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Afropean by Johny Pitts review – black Europe from the street up

A quest to find unity among African Europeans introduces a singular new voice and reveals an unseen continent

The term “Afropean”, Johny Pitts writes at the beginning of this beguiling book, “encouraged me to think of myself as whole and unhyphenated ... Here was a space where blackness was taking part in shaping European identity at large. It suggested the possibility of living in and with more than one idea: Africa and Europe, or, by extension, the Global South and the West, without being mixed-this, half-that or black-other. That being black in Europe didn’t necessarily mean being an immigrant.”

Pitts is right that labels “are invariably problematic”. None of my black friends will identify as English. They shudder at the thought, preferring British. “English” for them is an exclusive label, previously denied to them and that will never be rid of its toxic associations. It’s British for now, then, but perhaps in the future “Afropean” will prove a better fit.

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from Culture | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2XdLkQr
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