AC Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf has been named a Knight in the Order of Orange Nassau, bestowed by the Netherlands for his services to football and charity work.
Alphonsus Staelinga, the Dutch ambassador to Italy, presented Seedorf, who is born in Suriname, with the honor in a ceremony on Thursday that was also attended by Milan president and Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi (photo AP).
"If he is the coach of AC Milan, he can bring his brother and cousin immediately, we don't mind a little nepotism,” joked Silvio Berlusconi. Seedorf is the only player to have won the Champions League with three different clubs—Ajax in 1995, Real Madrid in 1998 and Milan in 2003 and 2007.
Asked if he might retire at the end of this season, the 35-year-old Seedorf declined, saying he remains motivated and fit.
Although Seedorf is a hero in Italy he is not very popular in the Netherlands. Although he is regarded as one of the most successful Dutch football players.
The reason why is not very popular is because of his role in a conflict in the Dutch national team during the European football championship in 1996, which eventually led to a dramatic performance in the tournament.
The media saw it as conflict between the black (Surinamese) and the white Dutch players, but it actually was a power struggle over salary within in their club team Ajax.
Time is Love.4 [Show 1] International Video Art Exhibition curated by Kisito Assangni Saturday 22 january 2011 Centro Contemporanea d'Arte Ticino Via Tamaro 3 6500 Bellinzona
Time is Love is an annual show taking place at different venues around the world for each edition. Kisito Assangni is an artist and post-globalization curator currently living between London and Paris. His artworks and projects primarily question post-globalization impact and psychogeography. His works have been shown internationally, including the Musee des Arts Derniers / Galerie Octobre, Paris; ICA, London; Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York; The Illinois Institute of Art, Chicago; Bluetenweiss, Berlin; New Art Projects, Beijing; Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town (South Africa) among others. He is the founder and curator of Time is Love Screening.
Kisito Assangni was born in Lome (Togo) and currently lives between London and Paris. He is a visual artist and curator whose artworks and projects primarily question post-globalization impact and psychogeography.
The film ‘Inside Buffalo’ is the documentary of Afro-Italian director Fred Kudjo Kuwornu that tells the story of the forgotten ‘Buffalo Soldiers’.
These soldiers were African American foot soldiers of the 92nd Infantry Division who valiantly fought side-by-side with Italian partisans against the Nazis along the Gothic Line, mainly in Tuscany. Read the full story about the film here.
According to the Deutsche welle Kuwornu worked as a DJ and TV producer, until American movie director Spike Lee inspired him to become an independent filmmaker. In 2008, Lee was shooting a feature film on location in Tuscany, based on a novel about black American soldiers. Kuwornu worked as an extra on the feature film. It became the starting point for a very personal voyage of discovery for Fred Kuwornu culminating in his documentary 'Inside Buffalo'.
Kuwornu's father is Ghanaian and his mother is from Tuscany, making him one of the few mixed race Italians growing up in northern Italy in the 1970s. He is planning on doing more films on topics like racism, dialogue and human rights in the future.
The film '‘Inside Buffalo’ reminds of the story of the French Black soldiers 'Le Tirailleurs Senegalais' (Senegalees Riflemen)'. These soldiers were deliberately removed from the unit that led the Allied advance into the French capital. They were removed because British and American commanders wanted to ensure that the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944 was seen as a "whites only" victory. Read the whole post here.
General Convention of African Diaspora in Italy - 7th and 8th May
It will focus on how to involve African immigrants in the development of the continent. The Association of Africans in the World is organising the General Convention of African Diaspora in Italy.
The event will be held in Rome on 7th and 8th May, in Via IV Novembre 119 (Palazzo Valentini, sala della Pace).
The Convention is organised in collaboration with the African Diaspora in Europe and the Management Consulting Group (MCG), and is sponsored by the Province of Rome. Ethical Bank of the African Diaspora will be introduced during the Convention and 5,000 founding members selected.
Round table discussions will centre on many issues affecting Africa’s social, political, cultural, economic development. There will be a special focus on how to involve African immigrants in the development of the continent.
African diplomats and Italian national and local authorities will attend the Convention.
