Internationale Akademie: Race and Ethnicity in Africa and Europe

In Zusammenarbeit mit der Arizona State University, Phoenix

Leitung: Michael Mayer / Chouki El Hamel

Sekretariat: Iryna Bielefeld, Tel.: 08158 / 256-53

Race and racism are deeply complex notions in Africa and Europe historically and contemporarily, as they are in other parts of the world. For a long time, scholars have insisted that notions of racism have been exported from Europe to Africa. Yet, recent research shows a more complex development. The racial hegemony of “whiteness” and the dispossession of minorities in Africa not only preceded the Western conceptualization of race and racism but also emerged before these analytic discourses came to exist in Western Europe. Even so, there are several parallels between Africa and Europe in the themes and arguments pertaining to the nature of being racially marginalized or victimized by racism. Our conference aims at debating similarities and differences of racial concepts in Africa and Europe. Furthermore, it analyzes the history of transfer and interconnection between the two regions. As a result, we hope for new insights in the development of the concepts of race and racism.