that demand to be heard.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Johny Pitts is a writer, photographer and broadcaster who founded the online journal Afropean.com. In this insightful, compassionate and thought-provoking book that’s part anthropology, part memoir, part travelogue and part rumination on the black experience within Europe, he seeks to “honestly reveal the secret pleasures and prejudices of others as well as myself” and make sense of what it means to be a black citizen in Europe.
AFROPEAN: NOTES FROM BLACK EUROPE was released in the United Kingdom on 6th June 2019. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Afropean is an on-the-ground documentary of the places where Europeans of African descent live their lives. Setting off from his hometown of Sheffield, Johny Pitts makes his way through Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm, Moscow, Rome, Marseille and Lisbon, through council estates, political spaces, train stations, tour groups, and underground arts scenes.
Here is an alternative map of the continent, revealing plural identities and liminal landscapes, from a Cape Verdean shantytown on the outskirts of Lisbon to RInkeby, the eighty per cent Muslim area of Stockholm, from West African students at university in Moscow to the notorious Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. A Europe populated by Egyptian nomads, Sudanese restaurateurs, Belgo-Congolese painters. Their voices speak to Afropean experiences that demand to be heard.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): ) The Verdict:
Johny Pitts is a writer, photographer and broadcaster who founded the online journal Afropean.com. In this insightful, compassionate and thought-provoking book that’s part anthropology, part memoir, part travelogue and part rumination on the black experience within Europe, he seeks to “honestly reveal the secret pleasures and prejudices of others as well as myself” and make sense of what it means to be a black citizen in Europe.
AFROPEAN: NOTES FROM BLACK EUROPE was released in the United Kingdom on 6th June 2019. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
