ENCOUNTERS TESTIMONIES - African- European Narratives

Encounters : Sharing Experiences(Event Description)

TESTIMONIES
key messages of participants

Afro-European Narratives invites personalities from different countries to share their views on the interplay of African and European cultures in today’s Europe. An interplay of which they are themselves vibrant participants and interpreters.

Check out some of those testimonies below, and others on the web portal africaneuropeanarratives.eu

Afrodeutsche

musicien and producer (UK)

“Technology is meant that we can have a voice. It’s time… Don’t hate, try to understand.”
“I get asked a lot what it is like to be a black woman doing music. My reality… it has been great… bizarre but amazing”

Alain Kiyindou

University Bordeaux-Montaigne – UNESCO Chair (FR)

” the fact that we have information and communication technologies help building a world that is more open, a world where borders are easier to overcome than before”

“… but when we look further, we realize that, unfortunately, despite this openness, there is an establishment that does not dissolve itself, does not get any weaker, that is always there and which considers the foreigner as the cause of all evils.”

Johny Pitts

writer and photographer (PT)

link na imagem para http://africaneuropeanarratives.eu/en/testimonies/interview-with-johny-pitts

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

“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”

Kiluange Liberdade

Filmaker (PT)

link na imagem para http://africaneuropeanarratives.eu/en/testimonies/interview-with-kiluange-liberdade

“I feel there are many African continents scattered throughout the West and throughout Europe; and many Europes scattered throughout the world.”

“It is not a question of feeling more African or more European; it’s a question of being aware that identity is no longer a fixed concept.”

About Europe

Check out below some of the views and experiences participants shared about Europe, during events and through the web portal africaneuropeanaratives.eu

The Afro-European Narratives project on RTP Africa

The Afro-European Narratives project was invited by the RTP Africa broadcasting channel for an interview in “Bem-Vindos [Welcome]”, one of the most popular shows among African and Afrodescendants citizens in Portugal and Portuguese speaking communities in Africa.

Event description
ACTION 2 – ENCOUNTERS with Afrodescedants in Europe

The ENCOUNTERS with Afrodescendants in Europe involved 87 citizens, including 10 from the city of Viena (AT), 10 from the city of Bonn (DE), 6 from the city of Bordeaux (FR), 61 Portugal (Lisbon, Almada, Porto, Coimbra, Setúbal).

Venues / Dates: Events took place in Viena, Bonn, Bordeaux, Almada and Lisbon between the 6th April and the 15th June.

Description: The aim of these Encounters was the in-depth discussion about the challenges and opportunities of European citizenship with young people of African descent (in seminars, meetings and other forums of discussion) and the involvement of Afrodescendant participants with the goals and methodology of the project. Trough the partnership with social organisations and cultural associations working with the African diaspora in Europe, we could approach specific difficulties concerning social inclusion and the building of a sense of belonging: questions of identity, colonial post-memory, social discrimination, education, cultural and linguistic diversity and representation. Through the dialogue with these participants, we could better prepare some of the public discussions carried out by the project (in the Debate Series), make the project itself present in other forums and, most importantly, open up paths of transnational relationship and intercultural dialogue and fight the political ghettoisation of discourse and practices. In parallel the project also gathered key testimonies from relevant voices within the interplay of African and European cultures.