Testemonies2019-09-09T14:49:19+00:00

Testimonies

African-European Narratives invites personalities from various European countries, with different backgrounds and profiles to offer their testimony about the interplay of African and European cultures in contemporary Europe. These short interviews or conversations will be presented as video registers and transcripted excerpts.

Participant Entities are welcome to gather testimonies within their own region or country to be published in theAfrican-European Narratives web platform.


Interview with Zia Soares

“There isn’t an European reality without Africa, nor an African reality without Europe”

“There are many discourses that have been wiped out of History and have been so far invisible and unheard. But the most erased discourse of History is that of the black woman.”

“The theatre company from which I am the Director is not just about criticizing the Afro-European identity. For me, the stage is a space of transgression”

Biographical note 

Zia Soares was born in Angola and is now an actress and artistic director of the Griot Theater in Lisbon. This theatre company is dedicated to the exploration of relevant themes for the construction and problematization of the contemporary Afro-European identity. The artist is also Vice-president of the Black Woman Institute in Portugal (INMUNE).

Interview with African-European Narratives
(conducted by Cláudia Madeira; video editing by João Meirinhos) ©2018.


Interview with Jonhy Pitts

“There are so many stories, stories that need to be told. I don’t think anyone should be out of the conservation.”

“I don’t go around telling people ‘Hey, I’m afropean’. I use afropean more as platform, a suggestion to insert complexity to the idea of Europe”

“I think you can tackle (the rise of nationalism) by transcending the borders of your own country, of your own nation, connecting your local and personal experience to something larger, something transnational”

Biographical note 

Johny Pitts sees himself as having been born out of a happy union of two cultures: his father is an. African American, from Brooklyn, New York and his mother a white woman from Sheffield. He is a published writer (Penguin Books) and a photographer and he spent ten years working in TV as a writer and presenter (with MTV, Sky One, ITV, Channel 4, Discovery Channel and currently the BBC). He is the founder of the AFRØPEAN–Adventures in Black Europe , an online multimedia, multidisciplinary journal exploring the social, cultural and aesthetic interplay of black and European cultures, and the synergy of styles and ideas brought about because of this union. In 2013 he won an ENAR Award for his contribution to a racism-free Europe. In 2014 Afropean was invited to be part of The Guardian Newspaper’s Africa Network . His new book, a travel narrative and photo essay about black Europe, is coming out in June 2019.

Interview with African-European Narratives
(conducted by Cláudia Madeira; video editing by João Meirinhos) ©2018.