Black lives in Europe

The stories and achievements of Black figures from the past to the present

Europeana Foundation

Black people have been part of European history, society and culture for centuries, but their presence has often been overlooked.

In this exhibition, we have chosen to highlight the achievements and lives of a number of figures from history - from as far back as the 1600s to individuals who are still alive. These are the stories of just a few individuals - there are so many more whose histories have been hidden, forgotten and obscured. This exhibition is a cornerstone to Europeana's Black History Month contributions and our ongoing efforts to bring a spotlight to Black history in Europe.

We realise that most of the stories told in the exhibition relate to men. We want to acknowledge that there has been a lack of recognition of Black women’s achievements throughout history (especially within the context of European history), and this makes it challenging to uncover relevant material in cultural heritage collections. Nonetheless, we hope you can trace multiple threads of people who fought for their rights and freedoms, who entertained the world and their communities, who challenged status quos, who reached great personal achievements.

There are also threads underlining the racism, discrimination and prejudice Black people across Europe have faced. All these threads weave together to make a complex picture which we hope will go some way to heightening understanding and tolerance. Black history is European history and European history is Black history.

01

Three portraits of the Haitian Revolution

Attack and take of the Crête-à-Pierrot

The remarkable contribution of Black political actors to the Haitian Revolution

Today’s political and social turmoil, sparked by racially motivated injustice seen in many parts of the world, has deep historical roots. Presented as a mere glimpse into a much larger story, this chapter highlights the remarkable contribution of Black political actors to the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804, the ultimately successful insurrection for the cause of liberty against enslavement and brutal oppression by European colonial powers.

Toussaint Louverture

Known today as the 'Father of Haiti', François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803) led a truly remarkable life. As a military and political leader fighting for the cause of Haitian independence from France, he lived in a complex world of competing European colonial powers. Toussaint Louverture’s legacy inspired many others seeking freedom and self-determination.

Louverture was born into enslavement on a plantation within the French colony of Saint-Domingue on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (which today hosts two countries, Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

Because birth records were not kept for those who were enslaved, details about Toussaint Louverture’s early life are scarce. Louverture’s godfather Pierre Baptiste educated him and his later letters convey fluency in Creole and French, and knowledge of ancient, Renaissance and contemporary Enlightenment philosophy.

Toussaint Louverture, insurgent leader of Saint Domingue

Louverture is remembered today for his inspirational leadership in the revolution in the French colony, which ended enslavement in Haiti and emancipated the Africans enslaved on the island. This led to the establishment of Haiti as a sovereign state and the first Black nation outside of Africa. Beginning in August 1791 and concluding in 1804 with Haitian independence, the Haitian Revolution was the most successful of the many rebellions by enslaved Africans which took place in the Caribbean region during the plantation and enslavement era. The Haitian Revolution defied European colonial rule, military power and the practice of slavery in Saint-Domingue, and acted as a beacon of hope for enslaved Africans everywhere.

Louverture died in prison after being betrayed to the French in 1803, and did not live to see Haitian independence, which was declared by his fellow leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Dessalines announced the abolition of slavery in Haiti, a first for countries in the Americas. Louverture’s remarkable life and legacy has inspired many seeking the rights of freedom, dignity, independence and self-determination. In 1988, this inscription in Louverture’s memory was installed at the Panthéon in Paris:

À la mémoire de Toussaint Louverture, combattant de la liberté, artisan de l'abolition de l'esclavage, héros haïtien mort déporté au Fort-de-Joux en 1803.

[In memory of Toussaint Louverture, freedom fighter, architect of the abolition of slavery, a Haitian hero who died in deportation at Fort-de-Joux in 1803.]

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas

A near-contemporary of Toussaint Louverture, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was also born in Saint-Domingue, the son of Marie-Cessette Dumas, an enslaved person of African descent, who during this era of chattel slavery, was enslaved by Marquis Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, a member of the French nobility. At the age of 14, Dumas’s father took him to France where Thomas-Alexandre entered the educational system and later joined the French military as a private, aged 24.

In the turbulent midst of the French Revolutionary Wars, Dumas established himself as an outstanding military commander, rising in rank to ultimately become general-in-chief in the French army - the first person of colour to do so. Having distinguished himself in the French army’s Italian and Austrian campaigns in the Alps, leading over 50,000 soldiers aged 31, Dumas earned the esteem of his supreme leader Napoleon Bonaparte.

In the subsequent campaign in Egypt, however, where he commanded the French cavalry, Dumas disagreed with Napoleon. After leaving Egypt on an unseaworthy ship in spring 1799, Dumas was forced to go ashore in the Kingdom of Naples and he was imprisoned there for two years before returning to France. Despite regaining his freedom, Dumas was denied a military pension and, although he appealed to Napoleon himself for financial support and a new commission, Dumas and his family fell into poverty. He died on 26 February 1806 of stomach cancer.

