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awhittz's review against another edition
4.0
African Europeans is a fascinating and very thorough book. It felt a little like being back at school because it’s dense with information and I had to concentrate hard and keep looking up words that I didn’t understand, but in a good way.
madhamster's review against another edition
4.0
I appreciated the breadth and reach of this, as much of what I'd read about histories of African diaspora, focus on either England or the US.
Apart from a couple of references throughout, and the second half of the final chapter, this book looks at the wider European communities.
Because the history starts with Biblical, quickly to Roman, it can feel a bit bitsy.
The main focus is on more modern and current times.
Apart from a couple of references throughout, and the second half of the final chapter, this book looks at the wider European communities.
Because the history starts with Biblical, quickly to Roman, it can feel a bit bitsy.
The main focus is on more modern and current times.
allieveryday's review against another edition
3.0
This was a fascinating and eye opening book but it read like a text book at times so this is not for the distracted reader.
Otele presents the lives and experiences of Black Europeans from Roman times up until today, and there is a great moment near the end where she points out that for some Black people Europe is now a choice as opposed to being forced to. There were stories about well known people, like a Medici and Pushkin, and lesser or totally unknown people. She talked about ancient times and Rome that one kind of figures "duh, there was contact and migration with Black people and Africans" but didn't fully think about and realize until now, and also about Danish involvement in Africa that no one talks about and the interactions between Europeans and Africans in a way I had not thought about before including how African and Black communities benefitted from these interactions. Just fascinating all around.
However, the chapters were very long and could have benefitted from subsections or each chapter could have been a section instead with its own chapters. I say this because chapters often felt like they abruptly changed focus or jumped around topics and I felt a little lost and wondered "How did we get here from six pages ago?' Basically, it felt unstructured at times. And finally, I was bothered by what felt like a glossing over of racism in modern Britain after expounding on racism in France and colorblindness in the Netherlands. And moreover how we went from African European lives and history to French feminism, BLM, and modern British music (when music was never mentioned prior). So it was like a history book that suddenly became an essay on modern race relations?
I did enjoy this book for the most part but the seeming lack of structure and incongruent ending were a big distraction.
Otele presents the lives and experiences of Black Europeans from Roman times up until today, and there is a great moment near the end where she points out that for some Black people Europe is now a choice as opposed to being forced to. There were stories about well known people, like a Medici and Pushkin, and lesser or totally unknown people. She talked about ancient times and Rome that one kind of figures "duh, there was contact and migration with Black people and Africans" but didn't fully think about and realize until now, and also about Danish involvement in Africa that no one talks about and the interactions between Europeans and Africans in a way I had not thought about before including how African and Black communities benefitted from these interactions. Just fascinating all around.
However, the chapters were very long and could have benefitted from subsections or each chapter could have been a section instead with its own chapters. I say this because chapters often felt like they abruptly changed focus or jumped around topics and I felt a little lost and wondered "How did we get here from six pages ago?' Basically, it felt unstructured at times. And finally, I was bothered by what felt like a glossing over of racism in modern Britain after expounding on racism in France and colorblindness in the Netherlands. And moreover how we went from African European lives and history to French feminism, BLM, and modern British music (when music was never mentioned prior). So it was like a history book that suddenly became an essay on modern race relations?
I did enjoy this book for the most part but the seeming lack of structure and incongruent ending were a big distraction.
allieveryday's review against another edition
3.0
This was a fascinating and eye opening book but it read like a text book at times so this is not for the distracted reader.
Otele presents the lives and experiences of Black Europeans from Roman times up until today, and there is a great moment near the end where she points out that for some Black people Europe is now a choice as opposed to being forced to. There were stories about well known people, like a Medici and Pushkin, and lesser or totally unknown people. She talked about ancient times and Rome that one kind of figures "duh, there was contact and migration with Black people and Africans" but didn't fully think about and realize until now, and also about Danish involvement in Africa that no one talks about and the interactions between Europeans and Africans in a way I had not thought about before including how African and Black communities benefitted from these interactions. Just fascinating all around.
However, the chapters were very long and could have benefitted from subsections or each chapter could have been a section instead with its own chapters. I say this because chapters often felt like they abruptly changed focus or jumped around topics and I felt a little lost and wondered "How did we get here from six pages ago?' Basically, it felt unstructured at times. And finally, I was bothered by what felt like a glossing over of racism in modern Britain after expounding on racism in France and colorblindness in the Netherlands. And moreover how we went from African European lives and history to French feminism, BLM, and modern British music (when music was never mentioned prior). So it was like a history book that suddenly became an essay on modern race relations?
I did enjoy this book for the most part but the seeming lack of structure and incongruent ending were a big distraction.
Otele presents the lives and experiences of Black Europeans from Roman times up until today, and there is a great moment near the end where she points out that for some Black people Europe is now a choice as opposed to being forced to. There were stories about well known people, like a Medici and Pushkin, and lesser or totally unknown people. She talked about ancient times and Rome that one kind of figures "duh, there was contact and migration with Black people and Africans" but didn't fully think about and realize until now, and also about Danish involvement in Africa that no one talks about and the interactions between Europeans and Africans in a way I had not thought about before including how African and Black communities benefitted from these interactions. Just fascinating all around.
However, the chapters were very long and could have benefitted from subsections or each chapter could have been a section instead with its own chapters. I say this because chapters often felt like they abruptly changed focus or jumped around topics and I felt a little lost and wondered "How did we get here from six pages ago?' Basically, it felt unstructured at times. And finally, I was bothered by what felt like a glossing over of racism in modern Britain after expounding on racism in France and colorblindness in the Netherlands. And moreover how we went from African European lives and history to French feminism, BLM, and modern British music (when music was never mentioned prior). So it was like a history book that suddenly became an essay on modern race relations?
I did enjoy this book for the most part but the seeming lack of structure and incongruent ending were a big distraction.
lizshayne's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I definitely did not give this book its due attention and I really should have read it rather than listened. And it was still a complex and fascinating series of vignettes about the way that people from different locations in Africa have always been back and forth to Europe and part of the European story and we know that and history has a lot to say about it and the way that things are racialized is both perennial and deeply contextual. (Rather like other forms of discrimination...)
Otele's book is just a really good deep dive into the history and also modern state of what it means have ancestry that ties one to Africa and to live in Europe.
Otele's book is just a really good deep dive into the history and also modern state of what it means have ancestry that ties one to Africa and to live in Europe.