Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement by Tiffany N. Florvil

Abstract

Reviewed by: Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement by Tiffany N. Florvil Andrea Dawn Bryant Tiffany N. Florvil. Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement. U of Illinois P, 2020. 283 pp. Paper, $26.95. In Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement, Tiffany N. Florvil elucidates several transnational perspectives that undergird the Black German movement. Both insightful and considered, this volume succeeds in "locating Germany as a key site for Black internationalism and extending the periodization of the scholarship through centering articulations of Black internationalism in the post-1970 era" (10). It is from this point of departure that Florvil portrays several variegated interpretations of Black diasporic figures from the 1980s. Building on Jacqueline Nassy Brown's work, Florvil underscores the central role of "diasporic resources" as cultural and community-based forms of expression, knowledge, and being from which emanate political activism and coalition building (19). The volume embodies the nuance needed to view those diasporic resources engendered by Black German women as in constant relationship with chronology and circumstance. Florvil's departure from linear and [End Page 114] constrictive understandings of history and identity gives way to these refined articulations that reject a linear historical narrative. Thus, the volume aligns with Michelle M. Wright's "interpretation of Blackness not as a category that describes a what, but as a relationship to time (when) and space (where)" (11). In moving beyond a constrained historical understanding, Florvil situates the Black German movement as part of the broader Black internationalist movement countering oppressive and constrictive practices and perspectives both transnationally and locally. Florvil surpasses those understandings of Black internationalism that do not typically consider the post-1970s era by pinpointing Audre Lorde's arrival in Germany in the 1980s as a pivotal starting point for the Afro-German movement. Looking further into Lorde's influence, Florvil underscores Lorde's lifework as evoking diasporic resources of affect and activism that combine to form networks and relationships through which iterations of "belonging and representation in the nation and beyond" are carried out (27). In describing the role of Black diasporic individuals, Florvil coins the term quotidian intellectuals, which she defines as "ordinary Black German women (and men) who produced and disseminated their knowledge in the public sphere in the spoken and written modes" (6). Connected through an intricate web of relationships, sexualities, identities, and positionalities, the quotidian intellectuals at the forefront of the movement embodied and embraced the momentum needed to sustain a decades-long engagement in the public sphere. One such quotidian intellectual is May Ayim, whose own diasporic resources united Black German women and continue to serve as a further impetus for the Afro-German movement. Looking further into the diasporic resources of affect and kinship, Florvil's extended discussion of relationality continues with the first indepth description of the founding of the Initiative Schwarze Deutsche/Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland (ISD; Initiative of Black Germans/Initiative of Black People in Germany). Here, Florvil points out that Black Germans nurtured a sense of belonging that had foundations in a Black diasporic consciousness coinciding with multiple space-times. Investigating the relationships of the women in Afrodeutsche Frauen/Schwarze Frauen in Deutschland (ADEFRA; Afro-German Women/Black Women in Germany), Florvil highlights the personal relationships of the women involved in the Black German movement. When discussing the power of relationships to subvert hegemonic understandings [End Page 115] and conventional expectations, Florvil relays how the affective bonds of kinship and sisterhood among members of ADEFRA were not only affectionate but also "intimate, queer, and potentially erotic" (96). Florvil notes how these emotional connections enable Black German sisters to share affection and forge deeper ties that work to ward off damages of racism and exclusion. The monograph's careful arrangement of six chapters presents the Black German movement through an in-depth consideration of relationship and community. Looking further into the present, Florvil connects the Black Lives Matter movement in Germany to the Afro-German movement that began in the 1980s. Compellingly written, extensively researched, and gracefully delivered, Mobilizing Black Germany makes a significant contribution to...