On September 1st 2009 boxing legend Muhammed Ali visited his ancestral home in Ireland. See the story and the pics here.
Muhammed Ali though he got his European blood due to slavery (see video), but it turned out he got it from his Irish great-grandfather Abe Grady, who settled in the United States in the 1860s and married a freed African-American slave. One of their grandchildren, Odessa Lee Grady Clay, was Ali’s mother.
Abe Grady lived in the Western Irish town Ennis, and Ali was honoured as the first Freeman of his ancestral home Ennis.
I don't know what "Freeman" means, but according to some people it means free drinks at the pub and free entrance to the disco.
In this interview Ali did know his ancestry, but still he thought his great grandfather was a slave owner. But listen to the mistake of interviewer!
Joyce Sylvester (43) is acting mayor of the Dutch city of Naarden. She is the first black woman to serve as mayor in the Netherlands. Sylvester is born in Amsterdam and is of Surinam descent.
Since there is so much attention for Sandy Cane, the first black mayor in Italy who is also a member of the right-wing party Lega Nord, here is a Dutch black mayor who is a member of a party which can be compared with the labour Party in the UK and with the Democrats in the USA.
About being black and female she stated in an interview (Dutch). "Yes, I am a woman and I have a colour, so what? I have experienced no limitations because of that." But during her first position as acting mayor she saw that gender and colour did matter. "You notice the signals from the organisation. You can't escape the fact of being seen as role model." In 1992 Sylvester survived a serious train accident. Five passengers were killed. They all sat with Sylvester in the coupe. She was seriously injured, was held in coma, was operated on six times and the prospects were poor. Her political party leader Bos said: "You never hear her complain, the accident affected her considerably. Even years later her toes had to be broken to put them straight. She is literally a woman of iron."
On her website she writes about her impressive career: "I am acting Mayor of Naarden.
From October 31, 2008 to May 31, 2009 I was acting mayor of Anna Pavlovna.
Since 2003 I am also a member of the Dutch Senate (PVDA).
My portfolios are Economy, Agriculture and Finance. I am a member of the Committee on Petitions.
I am also housing commissioner of the housing association Alliance, member of the Amarantis school Advisory Board in Amsterdam, a member of the Delta Lloyd Advisory Board, member of a Board of Supervisors of the diversity counsil of the Dutch police, member of the Advisory Council for Microfinance Netherlands, supervisor at the Dutch Philharmonic Orchestra and member of the Advisory Board of the Dutch Society for Industry and Commerce. I am the ambassador of d'ONS Foundation, the acronym stands for Sustainable Development Netherlands Surinam. Finally, and I am owner of Spirit organisatieadvies bv.
I started my career as a controller at the central FEZ Directorate of the Ministry of Transport. After I became adviser to the Mayor of Amsterdam I worked for Twynstra Gudde management consultants."
Sylvester earned a Masters degree in communication science and political science from the University of Amsterdam, and she holds a PhD from the Law Faculty of VU University Amsterdam.
Erik (Erik Chayé Kow), the 22 year old singer from Guadeloupe is one of the nominees of the Trophées des Arts Afro-Caribéens in the category Artist Revelation de L'annee (best newcomer of the year).
The French award ceremony will take place on Monday September 21th in Paris.
Erik's music is a mix of dancehall and Caribbean Jazz, but it also has a Zouk flavour in it. He is born in Pointe à Pitre, Guadeloupe, and grew up in a family of musicians. According to his MySpace bio:" At 22 he has taken his place in a new generation of highly talented and innovative West Indian singers."
I think he will be one of the artists who will walk away with an award on Monday September 21th.
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.
The Europa Passage shopping centre in Hamburg. A black British man has been beaten up in the city A black British man is recovering after being attacked in front of his wife and child by neo-Nazi thugs in Germany. The incident took place on Saturday the 24th of August.
The 46-year-old unidentified man, believed to be from London, was in a baker’s shop in the port city of Hamburg on Saturday when thugs from the National Democratic Party approached him with leaflets calling for a ban on immigration.
'Here, take one of these with you back where you belong,' they said to him as he stood with his wife and four-year-old son.
They say the man ripped the pamphlet up and the men then pushed the Briton against a glass window. One man punched him while another sprayed pepper spray in his eyes.
Three suspects were apprehended later and prosecutors are now investigating them on suspicion of causing bodily harm.
