Roman grave reveals that black people lived in York in the 4th century (UK)

Copyright Yorkshire Museum: The Ivory Bangle Lady skull
A British Roman grave reveals that York (England) was a multicultural society and that black people lived there in the 4th century. The evidence is a skull which was discovered in 1901 in Bootham York in a sarcophagus. The picture above is a computerised reconstruction of how the 'Ivory Bangle Lady' could have looked.

The ancestry assessment suggests a mixture of 'black' and 'white' ancestral traits. It seems likely that she is of North African descent, and may have migrated to York from somewhere warmer, possibly the Mediterranean.

The “Ivory Bangle Lady” will be the centrepiece of an exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum in August entitled Roman York: Meet the People of the Empire.

Archaeologists have discovered that wealthy black Africans lived in Roman Britain in one of the country’s earliest examples of multiculturalism.

Scientific research techniques have established that a lavish grave containing a woman’s skeleton, an ivory bangle, perfume bottle, mirror and jewellery, belonged to a North African member of York’s high society in the 4th century.

Her well-preserved remains showed that she was 1.5m (5ft 1in) and aged between 18 and 23. There were no signs of a violent death, and muscle markings showed that she had not lived a strenuous life, suggesting that she was affluent. Among the goods found in her grave was a bone with the inscription “Sor ave vivas in Deo” (Hail, sister, may you live in God), suggesting that she may also have been a Christian.

Hella Eckardt, who carried out the study, said: “Multicultural Britain is not just a phenomenon of more modern times. Analysis of the ‘Ivory Bangle Lady’ and others like her, contradicts assumptions about the make-up of Roman-British populations as well as the view that African immigrants were of low status, male and likely to have been slaves.”

The research, A Lady of York; migration, ethnicity and identity in Roman Britain, is published in the March edition of the journal Antiquity. The “Ivory Bangle Lady” will be the centrepiece of an exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum in August entitled Roman York: Meet the People of the Empire.

Read full story on Timesonline
Yorkshire museum: Africans in Roman York?

You learn something new every day. “Sor ave vivas in Deo”.

Black people in The Netherlands: Surinamese

Dutch black history. I have found an interesting article in an old Ebony Magazine about the background of the Surinamese community in the Netherlands. Although it’s written in an issue of 1967! it still reflects the diversity of the Surinamese community in Surinam and in the Netherlands.

The article is from a very interesting Dutch Surinamese website called Buku ,which is Surinamese for “book”.

A small update. In 1975 almost half of the population of Surinam moved to the Netherlands because of an independence most people didn’t believe in. The black people or Creoles settled in the city of Amsterdam, the Hindustani settled in the city of The Hague.

A snippet from the article

"Why come here for a story?" queried the sixth 'Black Dutchman' I met.
"Isn't Suriname a multiracial country?" I asked. Don't all of the people live together in harmony?" "Yes."

"Wouldn't you call that unique in a world torn by racial strife?"
"Perhaps so," mused the man who takes his way of life for granted.
Forty-five of the next 50 people I interviewed agreed that they live in a peaceful coexistence under a flag made up of five stars representing the five races of mankind; that in Suriname, East meets West and the twain is an elliptical orbit on the flag joining the stars together. The dissenting five are not so sure. With the coming election, Surinam's racial paradise is threatened by a power struggle between the two dominant groups: the Creoles, mixed blood (no matter how dark) descendants of African slaves who head that bauxite-rich nation, and Hindustanis, the east Indian descendants of contract laborers who have passed the Creoles economically, are catching up with them educationally and overtaking them numerically.

Read full article here

Theatre: The Hounding of David Oluwale - Trailer (UK)

Because it's still black history month, an old theatre trailer of "The Hounding of David Oluwale", with Daniel Francis as the main character.

The play was an adaptation of Kester Aspden's award-winning book, the Hounding of David Oluwale. It tells the story of the Nigerian immigrant Oluwale, who was found dead in the river Aire in 1969, having been assaulted over a number of months by police officers.

About Oluwale The Guardian wrote the following story.

Oluwale was educated in the late autumn of colonial rule, a Christian grammar school education filling him with notions of the benevolent, civilising nature of British power.

It was natural for young men in the Nigerian port city to look outwards and imagine the world beyond; in the postwar years, there were many reasons to wish for an escape - food shortages, soaring prices, high unemployment. Nineteen-year-old Oluwale, struggling as an apprentice tailor, was one of a couple of hundred Nigerians in those difficult years who buried themselves in obscure corners of cargo ships for the gruelling two-week voyage to Britain. ....

On May 4 1969, the body of David Oluwale was discovered face-down in the river Aire, close to Leeds' main sewage works. The coroner recorded a verdict of death by drowning. The loose change found on Oluwale's body was put towards a flimsy coffin and a pauper's funeral. The funeral directors were having a clearout and packed old telephone directories around the corpse. His body was committed to a common grave that contained nine others.

