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Afro-Sweden: Becoming Black in a Color-Blind Country
A compelling examination of Sweden’s African and Black diaspora Contemporary Sweden is a country with a worldwide progressive reputation, despite an undeniable tradition of racism within its borders. In the face of this contradiction of culture and history, Afro-Swedes have emerged as a vibrant demographic presence, from generations of diasporic movement, migration, and homemaking. In Afro-Sweden, Ryan Thomas Skinner uses oral histories, archival research, ethnography, and textual analysis to explore the history and culture of this diverse and growing Afro-European community. Skinner employs the conceptual themes of “remembering” and “renaissance” to illuminate the history and culture of the Afro-Swedish community, drawing on the rich theoretical traditions of the African and Black diaspora. Remembering fosters a sustained meditation on Afro-Swedish social history, while Renaissance indexes a thriving Afro-Swedish public culture. Together, these concepts illuminate significant existential modes of Afro-Swedish being and becoming, invested in and contributing to the work of global Black studies. The first scholarly monograph in English to focus specifically on the African and Black diaspora in Sweden, Afro-Sweden emphasizes the voices, experiences, practices, knowledge, and ideas of these communities. Its rigorously interdisciplinary approach to understanding diasporic communities is essential to contemporary conversations around such issues as the status and identity of racialized populations in Europe and the international impact of Black Lives Matter.
304 pages, Paperback
Published September 27, 2022
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February 5, 2024
How to be Black in a country which pretends to be colour-blind but creates identity based on the whiteness of its inhabitants? Is it possible to be part of Sweden and African-American or Black African at the same time? How do different identities live together in individuals? How does Swedish society deal with these multiple traditions?
The author presents a multitude of cases, authors, musicians, artists, activists, who have been trying to answer these questions for the last fifty years, from the first African Americans who arrived to Sweden fleeing from conscription in the US to African refugees or expats. Extremely interesting, but there is an important point missing: since the book focuses on Black individuals, the idea of Afro-Sweden forgets the presences of Muslim Northern Africans and, therefore, leaves the question of Islam in contemporary Europe out of the picture.
The author presents a multitude of cases, authors, musicians, artists, activists, who have been trying to answer these questions for the last fifty years, from the first African Americans who arrived to Sweden fleeing from conscription in the US to African refugees or expats. Extremely interesting, but there is an important point missing: since the book focuses on Black individuals, the idea of Afro-Sweden forgets the presences of Muslim Northern Africans and, therefore, leaves the question of Islam in contemporary Europe out of the picture.
Displaying 1 of 1 review