Jean-Baptiste Belley

Born around 1746 in Gorée, a notorious slave trading post island off the coast of Senegal, Jean-Baptiste Belley was enslaved and separated from his family as an infant, and shipped to the French colony of Saint-Domingue. He eventually bought his own freedom in 1764.

Like many formerly enslaved people of the era, Belley fought in the French army during the American War of Independence before returning to Saint-Domingue and establishing himself as a planter and political figure. In 1793, Belley was elected to the National Convention in Paris, becoming its first Black deputy. He spoke in the Convention debate of 3 February 1794 when it was decided unanimously to abolish slavery.

Jean-Baptiste Belley

In this striking portrait by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson, Belley wears the uniform of a representative to the Convention and the blue, white and red colours of the Republic. He is posed leaning against a marble plinth with a bust of the French philosopher and anti-slavery campaigner Guillaume Raynal (1713–1796). Belley posed for the portrait in 1797 before he returned from France to Saint-Dominique, and it still hangs in the chapel of the Palace of Versailles. The painting captures the complexity of the Revolutionary era and the fierce struggles for freedom and citizenship in a context of colonial power and empire.

When Napoleon Bonaparte dispatched an army to crush the insurrection led by Toussaint Louverture, Belley became persuaded to oppose the violent tactics of the French colonists. For refusing to support the French invasion, Bellet was forced to return to France where he was immediately arrested and imprisoned in the Belle Île fortress. As a captive there in 1805, he wrote to Isaac Louverture, son of Toussaint Louverture. Belley died in prison later that year.

After the end of the Haitian Revolution in 1804, the legacy of colonial rule, enslavement, and economic sanctions imposed by France have continued to affect Haitian social and political life for years to come. African and Caribbean historians today have no doubt about the importance of the Haitian Revolution, and how the example of this successful rebellion supported the move towards abolition of enslavement by colonial powers. The Haitian Revolution, its mass civic insurrection and the struggle for freedom from colonial rule and enslavement remains an extremely powerful example for us today.

02

Writers and poets

Resistance and pride in literature and poetry

Black people have been considered to be inferior for many centuries beginning with the advent of racialised, chattel slavery to contemporary discussions around immigration. These perceptions have been amplified by racist theories such as eugenics, which were considered scientific at the time. During colonisation, Black people were made to assimilate and accept European cultural norms, and yet had to live with the constant reminders of how Europeans regarded their racial, cultural and artistic identity.

Notable Black figures during this period fought against these stereotypes, breaking barriers in writing and poetry and proving they were not there solely to entertain their white counterparts, but had their own culture and values. The literature and poetry of these artists revolutionized Black pride across the African diaspora, and continue to inspire generations of Black writers and poets today.

Alexandre Dumas père and Marie Dumas

Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas was a prolific author and is still one of the most read French writers around the world.

He was born in Saint-Domingue on 24 July 1802, the son of Marie-Louise Labouret and general Thomas Alexandre Davy de La Pailleterie (see section "Thomas-Alexandre Dumas"). His writings span many literary genres; he started his career by writing theatre plays and articles for various magazines. Later he switched to historical novels (initially published as serials), including The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. Dumas’ work has been translated into over 100 languages and has inspired more than 200 films.

Despite his success as a writer, Dumas faced discrimination and racism due to his African ancestry throughout his life. When in a salon, a man insulted him about his mixed-heritage, he gave this famous riposte:

My father was a mulatto; my grandfather was a Negro, and my great-grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where yours ends.

The short novel Georges is one of the rare works by Dumas which addresses questions of enslavement, racism, abolitionism and colonisation as central themes. In the book - set in Mauritius - Georges, the son of a planter of mixed Black and white heritage, seeks retribution for his brave but mocked father. When writing the story, the author found inspiration in the life of his father. Many of the ideas from Georges reappear in the famous Count of Monte Cristo.

Anton de Kom

Anton de Kom was a Surinamese anti-colonial writer, activist and resistance hero.

De Kom's father was born into enslavement on the Molhoop plantation in Suriname, a Dutch colony, just before the abolishment of slavery in 1863. Anton was born in Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname, on 22 February 1898. He completed his primary and secondary education and obtained a diploma in accounting.

Plaque in memory of Anton de Kom in front of the house where he used to live, Hofstraat

In 1920 De Kom moved to Haiti and, one year later in 1921, to the Netherlands, where De Kom worked in several left-wing organisations such as Links Richten, a socialist-communist writers' collective and magazine. In 1933, he arrived back in Suriname, where the colonial authorities followed his every move. He was arrested without a trial due to his political activities, and sent as an exile back to the Netherlands.

