An untold story, certainly, and one that is worth the telling. I learnt a lot from this book, which explores the presence of people of African descent in Europe from way back, something that is perhaps not widely known. From as far back as Roman times, in fact, there have been Africans in Europe. Even Russia’s national poet Pushkin had African ancestry. Often there is little evidence to go on, particularly for women, but the author’s research has been thorough and deep, highlighting individuals from different time periods and exploring attitudes and perceptions through the ages. She also explores the different words that have been used – negro, black, slave – and how they came not only to denote race and colour but eventually inferiority. The book is academic and scholarly and thus not always an easy read, although the author has made it as accessible for the general reader as it can be. I found the constant references to other writers and quotes from them, which peppered the text, intrusive, and would have preferred to read the author’s own views, leaving her sources to notes or footnotes, as I felt this impeded the narrative flow, and I can’t say that I really enjoyed the book. However, it is an important one and adds much to our understanding of race in history and thus any quibbles do not detract from that importance.

This was a fascinating and eye opening book but it read like a text book at times so this is not for the distracted reader.

Otele presents the lives and experiences of Black Europeans from Roman times up until today, and there is a great moment near the end where she points out that for some Black people Europe is now a choice as opposed to being forced to. There were stories about well known people, like a Medici and Pushkin, and lesser or totally unknown people. She talked about ancient times and Rome that one kind of figures "duh, there was contact and migration with Black people and Africans" but didn't fully think about and realize until now, and also about Danish involvement in Africa that no one talks about and the interactions between Europeans and Africans in a way I had not thought about before including how African and Black communities benefitted from these interactions. Just fascinating all around.

However, the chapters were very long and could have benefitted from subsections or each chapter could have been a section instead with its own chapters. I say this because chapters often felt like they abruptly changed focus or jumped around topics and I felt a little lost and wondered "How did we get here from six pages ago?' Basically, it felt unstructured at times. And finally, I was bothered by what felt like a glossing over of racism in modern Britain after expounding on racism in France and colorblindness in the Netherlands. And moreover how we went from African European lives and history to French feminism, BLM, and modern British music (when music was never mentioned prior). So it was like a history book that suddenly became an essay on modern race relations?

I did enjoy this book for the most part but the seeming lack of structure and incongruent ending were a big distraction.

In the world you hear more of the African American history. This book focuses on the African Europeans. The story provides a very comprehensive narrative that delves into religion, locale, and internal struggles. It is so in depth, it can be used as a textbook. It can be read in one setting, however you'll want to read it again and again.

“The history of African Europeans is vibrant and complex, just as it is brutal.”


Olivette Otélé, who happens to be a professor at my university, is the first black woman in the UK to be appointed to a professorial chair in history. African Europeans is her meticulously researched and illuminating examination of the relationship, past and present, between Europe and Africa. Otélé reveals key figures and connections that have long been overlooked by historians and public discourse. By revealing the lives and experiences of African Europeans throughout the centuries Otélé dispels the popular myth of Europe having an exclusively white historical narrative (which leads many to criticise period/historical dramas that are set in Europe and star non-white characters, claiming that it isn't 'historically accurate').

In the first chapter, 'Early Encounters: From pioneers to African Romans', Otélé states the following: "From confrontations to collaborations, the relationship between Africans and Europeans has been tumultuous since the third century". She discusses figures such as the Queen of Sheba and St Maurice (an Egyptian and leader of the Roman Theban Legion) as well as African-born Romans such as Emperor Septimius Severus (who was born in Leptis Magna ie Libya) and Marcus Cornelius Fronto. who "paved the way for a strong tradition of African European intellectuals". In the second chapter, 'Black Mediterraneans: Slavery and the Renaissance', Otélé touches upon famous names such as Alessandro de Medici to 'ordinary' ones such as Ursola, a black slave in a Valencian household, who hoped to "buy her freedom".
From the Renaissance Otélé moves onto the following centuries, exploring, and challenging, Europe's shifting perceptions of race and blackness. Otélé also demonstrates the ways in which racism has evolved throughout history.

“From religious artefacts to representations of the magi; from an intellectual in fifteenth-century Granada to the young grime artists of twenty-first-century Britain, African European identities have continuously evolved.”


