Germany And The Black Diaspora

The rich history of encounters prior to World War I between people from German-speaking parts of Europe and people of African descent has gone largely unnoticed in the historical literature - not least because Germany became a nation and engaged in colonization much later than other European nations.

This volume presents intersections of Black and German history over eight centuries while mapping continuities and ruptures in Germans' perceptions of Blacks. Juxtaposing these intersections demonstrates that negative German perceptions of Blackness proceeded from nineteenth-century racial theories, and that earlier constructions of race were far more differentiated.

The contributors present a wide range of Black - German encounters, from representations of Black saints in religious medieval art to Black Hessians fighting in the American Revolutionary War, from Cameroonian children being educated in Germany to African American agriculturalists in Germany's protectorate, Togoland.

Each chapter probes individual and collective responses to these intercultural points of contact. Review: The organization of the book is exemplary. The introduction presents a very important theoretical construct for this and future investigations of the phenomenon of race in the German-speaking world - the chapters assembled in this anthology are excellent - I have no doubt this volume will quickly become a vital part of the growing body of research on Afro-German interactions. * Leroy Hopkins, University of Pennsylvania This is an important collection that takes a large step forward in advancing knowledge about people of the African diaspora in Germany. * Sara Lennox, University of Massachusetts Amherst