We, Slaves of Suriname

Unemployed, he decided to concentrate fully on his book Wij slaven van Suriname (We Slaves of Suriname), which was published in a censored version in 1934. The book describes the creation, the history and life in the Dutch colony in Suriname. It is an account of the racism, exploitation and oppression faced by Black people in Suriname, both before and after the abolishment of enslavement. The book has been translated to English, German and Spanish and is still widely read. It finishes with the words:

Sranang my fatherland. Once I hope to see you again. On the day when all misery shall be erased from you.
Anton De Kom, Wij slaven van Suriname

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The year of Anton de Kom

De Kom didn't see Suriname again. After Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940, De Kom entered the Dutch resistance. On August 7, 1944 he was arrested and imprisoned, then transferred to concentration camps. He was first held in Vught in the Netherlands, then sent to Germany where he was held in Sachsenhausen and ultimately Neuengamme where he died from tuberculosis on April 24, 1944. He was buried in a mass grave. In 1960 his remains were found and reburied in a cemetery in Loenen created for resistance fighters, political prisoners and soldiers who had died during World War II and who had originally been buried outside of the Netherlands.

Revolutionary Portraits: Franz Fanon

Frantz Fanon

Frantz Fanon was a French-Martinican psychiatrist, writer, Pan-African philosopher, freedom fighter and revolutionary.

He was born on 20 July 1925 in Fort-de-France, Martinique. He grew up in a middle-class family and went to the Lycée Schoelcher, where Aimé Césaire was one of his teachers (see section "The Negritude movement"). During World War II, he served in the Free French army and then studied medicine and psychiatry in France. He worked from 1952 to 1956 as a psychiatrist in Algeria, where he also dealt with the Algerian struggle for independence as editor of the Front de Liberation Nationale magazine.

Fanon was an influential thinker and writer. His first book Peau noire, masques blancs (Black skin, white Masks, 1952) deals with the psychological consequences of colonisation and oppression.

I, the man of colour, want only this: That the tool never possesses the man. That the enslavement of man by man cease forever. That is, of one by another. That it be possible for me to discover and to love man, wherever he may be.

Frantz Fanon, "Black Skin, White Masks“

His best-known work is his second book, Les Damnés de la Terre (The Wretched of the Earth, 1961). This book brought him worldwide fame as a source of inspiration for freedom fighters in colonised countries.

To educate the masses politically does not mean, cannot mean, making a political speech. What it means is to try, relentlessly and passionately, to teach the masses that everything depends on them; that if we stagnate it is their responsibility, and that if we go forward it is due to them too, that there is no such thing as a demiurge, that there is no famous man who will take the responsibility for everything, but that the demiurge is the people themselves and the magic hands are finally only the hands of the people.
Frantz Fanon, „The Wretched of the Earth“

Poster: Frantz Fanon

In his works, Fanon’s wife, Josie to whom he dictated his texts, wrote down, adapted and in a number of cases, supplemented his texts.

Fanon died at the age of 36 from leukaemia, but his work left a great impact on political and anti-colonial movements around the world.

Léopold Sénghor in Dakar, 1975

The Negritude movement

Poets, authors and political leaders Léopold Sédar Senghor (Senegal, 1906-2001), Aimé Césaire (Martinique, 1913-2008) and Leon-Gontran Damas (French Guiana, 1912-1978) met while studying in Paris in 1931 and together created poetry that would define the Negritude movement.

Negritude was an intellectual movement that reclaimed the derogatory French term and used it as a form of empowerment. The movement emphasised that Black people had a history and culture that was equal to others. It denounced colonialism, Western ideas and dominance.

Aimé Césaire first used the term in his book-length poem Cahier d’un retour au pays natal (Notebook of a Return to My Native Land).

my negritude is not a stone, its deafness hurled against the clamour of the day
my negritude is not an opaque spot of dead water over the dead eye of the earth

my negritude is neither a tower nor a cathedral
it reaches deep down into the red flesh of the soil
it reaches deep down into the blazing flesh of the sky
It pierces opaque prostration with its straight patience.

Aimé Césaire, the poet of negritude

Considered his masterpiece, this book-length poem is an expression of Césaire's thoughts on self and cultural identity in a colonial setting. It was first rejected by a French publisher but then published in 1939. In 1947 an expanded version with an introductory essay by French writer and poet André Breton was published. In this, André Breton called the poem ‘nothing less than the greatest lyrical monument of our times’.

