European Diaspora Research Articles

The African diaspora in Europe: New Atlantic routes and roots in the music of Concha Buika

Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic challenged black nationalism’s fixation with roots and exclusive ownership of cultural production, suggesting instead that black diasporic identity is the result of ‘a process of movement and mediation […] more appropriately approached via the homonym routes’. The recordings of Concha Buika, born in Spain to Equatoguinean parents, expose deficiencies in Gilroy’s thesis for a comprehension of the experiences of those Europeans born in Africa or to parents born there. Developing Gilroy’s ship chronotope, I posit that Buika’s musical inspirations and alliances are analogous to periods of leave. As the daughter of immigrants – rather than the descendent of slaves – Buika does not predicate her identity solely upon membership of a black diaspora; she also regularly draws on genres that originated in the land of her birth. I conclude my analysis of the issue of agency by reflecting on the extent to which material and other factors might influence Buika’s work.

Image Matters: Archive, Photography, and the Making of the African Diaspora in Europe by Tina M. Campt

Image Matters: Archive, Photography, and the Making of the African Diaspora in Europe by Tina M. Campt

Introduction

During most of the modern history of the expansion of Western Christendom, China, as the world’s most populous country, was the great prize. Although the results were disappointing, as the numbers of converts both Protestant and Catholic remained relatively small throughout the height of China missions in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, the promise of China missions never diminished. Despite the pre-eminence of China in overall mission history, very little attention has been given to the role and influence of China missions beyond the borders of China proper either to the Chinese diaspora or to the wider mission community. This special issue is a first attempt to explore the impact of “China” in missions beyond China’s borders. For our purposes, China becomes both a place where tactics and vocabulary could be invented and tried, a sort of laboratory for mission methodology, and a place of the imagination where “muscular” Christianity could be displayed and tested, or where medical practices were adapted with global implications. In more recent times, China missions, not allowed on the mainland after 1950, have once again as they did in the nineteenth century, addressed the needs of the Chinese diaspora in Europe and America. The essays in this collection challenge scholars to reflect more broadly on the variety of intercultural encounters enabled by missionary work, and ask us to think of this history trans-nationally by going beyond the borders of single nations or mission fields to embrace a global perspective.

The African diaspora in Europe: New Atlantic routes and roots in the music of Concha Buika

The African diaspora in Europe: New Atlantic routes and roots in the music of Concha Buika

Constructing “Old Spanish Days, Inc.” in Santa Barbara, California, USA: Flamenco vs. Mexican Ballet Folklórico

Old Spanish Days Fiesta, an annual five-day event held in Santa Barbara, California, since 1924, “… provides an education to residents and visitors about the history, customs, and traditions of the American Indian, Spanish, Mexican, and early American settlers that comprise the rich cultural heritage of Santa Barbara” (http://www.sbfiesta.org). Dance plays a central role, with flamenco in the spotlight as the prime corporeal practice, constructing Spanishness through romanticized and revisionist historiography, and validating European colonization, migration, and diaspora. Although Mexican ballet folklórico is also featured, given the socio-political context in relation to people of Mexican heritage (recent and long-term) in Santa Barbara, I argue that deliberately privileging flamenco as the principal dance perpetuates problematic divisions, validating Europe and simultaneously undermining a Mexican presence.

Either Too Little or Too Much

On a theoretical level, the article investigates sexually orientated discourses as a means to censure and demonise other religious communities than one’s own whilst staging one’s own religious community as the most “natural” and “liberal” example. With reference to the works of Michel Foucault and Edward Said it is thus argued that seemingly liberal and lenient attitudes towards sexuality can be exploited in an intolerant and hegemonic fashion. On an empirical level, this paradoxical dynamic is investigated in relation to Islam, Judaism and the so-called Western world. In terms of historical periods, late antiquity and (late) modernity are adduced. It is demonstrated that early and classical Islam styled itself as sexually liberal and easy-going over and against an alleged puritanical and rigid Judaism. In late modernity, in a Muslim European diaspora setting, it is demonstrated that Islam has fallen prey to the very same sexual “liberal” tactics as was perpetrated in late antiquity; that is, being castigated for being puritanical and rigid. However, contemporary Muslims are caught in a double bind since the charges against their alleged puritanism and bigotry runs parallel with charges against an alleged excessive and transgressive patriarchal sexuality.