The British man , who has not been named, was treated in a hospital and released. An eyewitness said: 'The wife was screaming for them to leave her husband alone but they just heaped more racial abuse on her as her little boy screamed ‘leave my daddy alone!’ It was vicious and unprovoked.' Read the full article here
In the German newspaper Sueddeutsche this was written about the attack: "The 46-year-old victim lived, according to the police in Hamburg, but has British citizenship. The man was standing with his wife and his little son at a bakery stand, where at that moment tree men in age of 23, 33, 43 were handing out flyers of the NDP.
When the Britton tore up the paper, it first came to a quiet conversation. Then however, the trio, according to police pushed him against the glass window of the bakery stand.
One of the suspects repeatedly struck him with his fist on his chest, another repeatedly sprayed pepper spray into his eyes.
After the attack, the men fled. But shortly after the attack the police arrested the men in the vicinity of the crime scene. After the police took their id, there were set free. A special German crime investigation department will determine bodily harm."
It's very strange that the attackers, according to the German newspaper, were set free after the attack. But also strange is the fact that German Neo-Nazis can flyer in a private mall without being kicked out. Is this 2009 or 1935?
For more information also see the post on the German blog: Black in NRW blog
On the blog is a video of Mo Asumang, an Afro-German moderator and author, who for her the documentary Roots Germania interviewed an NDP front man. She made an appointment for the interview, but she didn’t say she was black.
Photo: Kanya King at the launch party The anual MOBO Awards 2009 will be held in Glasgow (Scotland) this year on wednesday 30th September 2009. The launch party was held on the 26th August in London.
The Music of Black Origin (MOBO) Awards, established in 1995 by Irish/Ghanaian Kanya King MBE and Andy Ruffell are held annually in the United Kingdom to recognise artists of any race or nationality performing black music.
This year 2009 is a success for UK black talent. Years ago founder Kanya King complained of the lack of recognition for black artist in UK. And not so long ago it was R&B singer Estelle who made comments about Duffy and Adele and music industry racism. But things have changed.
On her blog founder Kanya King writes:" 2009 has been a phenomenal year for UK music, and it’s so good to see UK talent being recognized in the charts. We’ve worked long and hard to get to this point where all these talented UK Artists are finally getting the mainstream success they so deserve. We only have to take a look at the chart positions of Tinchy, Chipmunk, Alexandra Burke, N Dubz this year to see how far MOBO music has come. This is what we’ve been striving for and I’m really happy that UK music is being so widely acknowledged and indeed, celebrated. You just have to look at the calibre of the Best UK Act category to see how strong the UK scene is at the moment! And check out Beverley’s reaction on our video clip when she hears that she’s been nominated - what a beautiful moment. And I’ve just been told it’s her 10th MOBO Nomination! Wow." Read her full story here
Nominations
BEST UK ACT Alesha Dixon Bashy Beverly Knight Chipmunk Dizzee Rascal DJ Ironik Donae’o Mr. Hudson N-Dubz Tinchy Stryder
BEST NEWCOMER Alexandra Burke Jade Ewen JLS Laura Izibor Master Shortie
Notting Hill Carnival always takes place during the last weekend in August, on the Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday so this year it will be on Sunday 30 August and Monday 31 August 2009.
The Notting Hill Carnival has been held on the August bank holiday since 1966, bringing the streets of west London alive with the sounds, costumes and smells of the Caribbean.
It started life as a local festival organised by the West Indian community in the area but has expanded into a full-blown Caribbean carnival attracting thousands of visitors from around the world. The fun unofficially kicks off on Saturday with the steel band competition — the Steel Pan Panorama — in Hyde Park. But the official action takes place on Sunday and Monday. Proceedings will kick off at the new time of 9am to make sure that the floats get round the three-mile route from Great Western Road to Westbourne Grove and Ladbroke Grove in good time and that the parade is off the road by nightfall. Events end at 9pm on both days and sound systems at 7pm.
Sunday is traditionally children's day, with the emphasis on family and the parade reserved for young people under 21. The hardcore fun — with up to 40 static sound systems competing for attention as well as the adult's parade — takes place on Monday with partying continuing late into the night. Read the full story here
Photo and copyright: My first Art collection My First Art Collection, next edition : a course for prospective art collectors in the Netherlands. So this is not about the Rembrandts and Vermeers.
Do black people collect art? The answer is: Yes they do. And the number of black people who are collecting art is growing.