[Watch full video "Interview with Aimé Césaire"]

Along with the literary works from African American poets and writers such as Langston Hughes and James Baldwin, Césaire’s Cahier was a landmark in Caribbean literature. It was a new European literary style, which allowed Caribbean writers to discard Western interpretations in favour of their own reality, alongside the writing movements of the Harlem Renaissance.

The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural movement of African American creative arts and politics, which was centred around the district of Harlem in New York during the 1920s and 1930s.

Poem "They came that night"

While Cahier is considered an essential piece for the Negritude movement, Leon-Gontran Damas’s Pigments (1937) is sometimes considered the ‘manifesto of the movement’ and was the first text to be published. In the poetry collection, Damas argues against slavery and colonial assimilation of European culture. He also identified the traits of internalised racism and repression of self that are ingrained into the African diaspora. Damas introduced this concept 20 years before it was explored by Franz Fanon who called it ‘the colonized personality’ in his work The Wretched of the Earth.

Pigments was published into several African languages, and has been translated and distributed across several continents. Its impact was widely felt; the Baoulé people of Ivory Coast, inspired by the text, refused to serve in the French army against Germany in 1939. Pigments was seen as a threat to French state security and was banned by the French government.

African literature of Portuguese expression: the negritude

For Léopold Sédar Senghor, his use of the Negritude movement was to develop a global sense of value and dignity for African people and the African diaspora, in order to advocate for the celebration of African culture, traditions and ideas.

I remember the pagan voices punctuating the Tantum Ergo And processions and palms and the triumphal arches. I remember the dance of the nubile girls The wrestling choirs - oh! young men's final dance, bust Leaning slender, and the pure cry of love of women - Kor Siga! I remember, I remember ... My rhythmic head What a weary march along the days of Europe where sometimes An orphan jazz appears who sobs, sobs, sobs.
Extract from Shadow songs (1945)

The concept of negritude

Watch full video "The concept of negritude"

Negritude drew influence from many sources. Césaire spoke of Haiti being ‘where negritude stood up for the first time’, a country that has been the pride of Black intellectuals throughout history due to the Revolution (1791 – 1804) led by Toussaint L’Ouverture which led to the emancipation of the enslaved Africans and the establishment of a free Black state (see section "Toussaint Louverture").
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Senghor, Damas and Cesaire were also influenced by the Harlem Renaissance. The works of the African American writers of the Harlem movement were translated for the French intellectuals by the French-Martinican writer Paulette Nardal.

In fact, the Negritude movement would not have been possible without two essential women, Paulette Nardal and her sister Jane Nardal. Their Clamart Salon created a literary space where intellectuals of all backgrounds in Paris could come together and discuss local and international Black politics, arts and culture. Paulette Nardal’s essay Eveil de la conscience de race (The Awakening of Race Consciousness) which expresses African pride, and solidarity through the shared history of enslavement greatly influenced the leaders of the Negritude movement. Like many Black women, the Nardal sisters' contributions to society and to the Negritude movement - including their own writing - have been overlooked.

03

Artists, dancers and musicians

How Black figures have contributed to the European art, dance and music world

Black people have been portrayed in art as far back as the Middle Ages, sometimes in positive lights, whilst at other times through derogatory and negative imagery. Black people have also historically provided entertainment to wealthy Europeans for entertainment by music and dance performances. However the personal achievements of Black people in these fields had little recognition.

Juan de Pareja

Spanish Baroque artist Juan de Pareja is assumed to have been born into enslavement around 1610, most likely in Antequera, Spain to an African woman and a Hispanic father. Very little is known about his background. Pareja is assumed to have been enslaved by the painter Diego Velazquez, and Juan de Pareja was his workshop assistant.

The first known reference to Pareja as a painter comes in 1630, in a letter addressed to the solicitor of the city of Seville. In this, he asks permission to move to Madrid to continue his studies with his brother. Considering there is no mention of Velazquez in this letter, it can also be argued that at this time, he could have already been freed from enslavement, or in fact not enslaved at all but born a free man. In those days, enslaved people were prohibited from becoming painters.

Juan de Pareja (1606–1670)

On a trip to Italy with Velazquez in 1649, Velazquez painted his famous portrait of Pareja. Most sources claim that in 1650 - while still together in Italy - Velazquez signed a legal document that would grant Pareja his freedom four years later, on the condition that he did not escape or commit any criminal acts in that time. In which case the claims that Pareja was emancipated in 1630 would be false.

The Calling of Saint Matthew

From that time until his death in 1670, Pareja worked as an independent painter in Madrid, where he produced portraits and large scale religious works. The Calling of Saint Matthew (1661) is considered to be his masterpiece. In this, he paints himself as the leftmost figure holding a piece of paper that reads ‘Juan de Pareja in the year 1661’.