Gender, Traumatic Events, and Mental Health Disorders in a Rural Asian Setting

Research shows a strong association between traumatic life experience and mental health and important gender differences in that relationship in the western European Diaspora; but much less is known about these relationships in other settings. We investigate these relationships in a poor rural Asian setting that recently experienced a decade-long armed conflict. We use data from 400 adult interviews in rural Nepal. The measures come from World Mental Health survey instruments clinically validated for this study population to measure depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and intermittent explosive disorder. Our results demonstrate that traumatic life experience significantly increases the likelihood of mental health disorders in this setting, and that these traumatic experiences have a larger effect on the mental health of women than men. These findings offer important clues regarding the potential mechanisms producing gender differences in mental health in many settings.

Uznání genocidy Arménů jako téma politického diskursu Arménie, Turecka a vybraných zemí EU

The issue whether to legally recognize the tragic events of 1915 in Eastern Anatolia as a genocide remains a key political issue which drives an edge between Armenia and the Republic of Turkey. Through their European diaspora communities, the issue has also entered the domain of the European Union (EU), becoming even more controversial as Turkey is in the process of hotly contested EU accession talks. The present article uses the instruments of discourse analysis to focus on the current perceptions of the Armenian genocide in the various countries involved, specifically within the EU, Armenia and Turkey, in order to explore the political rationale behind the commitment of various states to recognize or deny the aforementioned historical events as an act of genocide. After providing a brief historical overview of the 1915 events, we analyse internal EU perceptions of the “reality” of the Armenian genocide recognition, primarily in relation to Turkey's accession efforts. We then focus on the domestic discourses in Armenia and Turkey, with the goal of shedding light on the rationale behind both Yerevan's encouragement of genocide recognition and Ankara's unwillingness to recognize the genocide, as well as on the political implications of recognition and denial.

Image Matters: Archive, Photography, and the African Diaspora in Europe

Image Matters: Archive, Photography, and the African Diaspora in Europe

Jacobite Jail-Breakers, Jail-Birds: The Irish Fugitive and Prisoner in the Early Modern Period

The fugitive and prisoner have played a prominent role in Irish history, literature and politics. It is no surprise, therefore, that he should be inexorably linked with Jacobitism (Irish support for the exile Stuart dynasty), the ideology which sustained Irish national identity between the Battle of the Boyne (1690) and the French Revolution (1789) and the cause which precipitated substantial, sustained migration from Ireland during the course of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This article will explore the chequered, colourful careers of five prominent Irish Jacobites of various ‘ethnic’ (Gaelic Irish, Old English and New English), confessional (Catholic and Protestant) and professional (aristocrat, clergyman and solider) origins, whose trials, tribulations, incarcerations and escapes bear testimony to the flexibility, geographical mobility and longevity of the Jacobite ideology in Ireland and among the Irish diaspora in Europe. In addition, their sustained traffic with Ireland, England and continental Europe show the crucial role which the Irish diaspora played in Jacobite politics and the extent to which they retained a practical affection for their exiled king, homeland and persecuted peers in Ireland.

The Sufi ethics and the spirits of consumerism

In this speculative comment I will suggest that, in analogy with Colin Campbell's argument regarding the Romantic Ethic and the spirit of modern consumerism, there is prima facie evidence that there is also an elective affinity between Sufi-infused Islamic religiosity and the emergent Muslim consumerisms, particularly in Turkey and among Turkish (and Kurdish) diasporas in Europe. The main relevant features of Sufi spirituality in this context are identified as continuous creation, creative imagination and longing.

Book Review: Image Matters: Archive, Photography, and the African Diaspora in Europe

Book Review: Image Matters: Archive, Photography, and the African Diaspora in Europe

Vera Ingrid Grant. Review of "Image Matters: Archive, Photography, and the African Diaspora in Europe" by Tina M. Campt.

Vera Ingrid Grant. Review of "Image Matters: Archive, Photography, and the African Diaspora in Europe" by Tina M. Campt.

