Belonging in Africa: Frederik Svane and Christian Protten on the Gold Coast in the Eighteenth Century

TY - JOUR

T1 - Belonging in Africa: Frederik Svane and Christian Protten on the Gold Coast in the Eighteenth Century

AU - Simonsen, Gunvor

PY - 2015/7/13

Y1 - 2015/7/13

N2 - The idea that the African Atlantic world was populated by Atlantic Creoles who crossed cultural divides with relative ease is appealing, and it lends itself well to studies of identity formation that highlight the talents and opportunities that emerged from processes of cultural blending. Yet an examination of how travelling Africans ascribed meaning to their spatial and emotional groundings underlines that creolization in the African Atlantic was less smooth than suggested by the figure of the Atlantic Creole. For Frederik Svane and Christian Protten, two Euro-African men born on the Gold Coast in the early eighteenth century, Creole conditions resulted in identity practices that ranged from the complete rejection of African culture to a celebration and redefinition of the significance of African origins in the Atlantic world.

AB - The idea that the African Atlantic world was populated by Atlantic Creoles who crossed cultural divides with relative ease is appealing, and it lends itself well to studies of identity formation that highlight the talents and opportunities that emerged from processes of cultural blending. Yet an examination of how travelling Africans ascribed meaning to their spatial and emotional groundings underlines that creolization in the African Atlantic was less smooth than suggested by the figure of the Atlantic Creole. For Frederik Svane and Christian Protten, two Euro-African men born on the Gold Coast in the early eighteenth century, Creole conditions resulted in identity practices that ranged from the complete rejection of African culture to a celebration and redefinition of the significance of African origins in the Atlantic world.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Denmark

KW - Africa

KW - Gold Coast

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0165-1153

VL - 39

SP - 91

EP - 115

JO - Itinerario: International Journal on the History of European Expansion and Global Interaction

JF - Itinerario: International Journal on the History of European Expansion and Global Interaction

IS - 1

ER -