The Calling of Saint Matthew

Yinka Shonibare

In the contemporary art world, British Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare explores identity, colonialism and post-colonialism. He was born in London in 1962 to Nigerian parents and his family moved back to Nigeria when Shonibare was three years old. He returned to London aged 17 to do his A levels exams. At 18 he contracted transverse myelitis, an inflammation of the spinal cord, resulting in a long-term physical disability which left one side of his body paralysed.

Shonibare studied Fine Arts at Byam Shaw School of Art and Goldsmiths University. After his studies he worked in arts development at Shape Arts, an organisation dedicated to making art accessible to people with disabilities.

His work Diary of a Victorian Dandy: 19.00 hours is part of a series of photographs depicting himself as a dandy and an outsider, using style and flamboyance to get into high society. The series reflects similar styles of satirical caricatures by the 18th century painter William Hogarth.

In 2002, Shonibare was commissioned by Nigerian art critic, writer and educator Okwui Enwezor to make his most recognisable work, Gallantry and Criminal Conversation. This launched him onto the international stage.

In many of his artworks, Shonibare uses recognisably African prints and textiles. Some of these patterns, it is believed, originally derived from Indonesian batik techniques, brought to West Africa by Dutch colonisers. Dutch companies have since exported the textiles to West Africa for centuries. His use of these textiles reaffirms the complexities of identity and culture.

His installation work Vacation, produced in 2002, shows a family of astronauts wearing space suits made from such textiles. The artwork addresses contradictions between postcolonialism, the perception of an ‘impoverished’ Africa and advanced scientific achievements of the Western world and the complexities of power dynamics in colonised-coloniser-explorer paradox.

Vacation

Shonibare’s Scramble for Africa (2003) is a recreation of the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885. Then, European leaders discussed the continent of Africa among themselves, and divided it to claim its territories. In the artwork, headless figures are seated around a table. The absence of heads can be seen to represent the European leader’s loss of humanity and identity.

I wanted to represent these European leaders as mindless in their hunger for what the Belgian King Leopold II called 'a slice of this magnificent African cake'.

The artwork is also an examination of how history repeats itself. Shonibare says ‘When I was making it, I was really thinking about American imperialism and the need in the West for resources such as oil and how this preempts the annexation of different parts of the world.’

Ignatius Sancho

Ignatius Sancho was born around 1729 on a slave ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Once the ship arrived in New Granada, Sancho was sold into enslavement. Tragically his mother died not long after their arrival on the colony and it’s said that his father took his own life rather than live as an enslaved person. He was brought to England before he was even two years old, where he was sold to three sisters in Greenwich and remained enslaved there for eighteen years. Unhappy with his lack of freedom, Sancho ran away to London to Montagu House, the home of the Duke of Montagu who had encouraged Sancho to read and had paid him extra attention while visiting Greenwich. Whilst in Montagu House, Sancho further developed his interest in reading, poetry, music and writing.

Ignatius Sancho: Letters

Sancho is mostly remembered as a composer, writer, actor and abolitionist. After his death, his letters were published. In these letters Sancho gives an account of his life, an early description of enslavement written from the perspective of an enslaved person.

Sancho's dance choreographies, created alongside his own musical compositions, are less well documented. Sancho worked on common dance forms in Georgian society - such as minuets, cotillions and country dances - which predate British ballet.

[View Minuets, Cotillons & Country by Ignatius Sancho]

His dance works that survive today were originally published in a number of collections in the 1770s. Currently, 24 of his dance works are available in public collections, while there may be more within larger or private archives.

Guest performance of the company "Les Ballets Nègre" by Berto Pasuka in Düsseldorf

Les Ballets Nègres

In 1946, 166 years after Sancho's death, Les Ballets Nègres - the first European black dance company - was founded by Richie Riley and Berto Pasuka in London. Its dancers and staff were from Jamaica, Trinidad, Ghana, British Guiana, Nigeria and Germany. They mixed traditional Caribbean and African dance styles with modern dances and themes related to colonialism and African and Caribbean folklore. Their first season was an eight week run which sold out and toured extremely successfully across Europe.

The company closed down in 1952, as they were unable to survive on ticket sales alone and funders refused to support them. Although they were pioneers of their time, they have been hardly recognised in European dance history.

Guest performance of the company "Les Ballets Nègre" by Berto Pasuka in Düsseldorf

Yannick Noah at a concert for equality of SOS Racisme, 2011

Yannick Noah

Former French tennis player Yannick Noah began his musical career in 1991 with his album Black or What. Its closing track Saga Africa became a popular summer hit in France, reaching gold disc status. Although most of the album is in English, Saga Africa's lyrics - composed by Noah - are a mixture of French and Cameroonian expressions, and also include a tribute to the Cameroonian national football team.