Eighteen months later, this unmourned Nigerian was at the centre of a criminal investigation that shook and shamed a city. His body was exhumed on an icy morning in December 1970 following accusations that two Leeds city police officers had hounded him to his death. At the trial a year later, a long campaign of abuse emerged. Others had simply stood by and let it happen. Even in death, Oluwale was accorded little dignity. The defence counsel likened him to a panther. To the judge, he was a "dirty, filthy, violent vagrant". Read the whole story in Legacy of hate

And: Ghostly lessons of a lonely death

Theatre: Causerie imaginée (Imagined chat) - a Negritude conversation

Causerie imaginée (Imagined chat) - an imagined conversation based on the work of Césaire, Damas and Senghor performed by Jean-Michel Martial and Nathaly Coualy.

Sunday February 28th in Paris in theatre Les Feux de la Rampe (last show in France).

He is a man, she is a woman and there were three poets, three singers of the Negritude, three monuments: Césaire, Damas and Senghor. Notebook of a return home, a lecture on colonialism ... poetic texts and politics presented as monologues, sometimes as a conversation. A "Causerie imaginée" interpreted by Jean-Michel Martial and Nathaly Coualy.



Jean-Michel Martial is a French actor and Nathaly Coualy is a French actor/comedian, it’s there first performance together.

"It's been several years since I read these texts in public," says Jean-Michel Martial. "This time I wanted to add the desire and emotion of this person I do not know. The frame was already more or less decided, but Nathaly did things I never expected"

"We found that these texts are answers", says Nathaly Coualy.
Read a review (French) here

Interesting theatre, the show will also be performed in the Caribbean.

And because black history month is coming to an end on February 28th, some links:
Aimé Césaire
Leon-Gontran Damas
Léopold Sédar Senghor

Causerie imaginée
Sunday 28 February at 17h
Aat theatre Les Feux de la Rampe
2, rue Saulnier Paris 9e
01 42 46 26 19
lesfeuxdelarampe@gmail.com
http://www.billetreduc.com/35062/evt.htm

Gérard Depardieu plays black Alexandre Dumas in controversial casting

On the left Gérard Depardieu on the right Alexandre Dumas
A fierce controversy broke out when white French actor Gérard Depardieu played black French cultural icon Alexandre Dumas in the film "L'Autre Dumas" (the other Dumas). Dumas is the "official" writer of the famous novels “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “The Three Musketeers”.

Dumas (1802 - 1870) was the son of a Hatian/French bi-racial father, Thomas Alexandre, and a white French mother.

According to TheRoot Patrick Lozes, France's Representative Council of Black Associations, objected to Depardieu in the role, saying black actors are not given an opportunity to play white roles in French cinema. "It's very shocking and it is insulting," Patrick Lozes told the London Daily Mail. "It is a way of saying that we don't have any black actors who have the talent to play Alexandre Dumas.

"The other Dumas. The history of Alexandre Dumas and (ghostwriter) Auguste Maquet"


But the film is entitled "The other Dumas. The history of Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet". August Maquet is Dumas's ghostwriter (or "literary Negro" as the French said it back in the 18th and 19th century). He was the ghost writer of “The Count of Monte Cristo” , “The Three Musketeers” and other novels and plays. In fact the film deals with the relationship between August Maquet , “other Dumas” , and Alexandre Dumas.

According to the Guardian the film shed new light on the man who fans say was the true genius behind The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.

In an interesting article in Suite101 "The French Film Industry and Race Discrimination" the author analyses the question whether the choice of Gérard Depardieu is racism or artistic freedom.

In suite101 the author also writes:

Dumas himself was often the butt of jokes,caricature and a frequent target of cartoonists who emphasised his facial features and hair, exaggerating them to accentuate his Haitian heritage. Victoria Foote-Greenwell in her article "The life and resurrection of Alexandre Dumas" in The Smithsonian of 1 July 1996, relates the story of a leading lady once saying as he left, "Open the windows. It smells of Negro."

I agree with Patrick lozee (CRAN) that Dumas had to be played by a black actor, considering France's history with black actors. But I have to admit that Gérard Depardieu is not a bad choice.

According to TheRoot Gerard Depardieu thinks the controvery is “ridiculous” and “unnecessary”. I think Depardieu doesn't want to know the history of Dumas, or better he doesn’t want to know the history of his own country France.

Dumas was reburied in 2002 in the Panthéon of Paris, the place where al the great French are buried. Former France President Jacques Chirac had to acknowledge that racism was the reason why Dumas hadn't been enshrined in the past.

Afro-Europe

Mayor of London cuts funds Black History Month

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, will cut funds for Black History Month. Ed West, The Daily Telegraph columnist, agrees. Black History month in the UK is held in October.

