„But that aside, this is an important book and I have no doubt Pitts will soon become an important writer. Afropean shows us that people with black and brown skin colour who live in Europe, while proud of their own cultural heritages, often want feel a part of this continent too. Accepted. Treated like everyone else. Like other Europeans. This book aims to bring black Europe to the rest of Europe. To spark a mutual conversation. I have no doubt it will do just that.“ Evening Standard
A Beautiful Study Of Black Identity
„Pitts, a TV presenter and photographer as well as a writer, sets out to explore “black Europe from the street up”, with the idea of being Afropean as “something of a utopian alternative to the doom and gloom that has surrounded the black image in Europe in recent years”. Dissatisfied with the limits imposed on his identity and the framing of his black experience, he is a nomadic writer in search of his tribe, who claims membership of a collective black community in Europe that offers a sense of belonging more nourishing than the reductive nationalism of individual European countries. But what is it to be Afropean? Armed with a computer and camera, the Sheffield-born son of a white English mother and African American father spent five months on the road in search of an African Oz in Europe.“ The Guardian
Black Europe From The Street Up
„At the end of Afropean, Johny Pitts stands at Europa Point in Gibraltar and tries to make out Africa through the fog. “Everything was monochrome,” he says, “and I could barely see a few metres in front of me.” He turns and walks back to the “tumultuous old continent” he now recognises as his own“ The Telegraph
