Afropean
Firth Park, Sheffield
African Development Centre, London
Baker Street, London
Near the Patrice Lumumba University, Moscow
In 2010, following a rise in racist scapegoating triggered by the Great Recession, Johny Pitts was inspired to embark on a project across Europe which he describes as “a travelogue made by a black working class writer’’.
This eventual production of this journey was Afropean, a book that explores the life and histories of black minority communities all over Europe, from Rinkeby in Stockholm, Sweden where 70% of the population are Muslim, or through visiting Russia to learn about its relationship with 20th century African independence movements.
While the book was released in 2019, Johny is now expanding on this to make it into a podcast series, utilising excerpts that were filmed on his travels.
The podcast is officially released on November 5th and it is going to be accompanied by a photobook that will enable listeners to visualise the trip and the different communities that Johny met with.
We sat down with Johny to learn more about him and the overall project ahead of the podcast’s release.
FF - So I guess, shall we start from the beginning? For those that don't know you, where are you from?
Johny - So I'm from Sheffield originally. I live in Peckham now, but yeah, I grew up in Firth Park, which was an area designed for the workers at the steel factory, so it's like a quintessential sort of working-class northern area. I'm a Northern Soul child, which is a phenomenon that would happen where you had all these working-class people who would work in the cutlery factory or the steelworks, and then at the weekend they just wanted to dance to black music. And so, all of these African American musicians would come over to these working men's clubs, where these steel workers would dance and perform for them. And so that's literally my origin story. My dad came over from Brooklyn, an African American singer and performed at one of these clubs - that's where he met my mom. And the rest is history!
FF - Wicked! So I guess it’s only right for us to move on to the creation of Afropean. When you initially decided to go backpacking, did you anticipate that you were going to be inspired to write a book, how did it all start?
Johny - The book only got published in 2019 and then we have the podcast coming out now, along with a new photo book but I actually made the original journey in 2010. I think what inspired it was growing up in a multicultural society. I had Yemeni friends, Jamaican friends, and Nigerian friends - it just came naturally to me. I started to see, especially after 911, a bit more racism, and then around the global financial crisis in 2008 people were looking for scapegoats. Suddenly this notion of multiculturalism became demonised. And that's, I feel like, that's the moment that really led us to where we are at the moment, with this rise of right-wing racism and politics.
But I think that it really started to get a lot worse around 2008 when people have less money, and they're looking for scapegoats, they're looking for people to blame. I was travelling in the wake of that, and I knew I wanted to do something, to write a project, but I was pitching it to various publishers and they just weren't interested. They would say it's too niche or, you know, the usual stuff. So I just self-funded it, but I was kind of broke, so I was staying in hostels and the journey was completely self-funded; which in a way looking back, was a kind of weird blessing because I think I'd have written a very different book if I had the money. And then after I came back after the trip, I wrote the first draft. Thankfully I met lots of people from the older generation, the elders, who put me in touch with a literary agent, and then we eventually got it published, but it was a long process!
FF - Amazing, that's so inspiring, man. And if someone hasn't read the book, how would you describe it?
Johny -I describe it as a travelogue made by a black working-class writer, you know, that's the crux of it. It looks at Europe through those eyes. Because I was getting fed up with seeing the kind of Europe that is in all the travel guides and that you'll find in the glossy magazines. I knew that even where I’m from, only a specific kind of identity gets promoted. And it's branding if you know what I mean. So I just knew that all of these other countries had their kind of brand, and actually, behind that brand was a reality that is very, very multicultural. Especially when we're thinking about black history and heritage, there’s a long history. And so that's really what I wanted to explore in order to create a travel book that engaged in black history and culture.
FF - And what was the most surprising or eye-opening experience from your trip, something that you didn't anticipate before you went?
Johny - You know what was mad? Going to Moscow! Russia was crazy because, you know, it became racist after communism fell. But what I didn't realise is how, actually, before that, during the Cold War…I don't know if you ever heard of this MC called Kalashnikov.
