Ludwig on Black Central European Studies Network (BCESN), 'Black Central Europe'

H-TGS Ludwig on Black Central European Studies Network (BCESN), 'Black Central Europe'

Review published on Monday, December 14, 2020

Black Central European Studies Network (BCESN). Black Central Europe. blackcentraleurope.com: Black Central European Studies Network (BCESN), 2014. A website combining teaching and research resources, the work of Black artists, and facilitation of conversations among stakeholders on Black people in Central European history.

Reviewed by Samuel Ludwig (Universite de Haute-Alsace) Published on H-TGS (December, 2020) Commissioned by Jeremy Best (Iowa State University)

Printable Version: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=55940

Black Central Europe (blackcentraleurope.com)

Exploring this Anglo-American website as a Central European is certainly an experience, especially for us German-speakers, because our traditional approach to our countries is often very different from the racialized discourse in the English-speaking world. Thus, not only is the site about intercultural experiences—it is itself an intercultural experience to see our hyphenated African history being outlined! Jeff Bowersox and his team of mainly English-speaking contributors and translators provide us with a rich and fascinating array of historical documents that trace the history of images and real Black people in German-speaking countries.

The website is beautifully designed and well organized. What first jumps to the eye is the organization into different time sections. All materials are introduced by a scholar (mainly Prof. Bowersox), and the entries exist in English and in German. But unfortunately, many of the links are dead and cannot be accessed by the natives in Central Europe—which is a big shame because “we German-speakers” do certainly feel addressed by this material! It provides us with fascinating insights and forces new questions upon our old perspectives at home. The website initiates a new transnational exchange that is most welcome.

The website is organized into chronological sections that start with the Middle Ages and Black representations like Parzival, the pagan Feirefiz, Moors on heraldic crests, reports on the Queen of Sheba, Black saints like St. Maurizius, and the Magus. This section mainly deals with the imagery and symbolism of Black people in Central European societies and is richly illustrated with many pictures from art or coats of arms. After 1500 we find images of Black servants; Black people associated with the fashion of smoking; the striking case of Anton Wilhelm Amo, the first Black instructor at a German university (in Halle); and many stories and pictures of explorers and early African slavery.

After 1750 we finally get concrete Black German experiences and hear Black voices. We find discussions about the estate of Ignatius Fortuna, a Black businessman, encounter literary samples from Heinrich von Kleist’s famous novella on Haiti, read excerpts from the philosophies of Johann Gottfried von Herder and Immanuel Kant, confront Johann Friedrich Blumenbach’s racial classification of humanity, and learn German perspectives on Atlantic slavery. Between 1850 and

Citation: H-Net Reviews. Ludwig on Black Central European Studies Network (BCESN), 'Black Central Europe'. H-TGS. 12-15-2020. https://networks.h-net.org/node/11761/reviews/6970190/ludwig-black-central-european-studies-network-bcesn-black-central Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-TGS

WWI, there are more detailed Black German experiences represented, for example, on the “Negerkolonie,” an early community of Black expats in Berlin—or are they, rather, minority Germans? The confrontation with this material is an intense learning experience. We also find some of the earliest photographs and texts about German colonialism in Cameroon and southwest Africa, coffee ads with racist cartoons, and the famous “Zehn Kleine Negerlein” rhyme and children’s book. The section also deals with “people shows” in zoos, colonial villages, exotic souvenirs, and discussions on miscegenation. But contrasting such evidence of racism, we also have Karl Kraus’s diatribes against petty bigotry and racial views ranging from Arthur de Gobineau to the anthropologist Franz Boas, all together with early American connections in the form of concerts by the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

Viewed from Switzerland, many of the links are unfortunately again dead in the section from 1914 to the end of World War II, which probably has less to do with European censorship than with the global profit-mongering of tech firms. We read about the German jazz opera “Johnny spielt auf” (no sound sample, unfortunately) and find an American paragraph in the Crisis on the revue “Sonnenaufgang im Morgenland.” There is also a discussion of the inspiration of Modernist artists by African primitivism (Carl Einstein on Negermythen) and the first video clip in the collection. The later examples of Black people in the Nazi film industry are simply chilling. We sense more American perspectives now, finding fewer German Black people and more of the experiences of African American soldiers during WWII. Thus, the website mixes inside and outside views of Black Central Europe.

