The Afropeans are Coming

We asked the participants at a symposium in Austria on European Africans to reflect on what an Afropean is. We edited it into a short video.

Image Credit: Johnny Pitts, 2013.

Over the next three days, a  group of artists, writers, filmmakers and cultural commentators will meet at Afropea Now!, a a symposium of film screenings, concerts, a workshop and an exhibition taking place at the cultural institution Stadtwerkstatt in Linz, Austria. I am the curator. Last week Africa is a Country asked me to get some of the participants to reflect on what an Afropean is. Here’s the result (edited by Dylan Valley):

The symposium creates an intellectual and emancipatory space for African-European transcultural realities in a society where the public consensus among the Austrian majority is shaped by a strong eurocentristic world view, which is also reflected in the mass media, where Africa often still is treated as a country and the whole continent and its population degraded to an unsolvable problem with reports about starvation, catastrophes and incurable diseases. People of African descent living in Austria (no matter if they are born here or recently migrated) have to fight many stereotypes and daily confronted with prejudice and rank racism.

So, Afropea Now! aims to form a counterpart to these preconceived ideas and prejudices, to promote a change in perceptions and to show an other, modern image of “Africa” and its Diaspora. It further encourages global African-European co-operations and networks in art and culture. With contributions from across Europe and Africa (Austria, Germany, Belgium, the UK, Sweden, Ghana, Senegal and the DR Congo, among others), Afropea Now! will concentrate on the social, cultural and artistic interaction of African and European cultures in a global world regardless of national boundaries.

Some highlights include: photographer Johny Pitts (he founded the site Afropean.com) on “On Afropean Culture;” curator and producer Nadia Denton on “Why the best of the Nigerian Filmindustry is Yet to Come!‘” Teddy Goitom on Afripedia, a new 5-part series of shorts about a new generation of African creatives challenging all preconceptions and stereotypes; Austrian Abdallah Salisou on “The Black Victim Complex And The White Savior Complex;” and the journalist Hannah Pool revisits her biography.

A number of films will also be screened. Like ‘Oya,’ directed by Nosa Igbinedion:

‘Robots of Brixton and ‘Jonah’ by Kibwe Tavares.  Also, ‘Drexiciya’ directed by Simon Rittmeier:

The full program is available here.

Further Reading

After the coups

Without institutional foundations or credible partners, the Alliance of Sahelian States risks becoming the latest failed experiment in regional integration.

Whose game is remembered?

The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations opens in Morocco amid growing calls to preserve the stories, players, and legacy of the women who built the game—before they’re lost to erasure and algorithm alike.

Sovereignty or supremacy?

As far-right politics gain traction across the globe, some South Africans are embracing Trumpism not out of policy conviction but out of a deeper, more troubling identification.

From Cape To Cairo

When two Africans—one from the south, the other from the north—set out to cross the continent, they raised the question: how easy is it for an African to move in their own land?

The road to Rafah

The ‘Sumud’ convoy from Tunis to Gaza is reviving the radical promise of pan-African solidarity and reclaiming an anticolonial tactic lost to history.