When professors Natasha A. Kelly and Olive Vassell decided to write and co-edit a book about Black Europe, it was with the goal of making visible the lives of People of African Descent (PAD), creating connections, and exploring how their common African heritage unites them.

Their pioneering new book, Mapping Black Europe: Monuments, Markers, Memories portrays Black communities in eight European capital cities and documents how PAD have collectively marked their contributions to them.

“Shining a light on Blackness in Europe, including sites of public memory, from monuments and statues to street names and city plaques, allows for comparisons between these communities, and creates a “Blackprint” of Europe,” Kelly said.

Focusing on Berlin, Brussels, London, Luxembourg City, Paris, Oslo, Rome and Warsaw, the anthology highlights the experiences of each city’s Black communities, offering answers to questions such as “What is the state of Black memory in Europe? Which African-centered philosophies have helped to rewrite their distorted histories? How is community activism involved?”

The project began in 2019. Kelly and Vassell assembled a group of writers — academics, activists and journalists — with lived experiences of each city. Some had been born in the locations they write about, while others had lived in them for decades. All chapters unfold with an examination of Black Lives Matter in each city, which was heightened in the summer of 2020 during protests over the police killing of George Floyd in the USA. “The protests in 2020 profoundly affected the concept of our book. They had a powerful impact on Europe, especially Black Europe. In addition to calling out racist violence in the USA, they also highlighted occurrences of police killings in our own cities. We knew we had to document them,” Vassell said.

The anthology came out of a long relationship between the pair which began when Vassell, a Black Brit, approached Kelly who is Black German, about writing for her pan-European Black news site Euromight, in 2010. Vassell, a journalist, had started the site in 2009, to help connect Europe’s Black communities. “As a young person I would travel to mainland Europe and would see people who looked like me, but I couldn’t communicate with them. I was curious and wanted to know more, so once I had the expertise, I created the site.” Vassell remembered.

Kelly and Vassell began working together, at first comparing London and Berlin, their respective home cities. They soon realized, however, that they both wanted to not only do that work together, but also to expand it to Black communities in other European cities.

Furthermore, they knew it was important to create a platform for Black academics in Europe, who in many cases live in precarious situations or are forced to work outside their countries, so they founded the Black European Academic Network (BEAN) in 2012.

Mapping Black Europe: Monuments, Markers, Memories is the network’s first joint project and promises a lot more for the future. Over the next few months, the editors and authors plan to share the book throughout the USA and Europe, as well as in Africa. “We are following in the Pan-African footsteps of the Black intellectuals who came before us. Rewriting history from a Black European perspective is essential to creating Black European futures,” Kelly said.

About the authors

Natasha A. Kelly (PhD) is a bestselling author and editor of eight books. She is also a curator, artist, filmmaker, theater director and professor. Her film “Milli’s Awakening” debuted at the 10^th Berlin Biennale in 2018. Kelly is the founding director of Germany’s first Institute for Black German Arts and Culture.

Olive Vassell is a journalist and professor who founded and headed the pioneering Black European news site, Euromight. In 2022, she launched the BBrit Project which focuses on People of African Descent in the UK. The head of the Digital Media Program at the University of the District of Columbia in Washington D.C, Vassell recently completed a Fulbright award at the Namibia University of Science and Technology.

Where to find Mapping Black Europe: Monuments, Markers, Memories

UNITED STATES Click here

EUROPE Click here