Tina Campt. Other Germans: Black Germans and the Politics of Race, Gender, and Memory in the Third Reich. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004. — Page 2:
6 In the final chapter of the book, Campt tackles the complex of issues related to the themes addressed in this volume. She takes issue with common "blanket" applications of a diasporic paradigm to "all formations of Black community," an approach that seems to be often requisite (174). Indeed, Campt points out that there are tensions among Black communities that preclude a simple attribution of the "diaspora" label. In that vein, she aims to re-theorize a diasporic discourse that is "more often and quite profoundly about the dynamics of difference" instead of a universal similarity (169, original italics). Part of the uniqueness of her approach can be found in her efforts to theorize this difference as fundamental to the experiences of Black Germans and even to other African diasporic communities. Campt rightly takes issue with previous essentialist notions of African diasporic identity, which required an automatic and un(der)theorized identification with Africa and/or African Americans. Indeed, she wonders where Black Germans may fit in.
7 This noteworthy volume integrates many secondary sources, including extremely influential works in Holocaust studies, memory, and German history, and Campt connects her claims to the relevant scholarship. Campt's work arrives at a quite productive time in the studies of the experiences of Black Europeans. In addition to ongoing published work, conferences like "Challenging Europe: Black European Studies in the 21st Century" organized by the Black European Studies Project at the Johannes-Gutenberg-University in Mainz, Germany (2005) and "Remapping Black Germany: New Perspectives on Afro-German History, Politics, and Culture" (at which Campt was among the presenters) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (2006) continue to assemble and encourage revolutionary work in this field.