FF - Yeah, I know him.
Johny - So, in the 2000s he was a bit of a legendary MC from London. And actually, it's interesting that he called himself Kalashnikov, because Kalashnikov guns were used by African independence freedom fighters, despite being a Russian weapon. Russia was offering solidarity and powering up these African independence movements fighting against Western imperialism. So you have this mad, long history where actually Russia was kind of in support of anti-colonial movements. Even now there's a university in Moscow that’s named after Patrice Lumumba (a Congolese independence fighter leader) and you still have lots of students from all over Africa coming to study and learn in Russia. So just having this different, alternative version of history, yeah, it was really super interesting. My new photography book also includes images from the black community in Kyiv, Ukraine.
FF - I had no idea that there was a black community in Russia at all, to be honest.
Johny - Yeah, it’s understandable. Scandinavia is super interesting too, especially Sweden. Because, a bit like my story, a lot of jazz musicians were embraced in Sweden in the 60s, and then they had kids. For instance, Neneh Cherry is Mabel’s mother. Mabel's heritage is quite mad because her family, a lot of them are from Stockholm and her step-grandad is Don Cherry who's an amazing Jazz musician. He moved to Stockholm in the 60s, and then Neneh Cherry came along. When you look into it, there are so many different histories and stories that are so much more mixed than we're led to believe.
FF - And how long were you travelling for?
Johny - The initial journey was six months. But the new photobook that’s coming out; Afropean: A Journal, is a kind of behind-the-scenes look at the work. That's really been around 20 years in the making. I've been sort of travelling on and off really, since 2004.
FF - Wow! And then following the success of the book, your podcast is now going to come out. Is the podcast essentially an audiobook version of Afropean, or is it completely unique and separate?
Johny - I would say that it’s completely unique actually, and you don't have to have read the book or anything to get into the podcast. What I love about the podcast is that it fills in some of the gaps in the book. I talk with leading practitioners, whether it's musicians, activists, academics, historians, you know, it's like interviews with these people, and it's immersive as well. So it's not just interviews in a room, we go to Amsterdam on a decolonial canal ride tour with somebody who tells us about the black history of Amsterdam. And you can hear it, you know? You can hear it in the sound recording.
FF - Yeah, I listened to the first episode and it was so interesting, man. The way it’s been edited, you can really hear that you’re on a journey. In the first interview with Zap Mama, I think you mentioned that she kind of inspired the term ‘Afropean.’ Did this then make you want to explore the term further or was it just a natural coincidence that you were out there and you just kind of came across it?
Johny - No actually, what I always say is it’s like a portal rather than a destination. Because over the journey that I made, it got more complicated. I’d heard this term Afropean, there are so many artists and musicians who really summed it up elegantly and looked super stylish and by the end of it, it's like, what does it mean? You know, does Afropean resonate with, I don't know, like a Senegalese cab driver in Paris? Not always. So the term was challenged, and it fell apart and then I had to bring it back together. But what I liked about the idea of ‘Afropean’ is that it removes the hyphen. It's an experience for those of us who really do feel like… I speak English, I speak a little bit of French, I'm living in this continent, and I feel like I understand some of its culture, but I also feel like I'm not fully from this either. I feel connected to Africa and trying to bring these two energies together in a way that just feels natural. That's kind of what the project was all about.
FF - Amazing. And of course, Zap mentions electronic music being inspired by the sounds of the jungle, which I thought was really sick, especially working in music. Were there any other genres that you found a connection with on your travels, like, any vague references that we might not initially recognise?
Johny - Yeah, that was a good one. Something that I really loved was being in Marseille and getting involved in the hip-hop culture. You have this crew called IAM who are from Corsica, and I think one guy's from Algeria, and another guy’s from Martinique. They’re kind of like France’s Wu-Tang Clan but they're all named after Egyptian Gods.