Noah was born in 1990, and spent his childhood in Cameroon. He is the son of Cameroonian footballer Zacherie Noah and his French wife Marie-Claire.

Music Festival: Yannick Noah in concert at Central Park

His 2006 album Charango sold over one million copies, and his song Aux arbres citoyens ranked number one in the charts in France for three weeks. The song is about defending the environment and encouraging people to protect our planet. It is often sung in French schools.

[Watch full video "Music Festival: Yannick Noah in concert at Central Park"]

In 2010 he made a comeback with his eighth album, which featured the single Angela, dedicated to American political activist Angela Davis.

Besides his musical career Noah is mainly known as a former professional tennis player. During his tennis career, which spanned almost two decades, he captured a total of 23 singles titles and 16 doubles titles, reaching a career-high singles ranking of third in the world in July 1986 and attaining the World No. 1 doubles ranking the following month. He was also the captain of France’s Davis Cup and Fed Cup team, and in 2005 he was inducted into the international tennis hall of fame.

04

Sports people

Black athletes in sport

Sport has become more popular, professional and lucrative, from the 19th century to today, and Black athletes have excelled. But even though they have been acclaimed for their sporting achievements, Black sports people have often faced racism and prejudice from the authorities, supporters and society at large.

The first Black athlete to participate in the Olympic Games was Constantin Henriquez de Zubiera, as part of the French Rugby team in Paris in 1900. Born in Haiti, de Zubiera was also the first Black Olympic gold medalist when France won the rugby tournament.

The following two posters symbolise the kind of prejudice faced by Black athletes in the 20th century. The first poster is from 1950, and promotes the Harlem Globetrotters, one of the most successful basketball teams in the world. On the poster, the Globetrotters were described with a racist label ahead of their match held in Antwerp which was billed as a game between 'Black and White'.

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The Harlem Globetrotters and The American Stars

'Negro Samson against Bert Mychel'

This second poster is from 1978 and advertises a wrestling match between Bert Mychel and ‘Negro Samson’, a Colombian wrestler known as Billy Samson (real name Pedro Murillo). Reducing Murillo to just the colour of his skin and not using his name exoticised and dehumanised him.

Throughout the 20th century, Black athletes have had to compete under these contradictory circumstances - celebrated for their achievements while facing adversity and racism. This chapter highlights the personal and professional achievements of five Black sportspeople from the modern era, telling their life stories and highlighting their sporting successes.

Abebe Bikila, Olympic marathon, Rome, 1960

Abebe Bikila

Abebe Bikila was the first Ethiopian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal, taking gold in the marathon at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome while running barefoot and setting a new world record

Abebe Bikila was born in Shewa on 7 August 1932. He moved to Addis Ababa around 1952 and joined the 5th Infantry Regiment of the Ethiopian Imperial Guard, an elite infantry division that guarded the emperor of Ethiopia. Bikila rose to the rank of shambel (captain) in the army.

Abebe Bikila arriving in Addis Abeba

Bikila participated in a total of sixteen marathons. He came second in his first marathon in Addis Ababa, won twelve other races, and finished fifth in the 1963 Boston Marathon. Abebe won his second gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first athlete to successfully defend an Olympic marathon title.

[Watch full video "Abebe Bikila arriving in Addis Abeba"]

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The life of marathon runner Abebe Bikila in 12 frames

In July 1967, Abebe sustained the first of several sports-related leg injuries that prevented him from finishing his last two marathons. In March 1969, Abebe was paralysed from injuries he received in a car accident. He regained some upper-body mobility but never walked again. While receiving medical treatment in England, Abebe competed in archery and table tennis at the 1970 Stoke Mandeville Games in London, which was an early predecessor of the Paralympic Games. He also competed in a 1971 competition for disabled athletes in Norway, winning a cross-country sleigh-riding competition.

Abebe died aged 41 in October 1973, of a cerebral haemorrhage related to his accident four years earlier. He received a state funeral, and Ethiopia also marked a national day of mourning. Today, many Ethiopian schools, venues, and events are named after him, including Abebe Bikila Stadium in Addis Ababa.

Helmut Köglberger

Helmut Köglberger was the first Black footballer to play for Austria, making his debut in a match against Hungary in September 1965. Born in Steyr, Austria in 1946, Köglberger was the son of an Austrian woman and an African-American soldier who was part of the post-World War II allied occupation forces. Köglberger said in interviews later in life that he grew up without knowing his father.