He feels that Boris Johnson is right to cut funds for Black History Month, an event that, according to West, "provokes contempt and racism".

West: “BHM not only doesn’t bring people together, whatever local politicians have to say – it provokes contempt and racism, since any “achievement” that has to be promoted by taxpayer-funded propaganda is psychologically put into the junk folder by most intelligent people. Which is a shame, because African, Caribbean and black American history is interesting and significant enough without Haringey council’s help.”

Figures seen by the Guardian show that the London mayor cut funding for Black History Month, a series of events staged in October to celebrate black culture in the capital, from £132,000 to £10,000, though city hall insists the previous figure was £76,000. Africa Day’s £100,000 grant from the London Development Agency was axed completely and a decision to cut funding for the St Patrick’s Day celebration was roundly criticised last year.

The previous mayor of London Ken Livingstone, who supported multicultural events throughout his mayoralty, described the decision to cut funds for Black History Month as “outrageous”. “These were all events that helped bring London together,” he said.

Read full story here

Exhibition: Afro Modern - Journeys through the Black Atlantic (Liverpool)

Renee Cox: River Queen, from Queen Nanny of the Maroons 2004
Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic: Friday, 29th January 2010 - Sunday, 25th April 2010 in Liverpool UK.

This major exhibition, inspired by Paul Gilroy's seminal book The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (1993), identifies a hybrid culture that spans the Atlantic, connecting Africa, North and South America, The Caribbean and Europe. The exhibition is the first to trace in depth the impact of Black Atlantic culture on Modernism and will reveal how black artists and intellectuals have played a central role in the formation of Modernism from the early twentieth century to today.

From the influences of African art on the Modernist forms of artists like Picasso, to the work of contemporary artists such as Kara Walker, Ellen Gallagher and Chris Ofili, the exhibition will map out visual and cultural hybridity in modern and contemporary art that has arisen from the journeys made by people of Black African descent.

Divided into seven chronological chapters, from early twentieth century avant-garde movements such as the Harlem Renaissance to current debates around 'Post-Black' art, this exhibition opens up an alternative transatlantic reading of Modernism and its impact on contemporary culture for a new generation.

One of the most controversial artist at the exibition is photographer mixed-media artist Renee Cox. She is known for her remake of Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper with a nude Cox sitting in for Jesus Christ, surrounded by all black disciples, except for Judas who was white. See, Yo Mama's Last Supper. In 2001 some Roman Catholics and former mayor Rudy Giuliani were not amused.

Black History Month 2010 in Hamburg (Germany)

BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2010 in Hamburg is about to start this Saturday 30.01. - 22.00 h with a grand OPENING PARTY !

We have a big program of more than 25 single events during the next weeks.
Live music, lectures, poetry, films, youth program and more.

Check out the details at www.BHMhamburg.de

We hope you will find it interesting and look forward to seeing you all again. Of course we would like to see new face aswell. ;-)

But while we are celebrating Black culture, looking at history and empowering the community, we will also think of our brothers and sisters suffering in Haiti right now. Throughout BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2010 we will be asking for donations towards the cause and contributions will also be made from the entree fees. That's why we need you to help us get as many people as possible to come to the events.

Here are 3 things that would have a great effect on the turnout :

- Call up a couple of people who probably don't know about BLACK HISTORY MONTH
- Remind or tell your friends about the OPENING PARTY this Saturday and bring them along with you
- Forward the mail to people who could be interested

Check out the program immediately here

Check out the party scene in this video

Black History Month 2010 Opening party in Hamburg (Germany)

Anton de Kom: Holocaust Memorial Day 27 January 2010

Tomorrow it's the Holocaust Memorial Day. And tomorrow I will also light a candle for Surinamese/Dutch freedom fighter and human rights activist Anton de Kom, who died in the Neuengamme concentration camp in Germany.

Anton de Kom was born on February 22, 1898 in Paramaribo, Surinam. His grandparents had personally experienced slavery and his father was born a slave. The many stories he heard at home about the atrocities, fed his aversion against racism and colonialism. The Kom is the author of the book "Wij Slaven van Suriname" (We Slaves of Surinam).

Anton de Kom joined the Dutch resistance after the German invasion in Netherlands in 1940. On 7 August 1944 he was arrested by the Germans. De Kom died on 24 April 1945 of tuberculosis in Camp Sandbostel near Bremervörde (between Bremen and Hamburg), which was a satellite camp of concentration camp Neuengamme. He was buried in a mass grave. In 1960, his remains were found and brought to the Netherlands, were they buried in the Cemetery of Honour in Loenen. He became 47 years old.

A short documentary about De Kom's life.



