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katek's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
mjbirdy's review against another edition
4.0
I always enjoy content that discussing the Black British specifically and the Black European experience more generally. Particularly when it is not centred around the trans Atlantic slave trade. Partly because it inevitably ends up tied up in North or South American History and partly because I’m tired of our history only being linked to slavery seeing as there is so much more.
I loved that this book gave me so much to learn outside Britain but still in Europe in places where I had never really considered blackness. Narratives of post colonial national relationships their formation their dissolution and their consequent legacies.
Pitts can be a tad romantic and admittedly I selfishly find his representation of the Black British experience (lacking seems like too harsh a word) incomplete, but only because he (quite reasonably) focuses on his generation and not mine lol.
While I don’t necessarily identify as an Afropean despite technically fitting the description of one, this book did make me feel prouder to be a Nigerian Brit.
I loved that this book gave me so much to learn outside Britain but still in Europe in places where I had never really considered blackness. Narratives of post colonial national relationships their formation their dissolution and their consequent legacies.
Pitts can be a tad romantic and admittedly I selfishly find his representation of the Black British experience (lacking seems like too harsh a word) incomplete, but only because he (quite reasonably) focuses on his generation and not mine lol.
While I don’t necessarily identify as an Afropean despite technically fitting the description of one, this book did make me feel prouder to be a Nigerian Brit.
silky_klaarwater's review against another edition
5.0
I loved reading this book. The observations Johny Pitts makes are intriguing and sometimes I had to put the book away to think them over. As a white person I learned a lot about different European cities, their black communities and their colonial/ Black history. And even though that may sound like a lot, Mr. Pitts takes you so easily by the hand and guide's you through it all. I learned so so so much from this book. And I will definitely read it again, because it is a joy to read (every sentence is quoteable) and because there are stories in it that I find very important to know and remember. This is an absolute MUST read for everybody!
eden_winkels's review against another edition
5.0
Seriously one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read. He uniquely describes “being black” and racism in European cities that he visits on this big journey of his. And he captures them in a way that is uncanny. I learned so so much from this book and am genuinely sad it’s over. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
pandagopanda's review against another edition
5.0
A charming travelogue with a deeply thoughtful and widely referenced heart of curiosity about Black identity across Europe. Pitts is personal and idiosyncratic but always seeking for larger truths and full of crucial historical contexts for Black communities in the various European countries he visited.
katielouise210's review against another edition
5.0
Rounded up from 4.5 stars.
I really, really enjoyed this and Pitts’ style of writing combining his own personal experiences with observations and history. A Sheffield-native born to a Brooklyn-born black father and working class white mother, Pitts sets out to explore the notion of being ‘Afropean’, a term first coined by David Byrne and Marie Daulne in 1991, in the twenty first century. To do so, he journeys through various black communities across Europe, concentrating on larger cities in the western portion of the continent. He focuses on a ‘ground up’ approach, speaking directly with local residents and forming his understandings based on observation and interaction with the communities he visits.
Whilst black experiences in Europe are by no means monolithic and shaped by time and place, Pitts identifies an array of commonalities during his travels: the deliberate ostracisation of black (and broader immigrant communities); how European countries have persistently erased and skewed their own violent colonial histories; the continued impact on day-to-day life of institutional and structural racism; the continued belief that to be European is to be white; the sheer endurance of working class, black immigrant groups and the importance of grassroots initiatives and community-led projects in both survival and resistance. At the end of his travels, Pitts concludes that Black Europe is not a singular entity and cannot be reduced to one story. Nevertheless, it is a patchwork of experiences with similarities and differences - an Africa both in and out of Europe.
I particularly liked the chapters focusing on the suburb of Clichy-Sous-Bois in Paris, inter-generational community activism in Amsterdam, Rastafarianism in Berlin, multicultural Marseille and Cova da Moura in Lisbon.
I would love to read a follow-up to this work perhaps venturing to some of the places Pitts mentions as wishing he had the ability to visit on this trip. There were times when I felt I wish Pitts had included less background knowledge and more voices of those he met, particularly in the chapters on Russia, but I appreciate this may not have been feasible for an array of reasons. Regardless, this was fascinating and well worth reading.
I really, really enjoyed this and Pitts’ style of writing combining his own personal experiences with observations and history. A Sheffield-native born to a Brooklyn-born black father and working class white mother, Pitts sets out to explore the notion of being ‘Afropean’, a term first coined by David Byrne and Marie Daulne in 1991, in the twenty first century. To do so, he journeys through various black communities across Europe, concentrating on larger cities in the western portion of the continent. He focuses on a ‘ground up’ approach, speaking directly with local residents and forming his understandings based on observation and interaction with the communities he visits.
Whilst black experiences in Europe are by no means monolithic and shaped by time and place, Pitts identifies an array of commonalities during his travels: the deliberate ostracisation of black (and broader immigrant communities); how European countries have persistently erased and skewed their own violent colonial histories; the continued impact on day-to-day life of institutional and structural racism; the continued belief that to be European is to be white; the sheer endurance of working class, black immigrant groups and the importance of grassroots initiatives and community-led projects in both survival and resistance. At the end of his travels, Pitts concludes that Black Europe is not a singular entity and cannot be reduced to one story. Nevertheless, it is a patchwork of experiences with similarities and differences - an Africa both in and out of Europe.
I particularly liked the chapters focusing on the suburb of Clichy-Sous-Bois in Paris, inter-generational community activism in Amsterdam, Rastafarianism in Berlin, multicultural Marseille and Cova da Moura in Lisbon.
I would love to read a follow-up to this work perhaps venturing to some of the places Pitts mentions as wishing he had the ability to visit on this trip. There were times when I felt I wish Pitts had included less background knowledge and more voices of those he met, particularly in the chapters on Russia, but I appreciate this may not have been feasible for an array of reasons. Regardless, this was fascinating and well worth reading.
berlinbibliophile's review against another edition
4.0
This is a fascinating book. I learned a lot from it. Pitts intersperses his travels through Europe and his conversations with its Black inhabitants with bits of local and world history and weaves that into a nuanced whole. I like the style of the book, which lets so many people speak for themselves when Pitts quotes their own words about their lived experiences. The chapters about Berlin, my hometown, were very interesting to me. Seeing which parts of the city as experienced and described by Pitts I recognised and which I didn't was illuminating. My favourite chapters were perhals the ones about Moscow, simply because I knew the least about that history.