Afropean cover art

Afropean

Notes from Black Europe

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Afropean

By: Johny Pitts
Narrated by: Johny Pitts
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About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Afropean written and read by Johny Pitts.

In the face of growing racial discrimination, anti-immigrant sentiment and the spectre of terrorism looming large over an economically stricken continent, Afropean is an on-the-ground documentary of areas where Europeans of African descent are juggling their multiple allegiances and forging new identities: too indelibly woven into Europe to identify with Africa and yet struggling with outdated ideas of what it means to be European.

Afropean will plot an alternative map of the continent, taking the reader to places like Cova Da Moura, the Cape Verdean shantytown on the outskirts of Lisbon with its own underground economy, and Rinkeby, the area of Stockholm that is eighty per cent Muslim. The author visits the former Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, where West African students are still making the most of Cold War ties with the USSR, and Clichy Sous Bois in Paris, which gave birth to the 2005 riots.

©2019 Johny Pitts (P)2019 Penguin Audio Anthropology Emigration & Immigration Europe Social Sciences France Imperialism Refugee Thought-Provoking Inspiring

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Critic reviews

"forced me to stop and pause", "the book invites us to witness journeys of creativity of communities often unrecorded in studies of European history, highlighting the commonality of African-European experiences across the continent" (Olivette Otele)
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The most inspirational book I've ever read, I've learnt so much and have been reflecting on my own self identity as a Black European or an Afropean. Beyond that I think this book is important, and as may people as possible should read it, regardless of "race".

The most inspirational book I've ever read

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An education. I've been opened up to a European blackness, a refreshinng and relevant book.

Wicked!

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loved it! I definitely related to the stories while also learning so much about the not so well known ties between Africa and Europe. The author read the book brilliantly too :)

Best book on being black in contemporary Europe

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An engaging and thoughtful account of life through the lenses of africans in Europe

Curious enlightenment

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I can’t thank Johnny enough for writing this book!

Learnt so much about the parts of Black history I didn’t learn at school.

Even as a Black Brit myself I want to go see Black history in the parts of Europe and my own ancestral Ghana by backpacking in my 50s!

Thanks again Johny!

Want to go Black Backpacking!!

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I really enjoyed this book. The author narrates his journey across Europe, as he meets a cukturally diverse Europe.

An exploration of black communities in Europe

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Simply sublime.. Such a rich tapestry of knowledge interwoven with poetic descriptions of memories and locations that transport you effortlessly through temporal and geographicl boundaries. I feel honoured to have experienced this journey.

A very important read!

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Johny Pitts leads a thoroughly researched and meticulously constructed journey through a Europe that is utterly familiar to many, yet rarely given representational standing room in the European culture industries. That narrative of Europeaness- of great achievements, classical civilizations, misty recollections of Empires that don’t exist and a contemporary story of business minded liberalism - are in a sense utterly defunct, hurtling towards an imagined future that doesn’t exist. It is the Europe of Pitt’s journey which is the ‘real’ one, for want of a less certain word. In this Europe, the complex intersections and extractions of various kinds of colonial expansions and their aftermaths, and the impossibility of separating that story from that of the contemporary western world today, are located precisely where they belong. At the centre of the story of a continent whose cultures and societies have been utterly shaped by the events of the last 550 years. That Pitts ends his journey in the south, in an Iberia whose people and culture is also inextricably intertwined with the African continent, both through the colonialism that followed the reconquista, where a triumphant Christianity, allied with Northern European royalty, erased the memory of a place and people who perhaps embodied the original afropean society, and set in motion the wheels of the idea of Europe that would artificially separate it from its embedness in networks of complicity and exploitation around the world. This is also a story told from a working class perspective, another rarely articulated lens, and it is the warmth and generative possibilities of Johnny Pitts narration, unapologetically complex, whilst always in recognition and respect of the cooperations between people on the margins of power that makes not only survival, but also beauty and love, which may not look like mainstream idealizations of those twin aspirations for the good life, thrive. This is writing at its best. Down to earth, unpretentious, unafraid of the messiness and cracks in narratives of authenticity, deeply human and desperately needed.

Beautiful and Brilliant

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Hearing Johny Pitts read this adventures is so enjoyable! I loved this book for all the insight it gave me into the black experience around Europe. Highly recommended for you to add to your list.

Absolutely loved this!

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superb performance by Johny Pitts, who takes you on a amazing journey throughout Europe

what an amazing journey

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