The University of Suriname was renamed The Anton de Kom University of Suriname in honour of De Kom. Anton de Kom was listed in De Grootste Nederlander (The Greatest Dutchman/Dutchwoman) as #102 out of 202 people. And in Amsterdam Zuidoost a square is named after him, the Anton de Kom plein. It features a sculpture of Anton de Kom as a monument to his life and works.

In his book "We slaves of Surinam" he wrote:
"Though unrecorded in the history books of the whites, the ill-treatment of our fathers is engraved in our harts. Never has the misery of slavery been brought home to me more insistently then through the eyes of my grandmother when she told us children stories of the old days in front of the hut in Paramaribo."

De Kom was traumatised by being son of a slave. I can't even image how hard it must have been for the Kom to be in a concentration camp where he had to experience the opposite of everything he fought for.

Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) commemorates the tragic loss of life in the genocides of World War II, in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur. HMD is held on 27 January, the anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

On the website of the Holocaust Memorial Day you can light a virtual candle, you can light it here.

I was 18587th person to light a candle.

Exhibition: The Meaning of Style (UK)

Meaning of Style Exhibition. Black British Style, and the underlying political and social environment. An exhibition created by New Art Exchange.
Dates: Saturday 16 January - Saturday 10 April 2010 in Nottingham (UK)

New Art Exchange presents an exhibition exploring the presence of young African Caribbean men in Britain over the last 40 years, and how Black music, fashion and culture have influenced mainstream society.

Young African Caribbean men have often been portrayed as low achievers and perpetrators of crime in British society. But now, with Barack Obama winning the presidency of the biggest superpower in the world, will we see these same young men portrayed in a different light; as a source of huge potential for the future? Will the achievement of black youth in Britain over the last 40 years be recognised and honoured?




The presence of young 'Black' men in the UK started to be felt in the mainstream media in the 1970’s. Often portrayed negatively, this was a period of hope for the ‘African Caribbean’ community, a period of ‘Pan African’ and ‘Back to Africa’ ideology. This was also a period of oppression for many young Black men, due in part to the political climate of Thatcherism, Police harassment and institutionalised racism.

The African Caribbean youth of the late 1970’s/early 1980’s were the first generation in the UK to confront society and demand change on mass. This ‘rebel’ generation in the UK were reflected in the visibility of sub-cultures like the ‘Natty Dreads / Rastas’ and the rise of reggae music with politically aware artists like Bob Marley and, in the UK, Steel Pulse. Young men developed a ‘Rebel’ style that influenced young people from all backgrounds, around the world.

Style, fashion, ideology and the ‘Black’ Diaspora may have changed over the years, but young ‘Black’ men in the UK have made their presence felt ever since. In modern society many of the legacy of this 'rebel' style is seen in the fashion of young people from all backgrounds, ethnicity and geographical locations around the world. Ultimately, this exhibition will ask questions of all of us.

‘The Meaning of Style’ will bring together artists that have created portraits of young people using different mediums and create a dialogue and polemic which cross reference the work in the exhibition .

Skinder Hundal, Chief Executive - New Art Exchange said:
“New Art Exchange is extremely proud to be hosting this extremely important exhibition, which explores some of our seminal artists documenting ‘British Black culture’ from past decades, and highlighting how this has helped influence fashion, music and mainstream culture. It was a time of change, awareness and finally empowerment for many migrant communities in the UK, and the exhibition explores this through various artforms.”

The exhibition and accompanying events and educational programme will explore young African Caribbean men’s style and fashion over the last 40 years, and the underlying political, social environment.

New Art Exchange
Gerard Hanson

Pan-Africanism Congress 2009 in Munich

Photo Andrea Naica-loebel: Speakers, and members of the organisation
The 2nd Pan-Africanism congress was held on October 24th 2009 at the Goethe-Forum in Munich Germany. Approximately 500 persons attended the Congress.

Why a congress?
Many African countries will soon be celebrating the 50th anniversary of independence and freedom from Colonialism. However the hopes of true independence and freedom have remained mostly unrealised. Expectations of Economic, Social and Political growth are still mostly unfulfilled.Therefore the 2nd Pan-Africanism Congress intends to strengthen and to connect the African Diaspora. Ideas and visions for the sustainable shaping of Africa’s future will be discussed and further developed.



What is Pan-Africanism?
Pan-Africanism is a sociopolitical world view, philosophy, and movement which seeks to unify native Africans and those of African heritage into a "global African community". Pan-Africanism calls for a politically united Africa, according to wikipedia.

One of the important figures of the Pan-African movement was the first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah. In the video he speaks about his vision for Africa at the All African peoples congress, held in Ghana in 1958


Who were the speakers at congress?
Guest of honour was former President of Ghana Jerry Rawlings. Rawlings confirmed that Africa is still under the burden of politicians and other individuals who are pursuing personal goals with international assistance. "The key principles of good governance," said Rawlings, "is that the will of the people in all government decisions is paramount, and not the rules of a political party."