Helmut Köglberger training

His professional football career began in 1964 playing for Linz Athletic Sport Club (known as LASK) who were winners of the Austrian Football Championship that season. In 1968, he moved to FK Austria Wien, who also won the Austrian Championship that season - helped in part by Köglberger who was the league's top scorer in 1968/69. During the 1974/75 season, he returned to LASK and was again the league's top scorer with a total of 22 goals.

Köglberger played for the Austrian national team 28 times, scoring 6 goals and was also the team's captain.

After retiring as a player, Köglberger managed a number of Austrian teams, as well as supporting the ACAKORO Football Academy in Nairobi, Kenya. Helmut Köglberger died in September 2018, aged 72.

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Nellie Cooman (l) sets Dutch record in the 100 metres, Dutch Athletics Championships in Amsterdam, July 1986.

Nelli Cooman

The Dutch sprinter Nelli Cooman excelled in running short distances, and won many championships. She was World Champion twice and European champion six times in 60 metres races at indoor championships throughout the 1980s.

Born in Suriname in 1964, Cooman moved with her family to Rotterdam in the Netherlands when she was eight years old. Initially interested in football, her running speed gained her the nickname 'Miss Pelé'. As a teenager, she changed sports and began athletics training, taking part in the European Junior Championships in Utrecht in 1981, where she finished seventh in the 100m race. She became a professional athlete in 1984, taking a bronze medal at the 1984 European Indoor Championships in Gothenburg.

Nelli Cooman

Two years later, at the 1986 European Indoor Championships in Madrid, she won a gold medal, running the 60 metres race in 7 seconds, a world-record time. That year, she was named Dutch Sportswoman of the Year. Her world record remained until 1992, but it still is a Dutch national record today.

Gold medals in the European Indoor Championships followed in 1987, 1988 and 1989, as well as gold medals in the World Indoor Championships in 1987 and 1989. Nelli Cooman retired from athletics in 1995.

Postage stamp showing Martin Dahlin and Klas Ingesson

Martin Dahlin

This commemorative postage stamp for the 1994 World Cup depicts Swedish footballer Martin Dahlin - a formidable striker who was part of the Swedish team that reached the 1992 European Championships semi-finals and finished third in the 1994 World Cup.

Martin Dahlin was born in 1968 and grew up in Lund, a town in the south of Sweden. He was the son of a Venezuelan father and Swedish mother, who encouraged his interest in football. He played for local teams Lunds BK and Malmö FF, before being selected for the Swedish national team for the 1988 Olympic Games. In 1991, he scored a goal in his debut for the Swedish National team, one of the first Black players to represent the country.

In the 1990s, Dahlin played club football in Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. In 1993, he won the Golden Ball (Guldbollen), an award for the best Swedish player of the year, after scoring seven goals in World Cup qualifying matches. At the 1994 World Cup, he scored a further four goals in the tournament which saw Sweden reach 3rd place. His 60 caps and 29 goals for Sweden rank him in the top 10 Swedish goalscorers of all time.

Nicola Adams at #AIBAstana2016 Finals

Nicola Adams

British boxer Nicola Adams made history on 9 August 2012, by becoming the first woman to win a gold medal in boxing at the Olympic Games. Adams's win in the flyweight tournament was yet another history-making moment in her career.

Born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, Adams began to box in her childhood, winning her first bout aged 13. Through the early stages of her boxing career, Adams struggled with finding funding - in part due to the lack of recognition for women's boxing. During this time, she worked as a builder and an extra for TV shows, all while maintaining her training. It was not until 2009 that the International Olympic Committee backed funding for women’s boxing.

Rainbow Plaque celebrating Nicola Adams on the wall of First Direct Arena

With her Olympic gold in 2012, Adams was the first openly LGBTQ+ athlete to win an Olympic boxing medal. 11 years previously, in 2011, she was the first female boxer to ever represent England in a fight against an Irish boxer. In 2007, she became the first ever English female boxer to win a medal at a major tournament, taking silver in the European Championships in Denmark.

At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Adams defended her title, winning gold.

In 2016, she was the reigning Olympic, World and European Games champion at flyweight, having won all possible amateur championships. In 2017, Adams turned professional, becoming the WBO champion in 2019. Later that year, she retired from boxing to prevent further injuries, and she now pursues a career in media.

05

Appendix

Eine virtuelle Ausstellung von

Europeana Foundation

This exhibition was created as part of Europeana's Black History Month. Explore more stories on the Black history page.