In the latter half of this book Otélé focuses on more recent history, describing how many European countries refuse to acknowledge systemic racism (as if 'apologising' for their colonial pasts absolves them completely) feigning 'color blindness'. I also really appreciated Otélé's intersectional approach as she always takes into account the different ways in which one's gender and sexuality contributes to the way they are treated by and seen by their society.
The lives, experiences, histories Otélé 'unearths' are riveting. While Otélé does not pose questions to the reader, the histories she 'unearths' are definitely question-inducing. Racism, citizenship, identity, notions of freedom and of belonging all shape the individuals Otélé is writing about.
This is the kind of history book that should become part of the curriculum. Although I did not attend a British school many of my British acquaintances have complained about the lacunae in their studies (especially when it comes to discussing the relationship between Africa and the UK). And I also hope that it will be translated in Italian and many other languages.
I think this an inspiring work that will definitely appeal to those with a 'history' background or to history aficionados.
Otélé is a thoughtful yet objective writer and her work demonstrates incredibly acuity and knowledge.

Many many many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an a copy of this.

I love the cover of this book. It was very interesting reading, read like a well-written textbook. This is a book that should be read by all.

Several days ago, I have just finished reading Flights by Olga Tokarczuk. Among the curious stories included in the book were three (presumably) fictional letters by Angelo Soliman’s daughter Josefine to the Austrian Emperor Franz II. In those letters, Josefine pleaded for her father’s body to be given proper Christian burial as opposed to being made into an exhibit within the cabinet of curiosities. Angelo’s body was skinned, stuffed and made into exhibit alongside stuffed animals. Neither his social standing nor his membership as an Austrian Freemason saved him from posthumous exploitations of his body, which granted him the status of “mummified Moor”. The story of the tragic posthumous treatment of Angelo Soliman’s body is only one of the stories portraying the complexity of life for the African Europeans.

One of the terms frequently employed by Olivette in this book is the notion of exceptionalism, which denotes the perception or belief that a species, country, society, institution, movement, individual, or time period is “exceptional”. The notion of exceptionalism could be used by a group of people to exaggerate or overemphasise on differences in appearance for example, by bringing up some representations which show a group of people as superior, while downplaying meaningful comparisons that could serve as a common ground. There are several abstract eventualities since the period of antiquities which served as precedents to this notion, but the author chose to highlight particularly the research carried out by Swedish physician and botanist Carolus Linnaeus, which specifically highlights the notion of race and its implications on modern concepts of racism and racialism. In the twelfth edition of Systema Naturae (1767), he labelled five varieties of human species based on the variations of culture and place, namely: the Americanus, the Europeanus, the Asiaticus, the Afer or Africanus and the Monstrosus.

Olivette’s research on African Europeans is highly intriguing. If one wants to get a really clear picture of the interactions between the Europeans and the Africans, between two people, between two continents, and then the results of those interactions which would be the people of dual-heritage, this is the book to go. Using terminologies to describe the relationships between Africa and Europe would simplify the whole discussions, therefore I like the approach taken by Olivette by highlighting several instances in history when prominent African Europeans took part building their “exceptional” qualities, either in African colonies, or in Europe, and sometimes in the Americas. Take Battling Siki for example, who was among the forgotten person of dual heritage who managed to thrive into world stage like a boxer. His legacy as a boxer was downplayed as a result of his origin as a person of dual heritage, both in his place of origin in Saint-Louis, Senegal and also in France which served as his starting point in his career.

Olivette could bring the legacy of the past, into its continuation at present time without making it looks like a ranting scene. If any, each part of this book has successfully outlined the whole stories, with a brief introduction about each concept related to racism and racialism. As the author has said, the stories of African Europeans are full of complexities. It was not only about migration and slaveries in European colonies but also about identities formed particularly by people of dual heritage, partly due to the societal changes that arrived with displacement. If I have to say a particular thing that I dislike in this book, it is the way this book tries to tell the whole stories from the early encounters of Roman Empire period until the twenty-first century, which I think make this book less focused on its approach. To do it justice, I feel the need for this book to be developed into several separate books. If I might say, it was as though each chapter could be explored further into several books. And also, I encountered some minor errors for dates, for example, the year Battling Siki died which is actually 1925 (in the copy which I have read, it is written as 1928, possibly confused with the age of Siki when he died which was 28 years old).

This book could serve as an outline to works that are already existing about African Europeans and the relations between the two continents, particularly because it is rich of examples from historical actors in this regard, fictionalised stories in European literature and also cultural representations (particularly, I have been amazed by the extent of Olivette’s research about Zwarte Piet in the Netherlands, something which I did not realise prior to reading this book).

This is a very important topic. This book provides extensive coverage especially the last chapter. It does seem a bit unfocused sometimes and I would have liked more personal examples. Still, the author does a good job at explaining relative terms and provides the reader the tools needed to understand and discuss racism and anti-racism issues.

this was a really unique history book, I enjoyed getting to know more about people in Europe. You could really tell that the author had passion and it was well done.