6 - Paris

On the last leg of the Afropean Podcast’s journey, Johny arrives in the city of romance, Paris France, home to Europe’s largest Black population outside of London. He links up with neo-soul legends Hélène and Célia Foussart (Les Nubians) to talk about Black empowerment through music, follows the route of Black History walking tour to learn about the whitewashing of French heroes with Black heritage such as author of The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas, and pays a visit to academic Olivette Otele, who breaks down why its a problem to refuse to acknowledge Black citizens who aren’t deemed ‘exceptional’.

Om Podcasten

What does it mean to be both African and European? Author Johny Pitts hosts a six part series exploring major European cities and the art, politics and history of their Black communities. Experience Europe through a lens often missing from tourist guides and official national narratives. Each episode dives deep into a different capital city: Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm, Lisbon and Paris. The Afropean Podcast is a co-production by Afropean and Reduced Listening. It is written and presented by Johny Pitts. The producer, sound designer and composer is Femi Oriogun-Williams. The assistant producer is Charlie Towler and the executive producer is Chris Elcombe. With thanks to National Geographic for their support of Season 1. You can read more stories from Black Europe in Afropean: Notes From Black Europen which is out now, published by Penguin in the UK and translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Polish, Dutch and Portuguese. Afropean Journal, a photographic essay bringing together 20 years of images and ephemera from Johny's work, is out now published by Morel. And you can contribute your own story to the website Afropean.com.