Two years ago Ricardo Burgzorg started the training program My First Art Collection, where prospective art collectors could get acquainted with the ins and outs of the art world. Burgzorg bridges the gap between collectors and museums, but also guides beginning art collectors in the art world. My first Art Collection focuses on young native and new Dutch people. This season the programs in Amsterdam and Rotterdam have ended successfully. Due to the success, and the enthusiasm from all sides, the next course (2009 - 2010) will also start in The Hague. A year later, Arnhem and Groningen will follow. For more information go the website www.myfirstartcollection.com (Dutch)
On the site My first Art Collection there is an interesting video of art collecter and writer Judith Greer. In the video she visits the Frieze Art Fair in London (15-18 October 2009)
Judith Greer on Owning Art
“People come to collecting in different ways; I began nearly 20 years ago. My friends were artists, I started by buying early works. My relationship with art and artist is extremely important. But equally important are those with dealers, curators and other collectors. I read about art, I see endless exhibitions and still I'm learning.”
Judith Greer is co-author of Owning Art: The Contemporary Art Collector's Handbook, and chair of Artangel
My first piece of art was an big old photograph of a Carribean street in 1930. Now I am looking for a Gordon Parks orginal.
New evidence! Michael Jackson is alive. See the video! According to the Sun crazed fans believe MICHAEL JACKSON faked his own death to escape the pressures of fame, they believe their hero is still alive. Read the story here
Thousands have been logging onto websites to join conspiracy theories that the star is simply preparing for the ultimate comeback. To be honest, I don't believe he is alive. But if he is still alive, I wont talk to him ever again!
Nnekea is a wonderful AfroGerman singer songwriter. I think she would prefer me to describe her as a Nigerian artist residing in Germany, though. But this is how I perceived her and how I interpreted her music when I first heard her fantastic album a few months ago.
When I first discovered her through a friend I was surprised about her total commitment to the African cause in her music. As a child of a German mother and a Nigerian father I had interpreted her to be like most AfroGermans, i.e. having a German upbringing.
Not Nneka. She was born and raised in Nigeria. And not just that, she grew up in Warri, in the Delta region of Nigeria. A place in Nigeria where the terrible consequences of the oil industry for the local population is undeniable. She has seen all this with her own eyes as a child and teenager and now expresses it through her art.
Nneka came to Germany as a 19 year old and settled in the city of Hamburg. Although she stated in an Arte interview that she does speak German, she prefers to do her interviews in English. A language she feels more comfortable with.
Last year Nneka released a n album on which you will find a list of wonderful tracks ranging from genres like hip hop, reggae, soul, afrobeat and more. Her great voice brings you deep lyrics about globalization, love, Africa, poverty, identity, … it all feels very much authentic.
This summer she could be seen on many festivals throughout Europe. I saw her live at the Nice jazz Festival in the south of France. She was the first act of that day. Just her, a drummer, a bas, a guitar and a synth.
She brought us a perfect and heavily emotional set with not only songs from her album but also new tracks. She caught the audience right through their soul with music most of them never had heard before. The intensity and honesty she brought in her songs was so beautiful it made me think of the video’s I had seen from Bob Marley concerts; Nneka is very real and makes music that literally comes from the heart and the soul.
I advice everyone who loves good soul music to check out what she does. Several videos and interviews can be seen on YouTube. And here your can read an article from the Daily Telegraph in 2006.
Laura Izibor that new star from Ireland. In an interview with the Guardian Laura Izibor also talked about her family history.
“I quote the line to Laura Izibor, the 21-year-old Irish/Nigerian singer-songwriter sitting on the sofa next to me. "Ireland's really changing now," she says. "The Irish themselves aren't completely aware of what change is going on, because they are in it. It was horrible for my father 20 years ago - that's a lot of the reason why he had to move away to London. He couldn't get a job. He used to cycle everywhere and people would stop in their tracks and go, 'I just saw a black fella, he was riding a bike.'" (Izibor's father came to Dublin from Nigeria to look for work; he and her Irish mother separated when she was eight.) Today, however, Izibor is happy to call herself Irish, and the Irish are just as happy to claim her as their own."
The present black Irish population is predominantly of recent immigrant origin, arriving from the mid-1990s onwards from West African countries such as Nigeria.( Source: Wikipedia)
Isabor’s personal story reminded me of an interview with Mel B of the Spice Girls. In an interview she said, that she remembered sitting in the bus on the lap of her English mother. Her father, who is black, sat next to them. But when racist groups boarded the bus, her mother quickly sat her on the lap of her father.
Somehow these stories characterise the UK in the past. But the UK, just as Ireland, have changed. Although more change is always welcome.
But! She recently performed overseas in the US. The Washington Post wrote about her:
“Irish-born singer-of-the-moment Laura Izibor has drawn comparisons to another vocalist who also experienced a meteoric rise a couple of years back: Corinne Bailey Rae. Everyone seems to lump them together simply because they both have adorable accents, curly mops of hair, debut albums that vacillate between exuberance and depression, and singles screaming for inclusion in an hour-long drama.”
