Europe’s history, especially in the colonial and imperial periods created new connections and networks between parts of the world. European expansion starting the in the sixteenth century led to its expansion into the Americas and the concurrent creation of the slave trade of entirely new populations in the imperial periphery. Additionally, in the nineteenth century with the so-called “Scramble for Africa” meant that Europe had new colonies on the continent itself. With the process of decolonization this meant that these populations both from the Americas especially the Caribbean could migrate into the European metropole. This created an African diaspora in Europe which is very intriguing and bears studying. These questions include those of black identity, racial categories and how they were formed in Europe during the modern period. The complexity of attempting to discover the point where African populations interacted with racial categories and politics in Europe.
The presence of an African population on the European continent creates one major problem and one smaller one both of which Allison Blakeley deals with in her article “Problems in Studying the Role of Blacks in Europe.” In this article, Blakeley explains that there is a major problem with categorizing Africans in Europe because unlike in the United States in Africa, there is no “universal definition of black. In general, the designation black in Europe,” In Europe that category has been reserved for those with a dark skin not “based on known African ancestry.” (Blakeley) This meant that there was no universal method of separating Africans from other groups which also had dark skin. Furthermore, there is something to be said for the size of Europe’s African population, it would take until the twentieth century for the number to reach hundreds of thousands. (Blakeley) This meant that there weren’t very large African populations in Europe but they were still present in one way or another. A related problem was trying to ascertain how philosophy worked to separate Africans
Racial categories are not something which are natural, instead these differences are artificially created. During the eighteenth century thinkers like Immanuel Kant among others worked to set Africans apart from everyone else. Kant said that the “negroes Africa have by nature no feeling that rises above the trifling” (Blakeley) Kant cites Hume as saying that although there are hundreds of thousands of blacks outside of Africa and lot of them were freed “still not a single one was ever found who presented anything great in art or science or any other praiseworthy quality.” This kind of pseudo-scientific racism is something which began in Europe and worked to created divisions and set racial groups apart. These categories are a large part of a much larger web of interconnected issues which has made life difficult for Africans in Europe. These historical issues created the preconditions for those living in Europe today.
A very large part of the creation of a modern Afro-Europe as posited by Allison Blakely revolves around identity. Identity as posited by Blakeley in another article explores what she terms the “stigmatization of blackness.” (Blakeley 91) One of the ways in which Blakeley attempts to explain what is meant by stigma is by citing the example of the “washed Moor.” (Blakeley 92) This connection between dark skin color had a negative connotation which meant that these Africans could not change their skin color and were somehow lesser or unclean. This only worked to even widen a gap between Africans and European society. Coupled with the other examples cited above this created a very inhospitable environment for Africans in Europe.
The relationship of blacks and Africans to Europe has two very different facets forwarded by two very different versions of recent contact. There is a perception that Europe was a much better place for blacks than the United States, this “myth of racial harmony was popularized by African-Americans which perceived it to be a much more accepting society than the United States. (Lindsey and Wilson 48) While in reality “European pean societies did not offer any green pastures for Black people who yearn to become firmly rooted.” And that people of African ancestry face much the same discrimination in Europe as they do in the United States or South Africa. (Lindsey and Wilson 41) This is a problem for the many people of African descent in Europe who got there either through colonial ties, looking for work, refugees and students who came into the Eastern bloc from Third World countries (Blakeley 6) There is also a growing Afro-European identity all over the continent where these previously underrepresented groups began to get much needed exposure. (Blakeley 19-24)
The history of blacks in Africa is very complicated and related to many important historical processes. These include the Enlightenment, colonialism and imperialism, immigration and decolonization. There is a sizable African population in Europe living in space which was created by all of these processes and the related stigmas associated them. Europe in this sense is not a place of racial harmony. Instead it is a place where many different legacies, government policies, and historical processes has worked to separate Africans from the white majority. This in fact is the major conflict posed by the presence of an Afro-European population and the effects which it has had on the population at large as well on the groups themselves. The process of identity formation is very instructive here, it allows for these groups to define themselves and carve a space out in a place that is not welcoming to them.
Works Cited
Allison Blakely, “Problems in Studying the Role of Blacks in Europe,” American Historical Association Perspectives 35 (May/June 1997): 1013. http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/1997/9705/9705TEC.CFM.
Allison Blakely, “European Dimensions of the African Diaspora, “in Crossing Boundaries: Comparative History of Black People in Diaspora (1999), 9911.
Allison Blakely, “The Emergence of AfroEurope: A Preliminary Sketch” in Darlene Clark Hinds, Trica, Danielle Keaton, and Steven Small, Black Europe and the African Diaspora Black Europe and the African Diaspora, 329.
Lydia Lindsey and Carlton Wilson “Spurring a Dialogue to Place the African European Experience within the Context of an Afrocentric Philosophy, “Journal of Black Studies 25 (September 1994): 41