For further information, please log on to: www.africaninelmondo.it or send an email to Mr. Raymond Kouassi, President of the Association of Africans in the World: africaninelmondo@gmail.com
Queenia Pereira de Oliveira: "We live in a permanent state of uncertainty"
To be a second generation immigrant in Italy is a big challenge in deed. However much one feels to be Italian, before officially obtaining Italian citizenship, one is required to have the Permit of Stay in order to live legally in the country, says Ms. Queenia Pereira de Oliveira.
Queenia was born on 7th August 1986 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her mother is a Brazilian while her father is a Nigerian.
She has spent most of her life in Italy. Queenia is worried of the fact that the country’s citizenship law doesn’t guarantee the right to naturalization of immigrant children who have grown up in the country. These children who are Italians in all aspects, are forced to have the Permit of Stay in order live in the country, and are usually issued permits which are valid for short periods. This makes them live in a permanent state of uncertainty. Queenia, who is a poet, has in fact written a poem titled “Awareness” dedicated to all the second generation immigrants in Italy. The poem is a true picture of the suffering of these children who consider themselves Italians but who unfortunately are considered foreigners by the Italian law.
Queenia has been living in Italy since she was five years old, but has not yet obtained Italian citizenship. Asked why she has not yet become Italian, she says: “It is only because of an unjust law, that is, the Law 91 of 1992 which doesn’t recognize the fact that the population of the second generation of immigrants either born or grown up in Italy, is growing rapidly in the country.”
She says that many second generation immigrants, herself included, are living this situation of precarious rights linked to the Permit of Stay.
Queenia is pursuing a Degree course in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Rome, La Sapienza.
Talking about her identity, Queenia says: “I feel I’m a combination of different identities. I think the work of indentifying a second generation immigrant is quite complex. I can now only tell you that I surely feel I’m Italian, but at the same time I’m also a Nigerian and a Brazilian. Let me say that nothing excludes the other.”
Before the end of this month we need to report the issue of African immigrant workers in Southern Italy. Early this month riots occured in Rosarno, Calabria sparked by shootings against Africans. These kind of shootings are not uncommon.
According to Saviano, author of Gomorrah, there are several hundreds of thousand African immigrant workers caught up in a brutal cheap-labor system ran by the Maffia. The Maffia organizes the immigration of Africans to the extensive vegetable and fruit farms of Southern Italy. These immigrants have to live in terrible conditions earning less than 3 euros per day for 10 to 14 hour working days. Thanks to them we can by cheap tomatoes, egg plants, zucchinis, olives, lemons .etc.. in our North European supermarkets.
These Africans live in tents, shacks and abandoned buildings on the margin of society. Repeated assault by locals against African immigrants have been reported in the last years. Unfortunately the local police is not sympathetic to the living conditions of the African workers. Disappearences are frequent and immigrants who object to low wages and poor working conditions are simply eliminated. The Rosarno riots were reportedly sparked by local youth who fired air rifles at African immigrants. Unfortunately these kinds of shooting are not uncommon. In December 2008 a man shot without apparent reason two Africans who were sleeping in their shack, one got severely injured. Following this event the workers took to the street peacefully asking for protection. Approx. 2500 to 5000 Aficans live in the Rosarno valley. This is a huge number compared to a total of 15000 inhabitants.
After the second attack early this January several hundreds of workers went into the town of Rosarno and burned cars and smashed shop windows. Several locals replied with a severe attack on the African settlements.
It was the fourth outbreak of intercommunal violence in recent years resulting in the resettlement of about 1000 Africans in detention centers. Two years ago six Africans died in such a fighting in the coastal town of Castel Volturno, although these killings should be seen in relation to the drug activities of a local Maffia clan and Nigerian immigrants. Generally the European media is not too much vocal about these violent events.
African-Italian stiker Mario Balotelli (19) has a lot to endure in Italy. Read the very interesting post on the blog Myafroitalianlife (M.A.I.L)
Football player Mario Balotelli (19) aka Super Mario for the great Inter fans, was born on 12 August 1990 to Ghanaian immigrants Thomas and Rose Barwuah in the Italian city of Palermo. Up to here the story is boring without much adventure. However years passed, Mario has become a young man gifted with the ball on his foot. Great, he is a Ghanaian football hero now. Wrong, because he is the controversy of the Italian soccer game these days. Let's go back few years.
