Loss of Black Identity in Cyprus

What is it about?

“Wake up Ali, wake up!” repeats the folk song. “Arap Ali” (Black Ali) was a folk hero and my paternal grandfather, who was murdered by British colonial soldiers. The song motivated the production of the first-ever Turkish Cypriot opera in 2019. The art form presented actual Black people as white. Connecting personal memories to the symbols of staged whitewashing, this study seeks to understand hidden colorist cultural practices in Cyprus. I discuss the ways in which global racism and colonialism are strongly entangled with local racist and colorist practices. This autoethnography is a call to wake up and take a stand against silencing and oppression.

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