Bob Brown, Pan-Africanist and Nkrumahist-Toureist, pointed out that the black Howard University is the only university in the United States that uses the book by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah: "Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization" as teaching material. "The tragedy is," said Brown, "that Nkrumah’s work is not used in Ghana nor other countries in Africa."

Dr. Grada Kilomba, psychologist, writer and author of the book "Plantation Memories" named her speech, "The Mask – Remembering Colonialism, Understanding Trauma". She explained that the politics of the colonial powers was full of sadism and brutality, and that it was used in order to the silence the black subjects.

See the complete list of speakers here

Munich?
In 1918 the former German Empire lost World War I and also its colonies in Africa (Cameroon, Togo, German East Africa, now Tanzania, and German Southwest Africa, now Namibia). In 1932 as a form of political protest close to 30 street names in Munich were named after events in the colonial history. But some streets were also named after notorious killers, like Lothar von Trotha. Now, thanks to the Munich City Counsel, four streets are renamed.

Links
Website Pan-Africanism forum (German)
Photos of the event
African Students Association in Heidelberg Germany

Special thanks to Tina Bach

First black head of a European state: Alessandro de Medici (Italy)

Another post of 'Black European nobility tucked away'. This time Italian Alessandro de Medici (1510 - 1537), first duke of Florence, and the first black head of a European state. His nickname was "il Moro" ("the Moor").

In an interesting PBS article the author Mario de Valdes y Cocom writes about Alessandro de Medici, and also about how his African ancestry was downplayed in an Exhibit: "Despite the many portraits of this 16th century Italian Renaissance figure, Alessandro de Medici's African heritage is rarely, if ever, mentioned.

Alessandro wielded great power as the first duke of Florence. He was the patron of some of the leading artists of the era and is one of the two Medici princes whose remains are buried in the famous tomb by Michaelangelo. The ethnic make up of this Medici Prince makes him the first black head of state in the modern western world.

Alessandro was born in 1510 to a black serving woman in the Medici household who, after her subsequent marriage to a muleteer, is simply referred to in existing documents as Simonetta da Collavechio. Historians today are convinced that Alessandro was fathered by the seventeen year old Cardinal Giulio de Medici who later became Pope Clement VII. Cardinal Giulio was the nephew of Lorenzo the Magnificent."

Read full story: The blurred Racial Line of Famous Families: Alessandro de Medici

The post 'Black European nobility tucked away', was about the research of Egmond Codfried. Although Alessandro de Medici was not mentioned in the post, he was part of the research. The goal of the research, according to Codfried, is to prove that Europe was never as 'white' as we have been taught. Black people were always in Europe, even among the European nobility.

Special thanks to Annalisa Butticci, who noticed that Alessandro de Medici was not mentioned in the story.

Black History: Black European nobility tucked away

Black nobility in Europe? According to black Dutch researcher Egmond Codfried and author of the book "Belle van Zuylen's forgotten grandmother" there was black nobility in Europe, but there history and images were later carefully tucked away. His claims are controversial, and of course not accepted by European historians and the man in the street.

Codfried has systematically studied hundreds of paintings of famous and less famous nobility. He regularly stumbled upon people who looked black or coloured, or although they were white, clearly had African facial features.

About his work he writes: “This study of historical sources and literature on black and coloured historic persons was inspired by the chance finding of a portrait of Maria Jacoba van Goor (portraited in the picture). We get a view of the problems and of the methods to identify these Europeans. This beautiful painting was also a reason to cast an afrocentric view at Belle van Zuylens life and her works, the biographies en the origin of her financial fortune. Through her coloured grandmother, the Dutch Belle van Zuylen (1740-1805) also known as Madame de Charrière, joins the rank of writers as the Russian Alexander Pushkin, the French Alexander Dumas and Colette, the Britons Elizabeth Barrett and her husband Robert Browning. As well as the German classic composer Ludwig von Beethoven and Queen Charlotte of Britain. These are Europeans of great merit, who had black forefathers. Also we find that Belle was a friend of Pierre Alexander Du Peyrou (1729-1794), a brown coloured and wealthy Surinam plantation owner in Swiss. He is renowned as a close friend, benefactor and publisher of the most famous philosopher of the Enlightenment, Jean Jaques Rousseau.

Black Star: the African Presence in Early Europe

The reason why he studies nobility has to with the fact that nobility has left traces in the form of portraits and writings.

Some of his claims

Queen Charlotte Sophie of Mecklenburg Strelitz (1744-1818), Wife of George III

Described by others in her time as 'a true mulatto face' , ' brown' or ' yellow.' Her nose is to wide and her mouth shows the same fault.













Maurits Huygens (painted by Rembrandt in 1632) the older brother of Constantijn Huygens. Constantijn was one the most famous poets in the Golden Century.












