ENCOUNTERS With Afrodescendants - African- European Narratives

Encounters : Sharing Experiences (Event Description)

Encounters with Afrodescendants (2018-2019)

The Afro-European Narratives Project promotes the encounter and dialogue with the African Diaspora in Europe and especially with young people of African descent. These encounters are carried out in the form of seminars, meetings and other discussion forums. Their organisation leans on the partnership with organisations linked with communities of African origin, namely with people at risk of exclusion, an on the collaboration of young Afro-Europeans leaders with multicultural backgrounds and coaching experience.

These encounters aim to an in-depth discussion of the difficulties of people of African descent in Europe and of the challenges and opportunities of European citizenship to building inclusive, diverse societies. The aim is opening paths of cultural dialogue and transnational cooperation, fighting the ghettoisation of discourse and practices and creating a shared sense of belonging in Europe.

SEMINARS organised by partner organisation PRSD

Network of Providers of Social Responses For Development (PT)
Coordinator: Sónia Magalhães (President of PRSD)

The field work that the PRSD network has done in recent years has confirmed that young people of African origin have a sense of non-belonging and a greater risk of social and economic exclusion. It is therefore important to increase synergies between organizations working with young people of African origin, especially young people at risk of exclusion, to create more and better opportunities for inclusion, based on learning, understanding of European space and citizenship and of conditions of their own development, so that they can become protagonists of their own history.

The engagement with the narrative of their own story and the contact with the story of other young Europeans is a fundamental aspect of this development process. To this extent, PRSD has partnered with the Afro-European Narratives Project to promote this methodology in the transnational context of its own network, especial among young people of African descent.

The PRSD – Providers of Social Responses to the Development – is an established network of non-profit organisations that has emerged through the support of young professionals from the diaspora and young migrants experts that provide their expertise and knowledge to organisations working with disadvantaged youth communities and minorities in society.

Sónia Magalhães
President of PRSD

SEMINAR Afro-European Narratives
at the Youth Meeting of African Diaspora in Portugal
Venue/Date: Almada (PT), 6-8 April 2018
Participants: 19 (PT)

SEMINAR Afro-European Narratives
Venue/Date: Viena, 16-21 October 2018
Participants: 20 [10 (AT), 10 (PT)]

SEMINAR Afro-European Narratives
Venue/Date: Bonn, 25-30 November 2018
Participants: 20 [10 (DE), 10 (PT)]

Meeting with Members of Students Associations

Venue/Date: NOVA FCSH (PT), 30st January 2019
Participants: 14 [4 Porto (PT), 10 from Lisbon]

The Afro-European Narratives Project invited leaders of several African Students Associations to a meet at NOVA FCSH. The aim of this meeting was the presentation of the Afro-European Narratives project and the preparation of a public debate about the situation of students of Africa descent in the educational system, particularly the accessing to university.

Group of student associations leaders with Project Coordinator (Teresa Cruz)

JOURNÉE Narratives Afro-Éuropéènnes

Venue/Date: Bordeaux (FR), 30st April 2019
Partner organisation: UNESCO Chair – Communication, Technologie, Développement, University of Bordeaux-Montaigne (FR)
Participants: 6 organisers and speakers (FR); Audience: 27 (FR)

Following the organisation of a storytelling workshop, the UNESCO – Chair Communication, Technologie, Développement organised a one day seminar with invited speakers and the participants in workshop to speak about the representation of Africa and of people of African origin in Europe.

AFRICA Week at NOVA University, FCSH

Venue/Date: NOVA FCSH, 13-17th May 2019
Participant organisation: NEAL – Group of African and Lusophone Students / Student Association of NOVA FCSH
Participants (organisers): 16 [12 (AE&NEAL), 4 (Project AEN) (PT)]; Audience: circa 200 (PT).

Following the celebration of the Day of Africa in 2018, organised by the African-European Narratives Project and hosted by the NOVA University of Lisbon, the Group of African Lusophone Students of NOVA FCSH (NEAL – Nova University of Lisbon) organised themselves a programme around the Day of Africa in 2019.

The Africa Week 2019 was a vibrant programme, with a large group of invited people and very diverse activities (around culture, politics, music, dance, fashion and gastronomy). The Project Afro-European Narratives participated in this programme through the “Creative Challenge – “Do you and Africa share a story?”, the last storytelling workshop of 2019, ending on the deadline of the Prizes BEST African-European Narratives and Afropean Distinctions (25th May 2019).

Participação Cívica e Política de Afrodescendentes

Venue/Date: NOVA FCSH, 15 June 2019
Participant organisations: Plataforma de Reflexão Cívica, Culturface, ICNOVA, NEAL
Participants: 5 [2 (Plataforma Reflexão Cívica), 1 (Culturface); 1 (ICNOVA/ Project Afro-European Narratives), 1 (NEAL – African and Lusophone Students Group)]; Audience: circa 80

The African Narratives Project and the Group of African and Lusophone Students from UNL, joined efforts with Plataforma de Reflexão Cívica and of Culturface, two cultural associations of citizens of African descent to carrying out one more public discussion about the social and political representation of Afrodescendants in Portugal. The event counted with the participation of political leaders, activist and representatives of cultural associations both in the programme as in the audience, who contributed to a very relevant discussion. The event was hosted by NOVA FCSH.

: Pannel: Kelsy Barreto, Paulino Delgado, Teresa Cruz (coordinator of Project Afro-European Narratives), Rodrigo Gonçalves

: Celso Soares, Smith Mendes, Carla Sousa, Andredina Cardoso

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.