State of Concept
Athens

Greece is thought to be among one of the EU countries with the highest percentage of Black people in its population. I said “thought” as we have no data on the official number of AfroGreeks in Greece because the European Union has opted out from collecting what they call racialised data contrary to in the United Kingdom, for instance.

However, this is not the only problem in Greece in reference to the recognition of its diverse populace. Greece is defined by racial inequalities that often times stem from anti-Black rhetoric. In order for our country to deal with this issue, Greece needs to address its multicultural reality and engage in a dialogue about race and racialisation with its AfroGreek citizens. But how can Greece achieve this?

First of all, we need to acknowledge there is a history of AfroGreeks in the country. The first known AfroGreeks settled in the northern part of Greece at the border with Turkey during the Ottoman period, said to be enslaved Africans from the Ottoman empire in what is today known as the small town of Avaton. Other historical traces of AfroGreeks have them settled in Greek islands such as Crete, during the same period (possibly due to the transatlantic slave passage) who are called Halikoutides.

These people were assimilated into these rural Greek communities but never represented in the general Greek discourse as citizens. However, in the 20th century, with the migration influx in Greece during the 1970s from sub-Saharan African countries, an increase of Greek people of African descent has been observed in Urban Greek spaces, whose parents were either part of the early Afrogreeks or part of the new migratory populations. These young emerging populations with migrant parents born and educated in Greece are estimated to be around 300,000 people. These second and third generations of people with African heritage are shaping and contributing to Greek society but are also marginalised, erased, or even challenged when it comes to their Greek identity in our society.

According to the racist violence recording network report in 2018, the racial discrimination in the context of citizenship has been highlighted by the UN Special Rapporteur on modern forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and intolerance, and she concludes that for nationalism, in its broad sense, the nation is perceived in terms of blood ties and origin.

Black Greeks or AfroGreeks, despite that some now have citizenship, are still being seen as foreigners or even referred to as immigrants in the country of their birth and upbringing. Furthermore, an unknown number of Greek-born children of immigrants remain stateless if they cannot take their parent’s nationality at birth before the year 2008.

The majority of heterogeneous white Greeks do not accept or comprehend that AfroGreeks exist, except for some exceptional situations such as that of the Adetokunbo brothers, four athletes who have become professional basketball players in the NBA. The current Milwaukee Bucks NBA player Giannis Adetokounbo and his siblings are a famous but rare example of an Afro-Greek that has received citizenship, due to their exceptional athletic careers (citizenship granted after he was drafted by an NBA team).

There are thousands of AfroGreeks in Greek society that have had exceptional contributions to society but remain unrecognised.

This can change primarily by acknowledging the demographic diversity in all social spheres by addressing the lack of visibility and inclusion of Greeks of African descent in the dominant narrative of Greece.