African Europeans: An Untold History by Olivette Otele || History-Book

African Europeans: An Untold History
by Olivette Otele

A dazzling history of Africans in Europe, “masterfully” (Smithsonian) revealing their unacknowledged role in shaping the continent || A finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History

Conventional wisdom holds that Africans are only a recent presence in Europe. But in African Europeans, renowned historian Olivette Otele debunks this and uncovers a long history of Europeans of African descent.

From the third century, when the Egyptian Saint Maurice became the leader of a Roman legion, all the way up to the present, Otele explores encounters between those defined as “Africans” and those called “Europeans.”

She gives equal attention to the most prominent figures - like Alessandro de Medici, the first duke of Florence thought to have been born to a free African woman in a Roman village - and the untold stories - like the lives of dual-heritage families in Europe’s coastal trading towns.

“Magisterial…. A story of violence and exclusion but also extraordinary destinies and achievements”
- Sudhir Hazareesingh, Guardian (UK)

African Europeans is a landmark celebration of this integral, vibrantly complex slice of European history, and will redefine the field for years to come.