The way black people were portraited

A painting of the French-Swiss painter Liotard (1702-1789) "Portrait of a young woman". Liotard is also considered coloured by Codfried.













A Moor by Juriaen of Streeck (1619-1673). Most people do not realize how many pictures exist of Moors in Europe. Why the love of Moors? Names, family crests, geographical indications, all references to the Moor, according to Codfried.

On the forum someone writes, that this is a picture of a servant.








As a response Codfried writes: "Part of the Moritzburg Treasure (Renaissance), , with a gold and silver cup in the form of a Moor's head, which was used at high nobilty marriages. Why Moor's head? The Moor was apparently in high regard."











PORTRAIT OF AN AFRICAN MAN January Mostaert (ca.1474-Haarlem Haarlem 1552/1553) Ca. 1520-1530. A unique 16th-century portrait

A painting of a black African in European clothing - with sword - portrayed as a Habsburg-Burgondian nobleman from that period. The self-conscious attitude, clothes and rich attributes demonstrate a successful assimilation of this man within the cultural norms of the European Renaissance. (Research lab Black is beautiful Dutch)

But, the research lab also writes, black Africans were in the 16th-century Europe rarely people of distinction. Most of them were imported as slaves in Spain and Portugal. A small number of them were released over the years, but most were employed as servant to their master. Only the Congo, which in the late 15th century was Christianized by the Portuguese, had a special status as a black kingdom of which the elite was educated in Portugal. Some Congolese made it as scholar, clerk, musician and jester quite far. Most remained employed in subordinate occupations. In the Netherlands, where the slave status was not recognized, negroes usually came along as servants of Spanish and Portuguese traders.


But why is it so important to show that black or coloured people were part of the European nobility? Codfried's motivation is to show that Europe was never as 'white' as we have been taught. Black people were always in Europe, even among the European nobility.

Looking at the portraits of those 16th and 17the century black people in Europe, I wonder what they would think of us now.
 
Links 

• Pictures of Black nobility
• Blue Blood Is Black Blood 
• First black head of a European state: Alessandro de Medici (Italy)

Update:  

• A Talk with Natou Pedro Sakombi author of " Blue Blood in black ink " (Orginal title "Du Sang Bleu à l'Encre Noire")

Celebrate Black History Month UK 2009

October is the Black History month in the UK. It was first celebrated in 1987 as part of the African Jubilee Year, the period from August 1987 to July 1988 designated to mark the centenary of the birth of Marcus Josiah Garvey; the 150th anniversary of emancipation in the Caribbean and the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity. But now it's an event that is celebrated throughout the UK.

London
Blacks have been in London since 1555, though the first real influx in Britain came in the late 18th century in flights from the 13 colonies during the American Revolution. Prominent black British figures include John Blacke, a trumpeter to kings Henry VII and VIII, who about 1507 became the first black mentioned in royal records; Sir Ira Aldridge, England's first recognized black actor, famous for his role as Othello; John Richard Archer, a leader in London's Pan Africanist Movement, also the country's first British-born councilor and mayor in the early 1900s; and Marianne Jean Baptiste, who in 1996 became the first black British woman nominated for an Academy Award.

Black History Month website

Black history month in London 2009

Celebrate Black History Month in Newham (london)

The film Skin – Starring Sophie Okonedo

The film Skin has finally made it to the Netherlands. Skin is of course the portrayal of the life of Sandra Laing, a dark skinned girl born to white (Afrikaan) parents in South Africa during the Apartheid era. With UK born actress Sophie Okonedo as Sandra Laing. In an interview Okonedo said that her upbringing was not too dissimilar to Laing’s. Okenedo is bi-racial Nigerian/Jewish.

Also read the interesting review of the film on shadow and act.



But now Amsterdam. On the blog of the film I read ‘Dutch Courage’. But why do you need courage to show this film? On shadow and act screenwriter and film critic Wendy Okoi-Obuli wrote:" You know who Okonedo is, right? Dirty Pretty Things, Hotel Rwanda, Aeon Flux, The Secret Life of Bees… as well as lots of TV and theatre roles under her belt. OK, so you may not like her entire body of work, you may not even like her acting style, but she’s an Oscar nominated actress; surely that’s enough to at least make her a bankable name, right? Not to most film distributors, it isn’t. “ Read the full story here

From September 11the till October 30th the film will be shown in Europen movie theatres. From October 30th it will be distributed in the US.

Skin’s official movie website

Interview with Sophie Okonedo


The Dutch data for your google agenda

Skin – The story of mixed 'outcast' Sandra Laing

Sandra Laing was a black baby born to white parents at the height of apartheid in South Africa. The hatred, rejection and heartache she suffered at the hands of the authorities, her teachers and her family sent shock waves across the world.