Visible Lives: Black Gondoliers and Other Black Africans in Renaissance Venice*

This article contributes to the study of the early sub-Saharan African diaspora in Europe by analyzing both visual and documentary evidence relating to black gondoliers in Renaissance Venice. Gondolas and gondoliers were iconic features in fifteenth-century Venice, yet most gondoliers were not Venetian. Although black Africans were highly visible in a predominantly white society, naming practices and linguistic usages rendered them virtually invisible in the documentary sources. It is now possible not only to investigate representations of black gondoliers in paintings, but also to identify black gondoliers in the lists of gondoliers’ associations and in criminal records. Slavery was an accepted institution in late medieval Italy, and nearly all black Africans arrived in Venice as slaves, yet usually ended their lives free. Being a gondolier gave a few black Africans a niche occupation that allowed them to manage their transition to freedom, and to integrate successfully into Venetian society.

‘Instant Nationalism’ and the ‘Cyber Mufti’: The Arab Diaspora in Europe and the Transnational Media

This study explores the media consumption of members of the Arab minority in Germany, and addresses the implications of the modes of media consumption on this group in general and in terms of differences according to gender and generation. The main claim of this study is that the access of minority members to the Arab satellite media in the 1990s has strengthened their sense of belonging to their Arab homeland and identity. Consequently, in national terms it creates a form of ‘instant Arab nationalism’ while, from a religious perspective, the media functions as a ‘cyber mufti’. Members of the first generation tended to consume mainly television media, while the younger generation, who grew up in the German culture and possess computer skills, tended to rely more on the Internet.

The transnational politics of the Ethiopian Muslim diaspora

Long distance nationalism is the dominant perspective in transnational studies. It depicts the diaspora primarily as ‘conflict-makers’ bent on advancing radical view points on homeland socio-political conflicts because of the unique decoupling of action from its consequences. Recent works have shifted the focus away from this negative image and have shown, through in-depth case studies, the constructive dimension of the transnational engagement of the diaspora. Two of these are the crucial role remittance plays in the development process in the country of origin and the peace building role of the diaspora in conflict and post conflict settings. The paper seeks to contribute to the diaspora-peace building literature through a case study of the Ethiopian Muslim diaspora in Europe and North America.

Image matters: archive, photography, and the African diaspora in Europe

In Image Matters , Tina M. Campt traces the emergence of a black European subject by examining how specific black European communities used family photography to create forms of identification and community. At the heart of Campt's study are two photographic archives, one composed primarily of snapshots of black German families taken between 1900 and 1945, and the other assembled from studio portraits of West Indian migrants to Birmingham, England, taken between 1948 and 1960. Campt shows how these photographs conveyed profound aspirations to forms of national and cultural belonging. In the process, she engages a host of contemporary issues, including the recoverability of non-stereotypical life stories of black people, especially in Europe, and their impact on our understanding of difference within diaspora; the relevance and theoretical approachability of domestic, vernacular photography; and the relationship between affect and photography. Campt places special emphasis on the tactile and sonic registers of family photographs, and she uses them to read the complexity of in visual signs and to highlight the inseparability of gender and sexuality from any analysis of race and class. Image Matters is an extraordinary reflection on what vernacular photography enabled black Europeans to say about themselves and their communities.

France and the Issue of a ‘Usable’ Diaspora in (North) America: the Duroselle-Tardieu Thesis Reconsidered

Some French writers, most notably Jean-Baptiste Duroselle and André Tardieu, have argued that French strategic interests during the early decades of the twentieth century had been seriously harmed because, alone among the Great Powers of Europe, France lacked a ‘diaspora’ in the United States. As a result of this, they have claimed, France had no advocacy group prepared to defend the interests of the European ‘kin state’ at a time when France’s great rival, Germany, was amply endowed with a sizeable demographic presence in the United States, willing to speak out in defence of Germany and its foreign policy. Moreover, a second large European diaspora had become established in the United States, whose numbers would swell after the mid nineteenth century: the Irish. Not necessarily committed to promoting German interests, the Irish-Americans did militate strongly and consistently against British interests, such that by the time France and Britain had become close security partners preceding and during the First World War, what worked against British interests would also work against French ones. This article constitutes a critical examination of the Duroselle-Tardieu thesis regarding France's allegedly ‘missing’ diaspora, and cautions against attributing too much geo-strategic influence to either the German-American or Irish-American ‘lobby’.