Beware: In this article I will use the word 'mulatto'. I know that some people are sensitive about the use of this word due to its ethymology. The reason I use it is not because I like it but because I will tackle an issue about mixed race people and want to describe things clearly. If this shocks anyone please accept my appologies before starting to read this.
In the following days after Michael Jackson’s death we have heard a lot of speculation about MJ’s fatherhood. During the ceremony we saw his children for the first time and many people were surprised to see that MJ’s children looked so white/Caucasian. Tom Vandyck, US correspondent for the progressive newspaper De Morgen (Belgium) expressed his doubts about MJ being the real biological father of these children. His doubts were based on Paris’s appearance. For him, biologically, she couldn’t be part of the Jackson family.
I was shocked as it reflected the fact that race is still perceived as a hard evidence. But my experience among mixed race people is that whether the parents look black or not, once there is some racial mixing in your background, the racial features of your children is a lottery.
According to an article in The Observer two years ago, nearly all African Americans have some white ancestors. This is the reason many African Americans do actually look like mixed race people with an African and European parent. Look at Colin Powell, Jeremiah Wright, Beyoncé Knowles, … and many more. They all identify as black and have a black identified mother and father. Therefore they are black in the US American context. But these people have white ancestors too and could have children with blond straight hair and blue eyes, certainly if they would choose a white partner.
When you are 'real mulatto', that is first generation black African & white European mixture, your children will generally look white if your partner is white, and black if your partner is black.
Below is a picture of Victoria Rowell, an actrice who has one white and one black parent. on this picture you can see her with her two kids. The white girl's father is white, the black boy's father is black.
Although we can’t really make a rule out of this. Different exceptions are just as common as the rule. My sister, who is half white half black has two daughters with a white Belgian man. The first girl looks white: bleu eyes, light brown hair. The second girl looks mulatto, but still with blue eyes. A good friend of mine who is half white half black has two children with an African man. They both look mulatto. One of my best friends has a mulatto mother and white father, he looks mulatto although his brother is blond and has blue eyes. Still, if you see them together you can see they are brothers.
When you look mulatto Africans can see you are not black and Europeans can see you are not white. Africans in East-Africa will call any white person ‘muzungu’, also someone looking like Obama will be called ‘muzungu’. It’s the same thing to them.
Europeans call light skinned blacks and mulattos also black. To most Europeans whether you are mulatto are not, you are just black. This means that a mulatto is ‘white’ or ‘black’ depending on the place where he is. Race is a relative thing.
I once asked a black street boy in Kenia whether he thought Beyoncé was white or black. He said without hesitating he thought she was white. He had a point, don’t you think so?
The only places on earth I know where people perceive the difference between black, mulatto and white is in Cuba and South Africa. Two places where many people of mixed race of all shades live. I have never been to Brazil, but there too, I heard it’s not just black and white, there is a whole world in between and people are very much aware of it.
My point is that based on the racial appearance of MJ’s children we can’t see if MJ is their real biological father or not. It’s pure guess work and it is wrong to say ‘they look white so therefore they can’t be his children’. Maybe they aren’t but that’s not for certain because of their skin colour. You can look white and still resemble you black father a lot.
Michael Jackson (before getting vitiligo) was a brown skinned black man, with the features of a mulatto. If you look at him, the ‘real black man’ (because having 2 black American parents) and the 'real mulatto' Obama; honestly they are the same type of black man, aren’t they?
Paris and Prince, if mixed race, are not the only mixed race children who look like white people. There are actually many. I will list some famous American ones.
This however doesn't prove that 'mulatto' people look white, this just proves that mixed people have all colours and shapes, and that they prove that race is just an illusion.
Mariah Carey, singer, father black (Afro-Venezuelan), mother white
Jason Kidd, basketball player, father black, mother white
And then last but not least: a little youtube video about biracial twins, one white, the other biracial as the world expects it (although called 'black' by the journalists). As twins this is rather special, but even then, brothers and sisters one white and one 'black' will become more and more common in interracial families.
Don't listen to what these journalists say nor the doctor they quote. The father might be 'black', he is certainly not a black African. He has clearly some white ancestors somewhere in his family tree. He looks mixed race.
The girls are not white or black, they are both mixed race. One looks white and is blond, the other looks dark and brown skinned.
If you keep on looking around you will find out that this phenomenon -maybe not twins but brothers and sisters having a totally different racial make up- is not a One in A Million case.