On the timesonline a story was published about her life, the racial implications of being stuck in the racial middle during the apartheid in South Africa, and about the movie Skin. "The story goes beyond race. It’s about a need to belong, a need to be loved and accepted. There’s a moment when her father lovingly puts skin-bleaching cream on her face to lighten her skin. It burns and he blows on it. Fabian (Producer and director of the film Skin) describes Laing as like a peach. “The skin easily bruises, but there is a hard core, a big stone of strength.

The one thing that haunts Laing is her relationship with her brothers. Neither of them speaks to her. When Adriaan was a baby she used to cradle him and feed him. “Leon told me that if Adriaan’s wife finds out that he has been talking to me she is going to divorce him.” Is it because Adriaan, himself quite dark-coloured, is ashamed of his even darker sister and the way it might interrupt his nice white life? “I don’t know what colour his children turned out to be. People say they are white. He must remember me, how close we were. Maybe he is scared of his wife.” Read the full story here.

In a book review bi-racial author Rebecca Walker wrote about laing's story. " Laing's story is similar to that of many who straddle racial designations that have more to do with social engineering than with actual differences among human beings. Shame, alienation from family members, memory loss and difficulty in sustaining a stable home are a few of the possible effects of belonging to more than one racial category. Ironically, Laing eventually seems to have found some peace with help from members of the same media that once took part in her objectification. Two journalists in particular helped to fit the pieces of Laing's life together, and as a result of their work to reunite Laing with her estranged mother, she finally felt unburdened. In a moving passage, one of those journalists, Judith Stone, tells of Laing dreaming that she was "laughing and laughing"; she felt "a new space open up in her heart."

The sad part is that one of her parents has black roots, but ended up being a pro-white nationalist.

See more pictures here

See youtube video: Sandra Laing: A Spiritual Journey - South Africa

What is Afro-Europe? Who are the Afro-Europeans or black Europeans?

Some who read this blog may think what the hell this is all about. Are we trying to imitate the USA and their ‘racial’ interpretation of society? Or we trying to pigeonhole the black people of Europe in a new category? What gives us the right to bring together topics related to black people in Europe in one blog? Isn’t it racist to categorize black people in Europe as one group? Based on what? Skincolour? Culture?

The central question is what a Nigerian in Italy, an Angolan in Sweden, a Jamaican in the UK and a mixed race Congolese in France or Germany have in common. Europe is not even united so how would black people coming from different nations feel united within Europe? We don’t even have a common language. Below I will give my opinion on this issue.



500 years
What we have in common is the western and European experience, and the way we are categorized within Europe as a certain kind of people. Whether you are in France, Germany, Italy or any other European country, the majority white people of Europe perceive people of African ancestry in quite the same way. This categorization isn’t entrenched in the laws of European nations, but for centuries in the past it was. It isn’t something we can easily describe nor can we demonstrate it through clear facts and figures. However, through a history of relations between Europe and the darker peoples of the planet, the ‘black man’ has received a certain place. Although racial slavery has been abolished, and racist laws eradicated from law books, the concepts and ideas inherited from more than 5 centuries of African-European relationships are still there. Whatever the colour of our skin, we are part of this history.

An anomaly
Black people in Europe, whether with brown or black skin, whether born there or not, whether having a white parent or not, whether adopted or not, whether they speak the national language or not, whether integrated or not, ...are all perceived as a certain kind of foreigners. They are not supposed to be there. But in reality most black people in Europe have built their homes in Europe, have adopted European cultures as their own and are perfectly integrated. If not the first generation, then certainly their children.

This experience; being perceived as foreigners from a common continent (whether being really a foreigner or not), is central in the creation of our identity. Identity is based on the relationship you have with others. I do think that most Europeans of African ancestry, i.e culturally integrated black people, would prefer just to be seen as part of the country where they are living, fully accepted as members of that society. In reality it is not so. Even when they have actually forgotten the cultures and languages of their ancestors and only know the Western world as their world, they will still be seen as an anomaly within the Western world, even after generations. (It is important to note here that Italians who migrated to France, Belgians who migrated to Sweden, etc. are assimilated after one or two generations). However, after centuries of African-European relationship Europe influenced Africa, but the other way around is certainly just as true. The presence of black people in Europe is a logic consequence of the African-European history. Europe seems not to accept this logic.

Europe’s relationship with the other, (whether Africans or people from the ‘Orient’) and the way it has described the other, has been the vehicle in the creation of a European and Western identity. Unfortunately black people do not fit into that identity. We could fight for being acknowledged as part of the European identity. But this means a total reconsideration of what being European means. When we look at the social and political reality of today's Europe there is an urge to defend and protect an essentialist view of Europe as 'white and pure'. Therefore today, black people in Europe are creating a new concept of self within the Western world, i.e. Afro-Europe.

