Heritage, Blackness and Afro-Cool

Styling Africanness in Amsterdam

Bibliographic Data

ID12955356
AuthorsMarleen Witte (0000-0001-6170-021X, University of Amsterdam, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume7
Issue2
Pages260-289
Publication date2014-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Diaspora (BOOK_SERIES)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1872-5457 • E-ISSN: 1872-5465
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/18725465-00702002
OpenAlexW1514336063
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited14

This article focuses on the recent emergence of an “Afro-Dutch” category of self-identification among young people in Amsterdam. Dutch-born youth of different Afro-Caribbean and African backgrounds show a new sense of (and search for) a shared African heritage, and a growing desire for public exposure and recognition of this Africanness. Manifesting in, for example, media initiatives, performing arts, cultural festivals, and bodily fashions, this trend is characterized by an aesthetic emphasis on globalized African styles and by political struggles about the inclusion of African heritage in Dutch imaginations of nationhood. Approaching Africanness as a process of becoming and a practice of self-styling , this article explores the convergence between the renewed interest in African roots among Dutch-born Afro-Caribbeans and the ways in which Ghanaian youth engage with their African origins. It discerns three prominent, but contested tropes with regard to their framing and design of Africanness: “African heritage”, “blackness” and “Afro-cool”

Aesthetics · African studies · Art · Cultural heritage · Framing (construction · Political science · Politics · Sociology · The arts · Visual arts · Anthropology · Children's Rights and Participation · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · History · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

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