In 1993 at the age of three Mario's parents entrusted the child to a white Italian family, the Balotelli. Mario remained with them and still sees them as his parents. For Italian bureaucracy he was not allowed an Italian citizenship until the age of eighteen, just less than two years ago.
Now he is an African-Italian, who has the desire to play for his beloved country Italy. However since last month (December 2009) he is in the Italian national news due to the racial abuse he receives whilst on the field.
Many spectators will agree that he is a good, excellent young footballer, but others blame the abuses on his arrogance and completely uncontrollable behaviour. For another party he is abused due to his colour. Read the full story here
Another post of 'Black European nobility tucked away'. This time Italian Alessandro de Medici (1510 - 1537), first duke of Florence, and the first black head of a European state. His nickname was "il Moro" ("the Moor").
In an interesting PBS article the author Mario de Valdes y Cocom writes about Alessandro de Medici, and also about how his African ancestry was downplayed in an Exhibit: "Despite the many portraits of this 16th century Italian Renaissance figure, Alessandro de Medici's African heritage is rarely, if ever, mentioned.
Alessandro wielded great power as the first duke of Florence. He was the patron of some of the leading artists of the era and is one of the two Medici princes whose remains are buried in the famous tomb by Michaelangelo. The ethnic make up of this Medici Prince makes him the first black head of state in the modern western world. Alessandro was born in 1510 to a black serving woman in the Medici household who, after her subsequent marriage to a muleteer, is simply referred to in existing documents as Simonetta da Collavechio. Historians today are convinced that Alessandro was fathered by the seventeen year old Cardinal Giulio de Medici who later became Pope Clement VII. Cardinal Giulio was the nephew of Lorenzo the Magnificent."
The post 'Black European nobility tucked away', was about the research of Egmond Codfried. Although Alessandro de Medici was not mentioned in the post, he was part of the research. The goal of the research, according to Codfried, is to prove that Europe was never as 'white' as we have been taught. Black people were always in Europe, even among the European nobility.
Special thanks to Annalisa Butticci, who noticed that Alessandro de Medici was not mentioned in the story.
A nativity scene featuring a dark-skinned Jesus, Mary and Joseph has caused a storm after going on display in a Verona courthouse.
The nativity's appearance coincides with the right-wing Northern League's controversial operation 'White Christmas', a two-month sweep ending on Christmas Day to ferret out foreigners without proper permits in Coccaglio, a small League-led town east of Milan.
The Christmas scene - featuring a dark-skinned baby Jesus dressed in a red shirt and lying in a manger - was the idea of Mario Giulio Schinaia, the chief Public Prosecutor in Verona.
After the post about the first black mayor in the Netherlands I got intrigued by the presence of black people in European politics. I did some research and found out that in all Western European countries, from Norway to Italy you could find at least one black face in parliament, and several people of non European descent representing their regions on different levels of government.
The more people of foreign origin in a country, the more they will be represented politically Therefore countries like France and the UK have the largest portion of black politicians, up to ministries and chief secretaries. Women and men. In all other countries, except for the Netherlands, their representation is very small, but it is there and that’s what matters.
I think of the Secretary of State for Sports in France, Rama Yade or the chief Secretary to the Treasury Paul Boateng in the UK. Both are part of a recent phenomenon but it is clear that many will follow in their footsteps. It is therefore no illusion that one day France could elect a black president (the current one is half Hungarian, and has some Greek-Jewish ancestry on his mother side…) and England will have a black prime minister. The colour of their skin doesn’t matter, in a true democratic system, the best candidate (whatever his origins) should eventually take office.
We shouldn’t forget either that the population of African ancestry in Western Europe is very small. In countries like France (without its Caribbean territories), the Netherlands and the UK they represent approx. 3% to 5% of the population (mixed race included). However, you’ll find high concentrations in the cities, predominantly in certain areas of London and Paris. But even then, rarely do black people represent more than 50% of a municipality’s population.