America
Besides that there is the influence of the American media in Europe. Europeans, whether black or white, consume a lot of American media and are influenced by it. Whether you’re French, Swedish, Italian, … we all watch Hollywood movies, we all enjoy the same soaps and series. We all listen to Jazz, Hip Hop, Rock, Grunge, Metal, Soul, Reggae, House .... Our pop culture is impregnated with American pop culture (Predominantly from the USA but actually also from the Caribbean and Latin America). We are all, white and black, part of the Western world. This has a direct influence to how black people within Europe are creating an identity, and how they have been categorized within Europe.

Being ‘black’ is being Western
Black people in Europe do not really have common cultural roots, but second generations feel more related to Western black culture as it is expressed in the Americas than through the culture of their parents. Black people in the Western world have very different roots and backgrounds but have a common experience. Their black identity only makes sense within a Western world dominated by white European culture.

In fact it’s because they have become part of white European culture that they are now ‘black people’ and not Yoruba, Bakongo or Banyarundi, to name just some of the many African peoples living in Africa. This is why, according to me, the European people of African ancestry are becoming black Europeans, Afro-Europeans (or Afropeans as some label us). This is why, according to me, today there is a blog called Afro-Europe, informing the world about the African presence within Europe's culture and society.

Slavery Remembrance Day 23 August 2009

The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition

Since 1998, UNESCO has been reminding the international community of the importance of commemorating 23 August, International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. This date not only commemorates the historic night in 1791 when the slaves of Santo Domingo rose up to break their chains and launch the insurrection that eventually led to the Haitian revolution, it also serves to pay tribute to all those who worked collectively and individually to trigger the irreversible process of the abolition of the slave trade and slavery throughout the world. This commitment and the strategies of action used that were conducted to fight the inhumane system of slavery were to have a considerable impact on the human rights movement.

Beyond the act of commemoration, this international Day aims at eliciting reflection on a tragic past that may be distant but whose repercussions continue to fuel injustice and exclusion today. This reflection on the barbarity our society is capable of unleashing with a clear conscience is all the more necessary, salutary even, as millions of men, women and children still today suffer the horrors of new forms of slavery. This is how the remembrance of past tragedies serves to enlighten us about present-day tragedies of exploitation and dehumanization.

Message from Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO

Slavery Remembrance Day Festival in the International Slavery museum in Liverpool 21 to 23 August 2009 .

DIANE NASH HEADLINES SLAVERY REMEMBRANCE DAY FESTIVAL 21 – 23 August 2009. US Civil Rights activist Diane Nash launches a weekend of entertaining and thought-provoking events with a free memorial lecture on Friday 21 August 2009 at 1800 hrs, Liverpool Town Hall. See more information here

The bird in the picture is called Sankofa: This is a mythical bird that flies forwards while looking backwards with an egg (symbolising the future) in its mouth. Sankofa teaches us that we must go back to our roots in order to move forward.

See more mythical West-African Adinkra symbols here

See also a very interesting short documentary about Ghana's Cape Coast Castle here

Happy 36th Birthday Hip-Hop!

Yesterday, 36 years ago, Hip-Hop was born on 1520 Sedgwick Ave. and Cedar Park USA. But the music and the culture also made its way to Europe. Happy birthday Hip-Hop!


via: Shadow And Act.

The Netherlands returns King’s Head to Ghana.

The head of king Badu Bonsu II is officially back in Ghana. The Dutch minister of Foreign Afffairs, Maxime Verhagen, Ghanaian representative in The Netherlands Odoi-Anim and Ghanaian traditional leader Etsin Kofi II signed on 23 July in The Hague a declaration that eventually makes the head’s handover a fact. The great-great-grandson of Badu Bonsu II was also present.

Aqua Fortis

The head was at the ministry of Foreign Affairs but was only public for guests from Ghana. Badu Bonsu II killed in 1838 two Dutch emissaries at the Gold Coast and was consequently hanged en decapitated. The head was kept and brought to the Netherlands. There it was put into aqua fortis to be preserved. According to Radio Voice of Africa this was for several people in Ghana a sensitive issue.

When the Ghanaian president Kufuor visited the Netherlands last year the issue was brought to the attention. ‘Everywhere in the world people give much importance to the way there forefathers are buried. In a way that cherishes their soul. We have to be able to say goodbye to those we honored when alive. We have to know that our forefathers can rest in peace’ said minister Verhagen at the ceremony.

The minister went on, "King Badu Bonsu II lived when the Dutch were controlling the trade posts of the Cold Coast. After his dead he became a symbol of these turbulent times. Our common past includes also the disgraceful slave trade, in which our traders were involved and which they sustained. We do not ignore this shared heritage.”

Attention
In Ghana there was a lot of attention for this event. According to Radio Voice of Africa the handover ceremnoy had ben broadcasted live.