Today, mass African migration has been constructed as a global -- and especially a European -- crisis. But it is hardly a novelty. In the shadow of imperialism, Jim Crow and the Cold War, individuals from across the African continent and African diasporas explored the hegemonic powers that shaped their homelands.This week we will look at the expectations and experiences of African and African American migrants to the great imperial metropoles of the long twentieth century, including Paris, London, and Moscow.

Mini-powerpoint

Amazing Soviet Cartoon, shared by Angel Sun.

Required Readings: Please read ONE of the historical texts below, OR the Emecheta chapters, OR the 3 Tynes primary source texts.

• Jennifer Anne BOITTIN, 'BLACK IN FRANCE: The Language and Politics of Race in the Late Third Republic', French Politics, Culture & Society, 27(2), 2013, pp. 23-46,154.
• Paul Davis, '"Coulibaly" Cosmopolitanism in Moscow: Mamadou Some´ Coulibaly and the Suricov Academy Pailtings, 1960s-1970s', in Eve Rosenhaft and Robbie Aitken, eds, Africa in Europe: Studies in Transnational Practice in the Long Twentieth Century (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2013), 142-161. E-book.
• Albert Gouaffo, 'Prince Dido of Didotown and ‘Human Zoos’ in Wilhelmine Germany: Strategies for Self-Representation under the Othering Gaze', In E. Rosenhaft & R. Aitken (Eds.), Africa in Europe: Studies in Transnational Practice in the Long Twentieth Century (pp. 19-33). Liverpool University Press, 2013.
• Daniel Whittall, ‘In this Metropolis of the World We Must Have a Building Worthy of Our Great People’: Race, Empire and Hospitality in Imperial London, 1931–1948. In E. Rosenhaft & R. Aitken (Eds.), Africa in Europe: Studies in Transnational Practice in the Long Twentieth Century (pp. 76-96). Liverpool University Press, 2013.

For those of you keen to explore primary sources, have a look at one or both of the below:

• Buchi Emecheta, Second Class Citizen (Oxford: Heineman, 1994). For those of you more interested in either the African diasporic experience in Britain, or in alternative approaches to uncovering this diverse history, Emecheta's autobiographical account of her arrival from Nigeria and life in London will be a great choice for this week. It's a quick read, so you will not struggle to read the whole thing, but if you are pressed for time, Chapters 3-6 are really relevant to our themes. (Available as an ebook from the Library inc. via Talis)
• Slava Tynes, ‘Skin Color Creates No Barrier To Africans In The Soviet Union’, THE AFRO-AMERICAN, 17 February 1973.(and both preceding articles -- see Talis for direct links).

NOTE: You will want to do a little research about these sources: who are the authors? What is the historical context? This is always important, as you know, when working with primary sources, especially if they address controversial or contested events or periods.

Discussion Questions:

• What might African travellers, migrants and sojourners have expected from the destination cities to which they travelled, and why?
• Can we reasonably compare imperial and post-colonial/Cold War migrations, expectations, and outcomes?

Background Reading:

Hakim Adi, ‘The Comintern and Black Workers in Britain and France, 1919–37’, Immigrants and Minorities, 28(2–3) (2010): 224–45.

Robbie Aitken, ‘From Cameroon to Germany and Back via Moscow and Paris: The Political Career of Joseph Bilé (1892–1959), Performer, “Negerarbeiter” and Comintern Activist’, Journal of Contemporary History, 43(4) (2008): 597–616.

Alison Blakely,‘The Emergence of Afro-Europe: A Preliminary Sketch’, in Darlene Clark Hine, Trica Danielle Keaton and Stephen Small (eds.), Black Europe and the African Diaspora (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), pp. 3–28.

Jennifer Anne Boittin, '"Among them Complicit"? Life and Politics in France's Black Communities, 1919-1939', in Eve Rosenhaft and Robbie Aitken, eds, Africa in Europe: Studies in Transnational Practice in the Long Twentieth Century (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2013), 55-75. E-Book

Kelly Duke Bryant, ‘Black but Not African: Francophone Black Diaspora and the "Revue Des Colonies," 1834-1842’, The International Journal of African Historical Studies 40, no. 2 (2007): 251-82. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40033913. Non white, Arfrican and Caribbean origin populations reflecting on African diaspora in 19^th c. France and colonies.

Alessandra Di Maio, ‘Black Italia: Contemporary Migrant Writers from Africa’, in Darlene Clark Hine, Trica Danielle Keaton and Stephen Small (eds.), Black Europe and the African Disapora (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), pp. 119–48.

Julie Hessler, ‘Death of an African Student in Moscow: Race, Politics, and the Cold War’, Cahiers du Monde Russe, 47(1–2) (2006): 33–64. JSTOR

Trica Danielle Keaton, ‘“Black (American) Paris” and the French Outer-Cities: The Race Question and Questioning Solidarity’, in Darlene Clark Hine, Trica Danielle Keaton and Stephen Small (eds.), Black Europe and the African Diaspora (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), pp. 95–118.

Trica Danielle Keaton, Muslim Girls and the Other France: Race, Identity Politics and Social Exclusion
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006).

David Killingray, ‘“A Good West Indian, a Good African, and, in Short, a Good Britisher”: Black and British in a Colour-conscious Empire, 1760–1950’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 36(3) (2008): 363–81.

Maxim Matusevich (ed.), Africa in Russia, Russia in Africa: Three Centuries of Encounters (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2007). MULTIPLE USEFUL ESSAYS HERE --THIS IS A PRINT BOOK IN SEVERAL COPIES.

Maxim Matusevich, 'Black in the USSR: Africans, African Americans, and Societ Society', Transition 100 (2009) 55-75. JSTOR.

Maxim Matusevich, 'An Exotic Subversive: Africa Africans, and the Soviet Everyday', Race and Class, 49.4 (2008), 57-81.

Maxim Matusevich, 'Journeys of Hope: African Diasora and Soviet Society', African Diaspora, 1.1-2 (2008), 53-85. JISC/Brill e-journal.

Marc C. McLeod, ‘Undesirable Aliens: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism in the Comparison of Haitian and British West Indian Immigrant Workers in Cuba, 1912-1939’, Journal of Social History 31, no. 3 (1998): 599-623. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789716 .

Carina E. Ray, ‘“The White Wife Problem”: Sex, Race and the Contested Politics of
Repatriation into Interwar British West Africa’, Gender & History, 21(3) (2009): 628–46.

Eve Rosenhaft and Robbie Aitken, eds, Africa in Europe: Studies in Transnational Practice in the Long Twentieth Century (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2013). E-book.

Terence Ranger, 'Scotland Yard in the Bush: Medicine Murders, Child Witches, and the Construction of the Occult: A Literature Review', Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute, Volume 77, Number 2, 2007, pp. 272-283