Restricted affiliation: the costs of otherness among Afroczechs

Abstract

The increasing presence of African diasporic people in Europe and their identity politics have given rise to a proliferation of studies on their experiences, albeit with the exception of central eastern Europe (CEE). This research expands on this scholarship by addressing lived experiences, racialisation processes and struggles to belong among Afropeans in Czechia. Grounded in ethnography the study draws from narrative interviews with self-identified Afroczechs who are closely connected to both their African heritage and their Czechness. We conceptualise their identity politics as Restricted Affiliation in a sense that the state of belonging to Czechia has distinct limits due to the high costs of racial Otherness they experience. The findings demonstrate the limits of a shared language vis-à-vis racial ideologies in Czech national identity constructions and contribute to more visibility and further theorising of Czech blackness.