Initially, I thought it was just a bit like Wu-Tang referencing Chinese culture, but I didn't realise how deep it was. Actually, the reason they would do that is because Marseille is so close to North Africa, and there's a shared history through the Mediterranean. So if you take Paris and Cairo, you would never mix those two cities up. They don't look anything alike. But if you take other cities from those two countries that are sitting on the Mediterranean coast like Marseille and Alexandria, then there's this shared history that's connected by the Mediterranean Ocean. And IAM, they have one song that is dope, which is actually a collaboration with Wu-Tang, it’s called La Saga
FF - No way?!
Johny - Yeah! And I mean, we mentioned stories from the black community in Stockholm and some of the amazing black music that has come out of there as well. The area that I spent a lot of time in is called Rinkeby, which is something like 70% Muslim. It was built by Olof Palme who, at the time, was a socialist Prime Minister in Sweden that ended up being assassinated in the 80s. But he built all of these houses, he started the process of building a million homes for people who couldn't afford them and these areas were a place for first-generation immigrants to go and try to build a life in Sweden. But then there are also these areas in the centre of the town where you can find the black community. There's an area called Södermalm, which is like the South Island in Stockholm that is quite central and is subject to gentrification, but you find a lot of the black community and the nightclubs and bars and stuff like that are still there.
FF - In this episode as well, you speak of Matongé in Belgium. I’ve found that it’s very rare for you to travel in Europe and not find an area where the black community is kind of segregated, and I do think it's important in terms of being able to maintain a history and having a safe space. Do you find that these areas are easily disregarded and a little bit divisive, not to the fault of themselves, but just how the rest of the nation views them and these areas?
Johny - Yeah, I do. I remember when David Cameron was Prime Minister, he talked about Tottenham and ‘sink estates.’ He dismissed whole estates and whole areas of London so easily without knowing what created these tough environments in the first place. If you look at some of the most important music culture from the UK in the past 30 years, a lot of it emerges from these estates. You know, if you look at Dizzee Rascal in Bow, So Solid Crew in Battersea or Goldie from an estate in Birmingham. I feel like a lot of the areas that I visited, these areas that are created out of necessity because society hasn't always embraced immigrants or the black community. So against all the odds, black communities have created these spaces of survival. I think it's very important to drift away from these mainstream standpoints of the areas and instead offer the beauty that's within. These spaces are my favourite places in Europe.
FF - Yeah, for sure. And how many episodes is this podcast series going to be?
Johny - It’s going to be six episodes. After Brussels, we go to Amsterdam, and then I think we go to Berlin, Stockholm, Lisbon, and finish in Paris.
FF - Where and when will it be available?
Johny - The first episode will be out from the 5th of November and it'll be available wherever people get their podcasts.
FF - And have you been able to go back to any of the places that you've mentioned?
Johny - Yeah, well, funnily enough, like, I've just come back from Matungé in Brussels, because I printed the new photo book, which is like an art book, a limited edition version of Afropean that is getting launched at the same time as the podcast.
FF - Where will people be able to buy the photography book?
Johny - That'll be on the publisher's website - Mörel books. But like I say, it’s a very limited edition, and we're launching it in Paris next month at the Offprint Book Fair.
FF - And to finish up, of all the European destinations that you went to, where's a little less known that you would recommend black British visitors to go to for cultural reasons, and separately, for the best night out?
Johny - I would say for historical reasons, go and look at Marseille because here we have a country that is as African as it is European. When you get into the train station, it's on the bluff of the hill, and you see the whole city sprawled out. And, if you squint your eyes, you could be somewhere like Marrakech, it seemed to me like the ultimate Afropean city. Also Lisbon for a night out, actually, as well. There’s a massive Angolan and Cape Verdean community. To twist things up a little bit, I would also say Berlin, there's a great place called Yam. I had some great nights there. They're always getting the big reggae artists and it was built by an organisation that came out of the fall of the Berlin Wall. So it's super historic as well. They're probably the three places, Lisbon, Marseille and Berlin.
Afropean Podcast will be released by Reduced Listening and available on all major podcast platforms.