Between 1945 and German reunification there is much material on the occupation by the Allies, for example, the photograph “Five soldiers relaxing in Berlin” (1952), which is one of the main illustrations of the site—though it says more about the segregated American military than about life in Germany. American military segregation is contrasted by critical German voices that associated Southern racism with Nazism. Similarly, a “Black Culture Festival” in West Berlin (1986) has more to do with the international celebration of African culture than with the lives of Black Germans; more relevant are the testimonials about the racism such Black Germans experienced in East and West Germany.

After 1989 we find more Black voices again. These voices are documented in many interesting films on a newly emerging German identity. A touching source, for example, is the filmKleiner Junge, grosse Stimme (2015) about a Black Austrian boy who wants to become a member of the elitist Wiener Sängerknaben. Yet as a European, I sense at times a projection of American racialist paradigms onto “our culture,” which is certainly necessary and enriching, but it would also be nice if this ambitious bilingual project had some German-speaking contributors beyond the translators. As a multilingual “White” European, I do not necessarily see multiculturalism as identical with multiracialism and racial identity politics.

An amazing feature of this website is an interactive map that lists any cultural event in Central Europe that involved Black actors, singers, or performers in general. Finding all of this material must have been an amazing amount of work. Another feature is the links to many Black German and Austrian activist organizations. Finally, the site provides a series of lesson plans for its materials, ranging from plans on the Middle Ages to biographies and the Black imaginary, which make it easier to organize this wealth of material and apply it systematically in the classroom. Generally,Black Central Europe provides a rich source of information, and it would be even richer without the many

So, what is missing? As a Swiss I laud the fantastic contribution on the racism of Harvard professor Louis Agassiz and the Rentyhorn installation, but I find nothing else about my country. A good lead might be to study the financial links with African colonialism, as provided in Hans Fässler’s Reise in Schwarz-Weiss: Schweizer Ortstermine in Sachen Sklaverei (2005). Black people were often much more present in terms of economics, when rich citizens made investments in slave plantations out of sight—an early lesson about the pitfalls of globalism. For a more contemporary perspective, we might want to present famous Black track stars like Mujinga Kambundji and Dave Dollé speaking our dialect(s), or the beloved Jamaican Swiss Alex Wilson, whose interviews are legend. Or the fabulous Brazilian Swiss musician Marc Sway. Recent Black Lives Matter debates in Switzerland have focused on the name “Mohrenkopf” for a chocolate-covered dessert. A major focus of discussion in Switzerland has also drawn attention to the newly perceived racial identity by Swiss “people of color” (yes, they use that English term!). Excellent examples can be found on the ARENA talk show and in new documentaries, for example, about the Black newsperson Angélique Beldner, who grew up in the Berner Oberland.

As for Germany, we can mention the “Bunte Republik Deutschland” by Udo Lindenberg, which inspired an inauguration speech by President Christian Wulff in 2010. Another mainstream example is Inspector Kress’s Black assistant, “Henry Johnson,” in the seriesDer Alte, played by Charles Muhamed Huber. Or the hugely successful Schlagersänger Roberto Blanco, whose singing career can be compared to a Black country star in Nashville. Let me also mention the Austrian television host Arabella Kiesbauer, whose career spans being the GermanPlayboy centerfold of July 1995 and hosting the high-society Opernball in Vienna. It was on her talent show,Starmania, that the transvestite Tom Neuwirth/Conchita Wurst started his/her career before winning the European Song Contest in 2014. Or football: nowadays there are probably as many Black players on the German, Austrian, or Swiss national teams as on any US soccer team—Jerome Boateng, Leroy Sané, Serge Gnabry, David Alaba, Breel Embolo, Denis Zakaria, Manuel Akanji, Edimilson Fernandes, Djibril Sow, Kevin Mbabu… All of this is not research but popular culture—the list is long because our societies have changed, too!

Generally, a discussion of referentiality as opposed to carnivalesque alterity (Fasnacht) across time would make sense. Blackface in places that historically had no contact with real Black faces has a different history. Thus, transferring the racial approach from one place to another is breaking the rules; it irritates, but once we start exploring this website, we get inspired. We find fascinating material and we start thinking (within our own domain) of many additions. In that sense, I hope that this project will prosper and expand—hopefully with the aid of some native contributors from the territories concerned. For a start, there are many Central European members of CAAR (the Collegium of African American Research) who also have stories to tell about Black people and Blackness in their own neck of the woods.

Citation: Samuel Ludwig. Review of Black Central European Studies Network (BCESN),Black Central Europe. H-TGS, H-Net Reviews. December, 2020.URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55940

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