In this context I did some research to the election of Black mayors throughout Europe. Although I can’t guarantee that I researched the topic thoroughly enough, I think I can give you an idea here. What is surprising is that the presence of a lot of black people in a municipality doesn’t mean you have a greater chance to find a black mayor. On the contrary, all black mayors were elected in rather small towns, with very few black people. They were elected not because of the colour of their skin, but because the people thought that she/he was the right person for that job. It all started in 1904 in Thetford, Norfolk.
The first in the UK
Picture of John Archer
John Richard Archer is generally believed to be the first black mayor in the UK, elected (nominated) in Battersea in 1913, a municipality in the London area. However it was found that Dr Allan Glaisyer Minns (1858-1930), elected Mayor of the town of Thetford, Norfolk in 1904, was the first black man to become a mayor in Britain. He was a doctor, surgeon and politician. However, there is very little information about him. Much more is known about John Archer and therefore he is often mentioned as the first black mayor of Britain.
John Archer was born in Liverpool in 1863. His father was from Barbados and worked as a ship’s steward. His mother was Irish. Nothing is known about Archer’s education but as a young man he travelled the world probably spending some time in the West Indies and North America. During this time he met and married Bertha, a black Canadian.
Archer and his wife settled in Battersea in the 1890s and in 1913 he became Mayor of Battersea. Read more about him on this website and this website too
The first in France
Raphaël Elizé
In France we will have to wait until 1929 before the First black mayor is elected. Raphaël Elizé was elected as mayor of Sablé-sur-Sarthe, a rural town in the department Pays de la Loire (central western France) of around 12.000 inhabitants. Raphaël Elizé was born on the Caribbean island of Martinique in 1891. He graduated as veterinary from the university of Lyon, France and during World War I he served for the French army in Europe. After WWI he settles in Sablé and starts a political career with the Socialist Party. During World War II he was part of the Résistance. He was deported to Buchenwald and died there in 1945. Phillippe Bérenger, a French filmmaker, is working on a film about this man ‘Le Nègre de Sablé’.
Below I post a little youtube documentary about Elizé, (unfortunately only for those who understand French)
More info?
Except for John Archer, Allan Minns and Rafaël Elizé I have no knowledge of other people of African descent who became mayors in the then so-called Mother Countries in Europe. In England and the UK there might have been other cases but I do not know of any and couldn’t find any.
However several black political activist and politicians past and present have been active in the UK, at various levels of government. For a list check wikipedia’s Black British politician page .
France recently
It is not clear who is the next black mayor in France after Elizé. France is kind of mysterious about race and colour of skin. The official story is that it doesn’t exist and so official reports on the issue are nonexistent. It’s quite sure that it is Auguste Senghor (a nephew of Léopold Sedar Senghor) who was the next black mayor in Franc after Elizé, but sources contradict each other on the year of his taking office as a mayor. He was mayor of Le May-sur-Èvre (Maine-et-Loire, 3,891 inhabitants) several times. However the Wikipedia page of May-sur-Evre states Auguste Senghor was their mayor from 1977 till 1989 and from 1995 till 2008. This makes him the second black mayor in France and the longest ever running black mayor in France.
Last year he moved to another town on the Atlantic shores of Bretagne, (Saint-Briac-sur-Mer, 1900 inhabitants) and was recently elected mayor there. We are certain that Kofi Yamgnane who is originally from Togo, became mayor of Saint Coulitz in the department of Finistère, a tiny little village (approx. 400 inhabitants) in Bretagne, western France. He must be confused when he mentions on his webpage that he actually is the first black mayor of France. Not exactly but close. Fact is that in France race is taboo. It is illegal to classify people according to race, therefore the election of a black mayor will only be informally registered. But reading below what happened in 2008, you’ll discover that the government in Paris seems to be hypocritical about race.