“To the Ends of the Earth”: Mission, Migration and the Impact of African-led Pentecostal Churches in the European Diaspora

AbstractThe rise of immigrant churches and African-led churches in the Diaspora is one of the most important developments to occur in world mission at the end of the 20th century. Most of these churches are made up of Africans who felt left out in the historic churches of the West. A number of these are of Pentecostal/charismatic persuasion and have developed into some of the most dynamic religious communities in the countries where they exist. Additionally, a new type of African-led church has emerged in the diaspora in Europe. This article is a case study of two well-known African diaspora mega-churches in Europe, the Church of the Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for all Nations based in Kyiv, Ukraine led by Sunday Adelaja, and the London-based Kingsway International Christian Center led by Matthew Ashimolowo. Using the conversion narratives of the born-again experience and the subsequent redemptive uplifts that people testify to have experienced through these churches, the article discusses the importance of these developments within the context of mission and migration in the diaspora.

Global Matters: The Transnational Turn in Literary Studies

Reviewed by: Global Matters: The Transnational Turn in Literary Studies Amy S. Rushton (bio) Jay, Paul. Global Matters: The Transnational Turn in Literary Studies. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2010. In recent years, “transnational” has become a buzzword in the majority of humanities departments, particularly so in literature departments, with academics continuing to seek new ways of grouping disparate literatures, both to create courses and to categorize research that does not neatly fit into old historical or national models. Whilst postcolonial literature is now well assimilated into the British academy, this is not always the case elsewhere. Moreover, academics continue to query with the literature department’s tendency to label the work of any non-white, non-European writer as “postcolonial.” Such contentions that originally arose within postcolonial discourse are now frequently being voiced by the undergraduate student: what about those writers from second or even third generation immigrant families? Can we justify comparisons with Indian and African writing based on their shared colonial histories? What about writing in English that originates from outside Western publishing, such as China? Furthermore, the postcolonial pathway usually omits studies in American literature, thus forgoing any exploration into the wider relationships of African American writing to Africa, the Caribbean, and European diasporas, as well as an engagement with Latin American literature. “World” literature is a term that few academics are satisfied to be associated with, largely due to its sheer vagueness. Such concerns have opened up a space for the possibility of a transnational, literary framework: in a very general sense, transnational models of literary analysis allow a critic to compare texts from different areas of the globe, no longer restricted to geographical, national, or continental boundaries. In some ways, it is reminiscent of comparative literature, although the emphasis is not so much on translation. In terms of its appeal, Paul Jay argues that transnationalism has “productively complicated the nationalist paradigm” of literary studies, along with having “transformed the nature of the locations we study, and focused our attention on forms of cultural production that take place in the liminal spaces between real and imagined borders” (1). Yet despite its potential usefulness, transnationalism is by no means flawless and without controversy. With regards to literature, one of the more controversial elements of transnationalism is its perceived links to globalization theory, not necessarily a positive attribute in literary criticism, particularly for those schooled in postcolonialism. The term “globalization” invokes a threat of cultural homogenization, as well as a privileging of neo-liberal capitalism as the worldwide economic model. The influential postcolonial theorist Homi Bhabha cautions against an unquestioning embrace of globalization, viewing it as an exclusive state of world-citizenship, one that is only open to the privileged few and conforms to a global, shared notion of free-market capitalism, usually exploiting poor citizens. It is these issues that Paul Jay addresses in Global Matters: The Transnational Turn in Literary Studies. Here, Jay proposes a transnational model for studying literature that is both informed by and critiques the theories of postcolonialism and globalization that have shaped its development. In fact, he argues that the two discourses have a “dialectical relationship with each other” and that any successful transnational model has to understand “the historical and the methodological relationship between them” (34). Jay is particularly interested in how theories of globalization have impacted both the creative writing process and academic interpretation of recent literature. The book is split into two distinct parts: the first, entitled “Globalization and the Study of Literature,” features four [End Page 299] chapters that introduce and clearly explain those areas of globalization that are relevant to his argument, addressing work by Arjun Appadurai, Kwame Appiah, Roland Robertson, Anthony Giddens, James Clifford, Paul Gilroy, and Edmundo O’Gorman, among others; the second section, “Globalization in Contemporary Literature,” focuses on how the conceptual issues outlined in the previous section are embodied within specific literary texts, exploring novels by Arundhati Roy, Vikram Chandra, Mohsin Hamid, Kiran Desai, Zakes Mda, Zadie Smith, and Junot Díaz. Global Matters is a highly engaging critical work that functions both as a survey of and an argument for the relationship between globalization theory and literary fiction. Although not intended as an...