Thanks to
Ursula Oberst, African Studies Centre Leiden
Peter Soemers, Europeana Network Association Members Council
Małgorzata Szynkielewska, Europeana Foundation

Team

Curators
Marijke Everts, Europeana Foundation
Douglas McCarthy, Europeana Foundation
Adrian Murphy, Europeana Foundation
Aleksandra Strzelichowska, Europeana Foundation

Proofreading
Georgia Evans, Europeana Foundation
Jolan Wuyts, Europeana Foundation

Sensitivity Review
This exhibition was reviewed for sensitivity by a cultural historian

Erstellt mit :

Ein Service von:

Diese Ausstellung wurde am 11.02.2022 veröffentlicht.

Impressum

Die virtuelle Ausstellung Black lives in Europe wird veröffentlicht von:

Europeana Foundation

Prins Willem-Alexanderhof 5
2595 BE Den Haag
Netherlands

gesetzlich vertreten durch

Harry Verwayen

Telefon: -, Fax: -
E-Mail: info@europeana.eu

Inhaltlich verantwortlich:
Harry Verwayen

Kurator*innen:
Marijke Everts, Europeana Foundation
Douglas McCarthy, Europeana Foundation
Adrian Murphy, Europeana Foundation
Aleksandra Strzelichowska, Europeana Foundation

Rechtliche Hinweise:
Die Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek verlinkt die virtuelle Ausstellung auf ihrer Internetseite https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/content/virtuelle-ausstellungen. Dabei wurde auf die Vertrauenswürdigkeit der Institution, welche die Ausstellung veröffentlich hat sowie die Fehlerfreiheit und Rechtmäßigkeit der virtuellen Ausstellung besonders geachtet. Der auf dieser Internetseite vorhandene Link vermittelt lediglich den Zugang zur virtuellen Ausstellung. Die Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek übernimmt keine Verantwortung für die Inhalte der virtuellen Ausstellung und distanziert sich ausdrücklich von allen Inhalten der virtuellen Ausstellung, die möglicherweise straf- oder haftungsrechtlich relevant sind oder gegen die guten Sitten verstoßen.

DDBstudio wird angeboten von:
Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, gesetzlich vertreten durch ihren Präsidenten,
handelnd für das durch Verwaltungs- und Finanzabkommen zwischen Bund und Ländern errichtete Kompetenznetzwerk

Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek
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Telefon: +49 (0)30 266-41 1432, Fax: +49 (0) 30 266-31 1432,
E-Mail: geschaeftsstelle@deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de

Umsatzsteueridentifikationsnummer:
DE 13 66 30 206

Inhaltlich verantwortlich:
Prof. Monika Hagedorn-Saupe
komissarische Leiterin der Geschäftsstelle
Finanzen, Recht, Kommunikation, Marketing
Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek
c/o Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Von-der-Heydt-Straße 16-18
10785 Berlin

Konzeption:
Nicole Lücking, Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek
Stephan Bartholmei, Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek
Dr. Michael Müller, Culture to Go GbR

Design:
Andrea Mikuljan, FIZ Karlsruhe - Leibniz Institut für Informationsinfrastruktur GmbH

Technische Umsetzung:
Culture to Go GbR mit Grandgeorg Websolutions

Hosting und Betrieb:
FIZ Karlsruhe - Leibniz Institut für Informationsinfrastruktur GmbH

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Black lives in Europe

The stories and achievements of Black figures from the past to the present

01

Three portraits of the Haitian Revolution

Attack and take of the Crête-à-Pierrot

Auguste Raffet, engraving by Hébert, 1839

Aus der Sammlung von

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The remarkable contribution of Black political actors to the Haitian Revolution

Louverture, Toussaint

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Toussaint Louverture

Map of L'Isle de St. Domingue, one of the Greater Antilles, French and Spanish Colonies

Rigobert Bonne; Publisher: Jean-Léonard Pellet, 1780

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Toussaint Louverture, insurgent leader of Saint Domingue

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Dumas

Creator: Guillaume Lethière, Jacques Marchand, 1797-1799

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Thomas-Alexandre Dumas

Portrait of General Dumas

Olivier Pichat

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Jean-Baptiste Belley, député de Saint-Dominique à la Convention

Anne-Louis Girodet De Roussy-Trioson

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Jean-Baptiste Belley

Jean-Baptiste Belley, député de Saint-Dominique à la Convention

Anne-Louis Girodet De Roussy-Trioson

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02

Writers and poets

Resistance and pride in literature and poetry

Alexandre Dumas père and Marie Dumas

Atelier Nadar. Photographe

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Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas, novelist

Atelier Nadar. Photographe

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Anton de Kom

1924

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Anton de Kom

Plaque in memory of Anton de Kom in front of the house where he used to live, Hofstraat

Creator: L.M. Tangel

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We, Slaves of Suriname

Creator: Anton de Kom

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The year of Anton de Kom

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Statue of Anton de Kom

Creator: Jikke van Loon