The 2008 elections in France
In 2008 several black French mayors were elected, one of them Kader Atteye in the tiny village of Morey (180 inhabitants, central France, department Saône-et-Loire). He was born and raised in the region, his parents were immigrants from Djibouti. This election was not without problems because more than a third of the municipal council members (5 out of 11) have resigned in protest of the election of a black person with a Muslim background (though I doubt he is still a practicing Muslim, I didn’t find anything about it though. What is certain is that he has two kids and lives together with the mother of both kids in a tiny village of 180 people …). The mayor didn't have to run for reelection but stayed in office, however 5 new council members had to be elected. read more on this racist controversy here(in French) and on this link (in French) . A similar scenario occurred in another small town where the people elected a Frenchmen of Algerian origin.
Kader Atteye, mayor of a tiny village of 180 inhabitants
During the local elections in 2008 4 municipalities elected a mayor of African origin. One of them was Kader Atteye. All were small rural municipalities of less than 5000 people, and with no significant black population. Two mayors are of Afro Caribbean ancestry and 2 of African ancestry. More info via wikipedia
Spain
Hector Julio Castillo Figueroa
Spain just has a recent democratic history. As soon as 4 years after General Franco’s death the first black mayor is elected in Spain. On the 3rd of April 1979 Héctor Julio Castillo Figueroa is elected as mayor of Isla Cristina, a coastal town of 20.000 people on the Atlantic shores of southern Spain (close to the city of Cadiz). Figueroa was a native from the Dominican Republic. He is a doctor and currently still lives in Isla Cristina. If you read Spanish you can find more about him here
Until 2007 there is no info of any other black mayor in Spain. More recently Juan Antonio de la Morena Doca was elected mayor of the town of Villamantilla in 2007, a municipality in the greater Madrid area of just 800 people. His father is Spanish, his mother comes from Equatorial Guinea in Western Africa. You can read an interview with him on line in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo or there is also an article via this link. Juan Antonio de la Morena Doca
Italy
Sandy Cane
In Italy we have Sandy Cane, who is African American and Italian and was elected this year (2009) mayor of Viggiu (5000 inhabitants) a small town in the Italian Alps. The first mayor of African ancestry in Italy’s modern history (I say ‘modern’, as some research states that during the Roman empire, some 2000 years ago, people of African ancestry settled in Italy and were actively involved in local affairs and politics, read more here and here. I don't want to go into any discussion about this topic, as I am convinced that the concepts of race, as we understand it today, do not apply to that era). She was backed by the alleged xenophobic Lega Nord
Ireland
Rotimi Adebari
Ireland also elected its first black mayor. Rotimi Adebari, a native of Nigeria, was elected mayor of Portlaoise Town in 2007. Portlaoise(pronounced something like Portleash) is a town in central Ireland of approx. 14.000 inhabitants. However there is some controversy on the person of Rotimi Abedari as he would have lied about his troubles in Nigeria (and whereabouts previous to his life in Ireland) applying for the procedure to get legal residence in Ireland. More details about this issue are mentioned on the Wikipedia page here.
Netherlands
Joyce Sylvester
In the Netherlands Joyce Sylvester recently became mayor of Naarden, replacing the fromer mayor Anna Paulowna. As such she became the first black woman to become a mayor in the Netherlands. Naarden is a beautiful medieval town in Holland worth a touristic visit. It was recently elected as the most pleasant town to live in the Netherlands. Naarden is rather small, and also doesn’t have a predominantly black population, rather predominantly white. Sylvester is born in Amsterdam and from Surinamese origins.
But Joyce Sylvester was not the first black person to become a mayor of a Dutch municipality. This was Headly Binderhagel , a Surinam born creole man, who was mayor of Nuth from 2002 to 2008. Nuth is small town of 15.000 people in the southern province of Limburg in the Netherlands.
Headly Binderhagel
Sylvester and Binderhagel became, like all the other AfroEuropean mayors, the mayor of a town because of their person, their communication skills, theri political skills, their character, … not because of race, not because of affirmative action …
Russia?
And as a last little thing this picture that I found on this link about an African running for mayor of a Russian town. Is this real or hoax? I don’t know, but it is worth a thorough research.
Slovenia
Peter Bossman
Peter Bossman (born 2 November 1955) is a Ghanaian-born Slovenian doctor and politician. He is currently the elected mayor of Piran, a city and municipality on the Gulf of Piran in south-western Slovenia. A member of the centre-left Social Democrats, he defeated the incumbent mayor in the October 2010 mayoral election to become Slovenia's first black mayor.
Title: Italy National Team Author: figc.it Dimension: 1024 x 768 Title: Italy National Football Team Author: The-Justice Dimension: 800 x 600 Title: UEFA Euro 2008 - Italy National Football Team Author: REDFLOOD Dimension: 800 x 600 Title: Italy Football National Team Author: ampren7a Dimension: 2048 x Title: Italy Football Fan - World Cup 2006 Author: n/a Dimension: 670 x 510
Photo and copyright: Lola Akinmade How do black people experience travelling in Europe? Do they feel stared at, feel welcome, or is it a bit of both. And in which Western European countries do they feel most comfortable?
To find out I sampled the experiences (2008 and 2009) from Rick Steves’s Minority Travelers Forum. Most experiences are from African-Americans who visited Europe.
I could have asked photographer and travel writer Lola Akinmade about her travel experience, but on her blog are all the answers. In pictures and in stories. See Lola's blog Geotraveler's Niche. So I stayed on Steves's forum.
To get a big picture of all the experiences I placed the reactions in the categories negative, neutral and positive. Negative means when someone felt being treated negatively. Neutral means, no problems. Positive speaks for itself. Click on the image to enlarge
1. In England or the UK – Most travellers had a great time. No stares, hardly any discrimination. With 2 negative and 9 positive reactions the absolute winner.
2. Germany – Second best with 1 negative reaction, 1 neutral and 3 positive reactions.
3. The Netherlands – One traveller felt very race conscious in the Netherlands. With 2 negative reactions, 1 neutral and 3 positive reactions third place.
4. France - Very mixed responses. Most black travellers liked it, but the French language barrier remained. Most Americans had neutral feelings about France, but over all they weren’t negative. With 2 negative reactions, 7 neutral and 4 positive reactions fourth place.
5. Italy – Here things started to get dramatically negative. Some loved Italy, others were less positive. Some reported being stared at. To put it in perspective, 4negative reactions, 2 neutral and 3 positive. Fifth place
6. Spain – This country is considered the worst Western European travel destination by most African-Americans on the forum. Most travellers see Spain as a very racist country. However one traveller was aware of racial climate in Spain, but still went. He had a great time in Spain. With 6 negative reactions, 2 neutral and 3 positive reactions it’s a country that leaves a lot of black travellers with some bad memories, but with good ones as well.
Countries as Belgium, Zweden, Austria, Creece and Ireland I didn't include because there were just one or two reactions.
Of course you can’t get a good impression if you have nine responses or less of each country. And it also depends where travellers had their experiences: big city or country side.
Minority Lola Akinmade is using her blackness to experience traveling to the max. In an interview she explained why she loves traveling as a minority. "Being able to seamlessly move because people automatically assume I’m a local impoverished immigrant allows me to observe and immerse without sticking out like a sore thumb in some places. I get to experience the true attitudes of locals towards others very different from them – both great and bad.
I have experienced everything from utmost rejection to gawks of fascination that a lot of bright-eyed backpackers could never endure. It is at the low times I question the purpose of travel and then Mark Twain’s quote always comes to mind….“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness."…… Mark Twain." Read the whole interview here
Italy National Team Size: 244 KB Resolution: 1024x768
Champions of the World Size: 142 KB Resolution: 1024x768 Author: LBC Computers Photo Credits: AP Photo/Nick Potts Info: Fabio Cannavaro lifts the World Cup Trophy after the World Cup 2006 final soccer match between Italy and France
Campioni del mondo Size: 148 KB Resolution: 1024x768 Author: LBC Computers Photo Credits: AP Photo/Nick Potts Info: Fabio Cannavaro lifts the World Cup Trophy after the World Cup 2006 final soccer match between Italy and France
AC Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf has been named a Knight in the Order of Orange Nassau, bestowed by the Netherlands for his services to football and charity work. 
