Dominic Thomas's monograph and the volumes edited respectively by Abdoulaye Kane and Todd H. Leedy and by Caroline Bressey and Hakim Adi are welcome contributions to the ongoing conversation on the complex connections between European empires and their metropolises. These books also shed light on the processes contributing to the creation – and recreation – of the New African Diaspora, as well as the conditions shaping African diaspora members' experiences in their host countries.

Africa and France: Postcolonial Cultures, Migration, and Racism, is a tour de force, a thorough analysis in which Thomas examines the French empire, culture, and society as a single unit of analysis. He looks at museum construction, government speeches and policies, literature, films, and theater, and explores processes that have influenced (and continue to impact) the metropolis, as well as conditions of the African Diaspora in France until the early twenty-first century. This book is a tremendous contribution and must-read for students of francophone studies, diaspora studies, and postcolonial studies.

Thomas re-explores a ‘colonial culture’ that emerged from French colonialism and a ‘postcolonial culture’ that followed the end of the French empire in the second half of the twentieth century, and examines how they have shaped French politics. Various cultural forms such as literature, cinema, art, and journalism were used to depict the empire and the exotic populations ‘discovered’ within it. These cultural tools served in the production and dissemination of ‘colonial culture’, which, in turn, became a coherent political doctrine directly tied to universalist discourses about colonised peoples. Human zoos and other colonial exhibits were among the cultural tools that were central to bringing colonised peoples into the metropole. Drawing on the work of Blanchard, Boëtsch, and Snoep, Thomas examines the links between colonial exhibits and processes of othering and exclusion, and how these influenced French colonial policies.

According to Thomas, the Quai Branly Museum, the National Center for the History of Immigration, and government speeches and policies on immigration, namely those of Nicolas Sarkozy and his ministers Brice Hortefeux and Eric Besson, perpetuate ‘colonial culture’ in France in the twenty-first century. This ‘postcolonial culture’ has developed in relation to migrations from Africa and the rest of the former empire, and the creation of the New African diaspora in France. The presence of the empire in the heart of the metropolis has altered (and continues to do so) the face of French society and raises pressing questions about the country's national identity and the way in which France has been affected by its empire. The ongoing migration of people has brought hundreds of thousands of ‘exotic’ people to the banks of the Seine and has complicated the meaning of ‘French identity’ and all that it signifies. However, Sarkozy's government and that of prior French administrations, as well the mainstream, continued to draw distinctions between a majority of the French population which is Caucasian, Christian, and European, and ethnic minorities who are black and beur, that is, non-white, non-European, and often Muslim.

Thomas also looks at the cultural production of the African Diaspora in France. Through movies, literature, plays, and other cultural means, the African Diaspora engages in dialogue with the mainstream and offers an alternative meaning of ‘Frenchness’. Cultural works such as the anthology, Pour une littérature monde (Toward a World Literature in French) (2007) or Jean-François Rivet's film, ‘Ma C-T va crack-er’ (1997) blur the lines and redefine France (and Europe) as a place with a diverse population.

Abdoulaye Kane and Todd H. Leedy's African Migrations: Patterns and Perspectives is a collection of fourteen articles that explore new terrain and give nuance to our understanding of African migrations and the African Diaspora. The collection's multidisciplinary approach builds on diverse disciplines and provides a different examination of this topic.

Migratory waves originating on the African continent are often looked at from an economic perspective that suggests that Africans – and particularly young Africans – leave for the West in pursuit of better economic opportunities. The first four chapters move beyond the economic approach and provide thoughtful, alternative analyses of migrations. Bruce Whitehouse, for example, examines the reasons prompting West Africans to migrate to Brazzaville, Congo where they constitute a reasonably successful community. Whitehouse suggests that because West Africans go to the Congo in order to escape the demands of their social networks, scholars should also examine the ‘cultural and social milieu in which migrants operate and make decisions’ (p. 30). Isaie Dougnon's study examines the psychological dimensions of migration, which is considered a rite of passage that grants the traveler a new social identity. Donald Parker's chapter looks at African migrations to Italy, the southern part of ‘fortress Europe’, where migrants' rights are often violated. He asks if the rationale behind immigration policies meets the standards of ethics and morality. Rubin Patterson believes that ‘chosen immigration’ – migrations of African minds – nurses and physicians, for example – to Europe and America, also raises ethical questions, because it deprives Africa of the brain power it needs for its development.

The second part of the book entitled, ‘Translocal and Transnational Connections: Between Belonging and Exclusion’, includes works by Loren Landau, Hansjörg Dilger, Scott Youngstedt, Paul Stoller, Afe Adogame, and Cindy Horst. These authors examine complex aspects of the evolution of migrant identities and the negotiation of migrants' multiples affiliations. Migrants may have a strong connection with their homeland, where they have family members to whom they regularly send money. At the same time, they are in an ongoing process of negotiation with their host countries; for example, African-led churches negotiate ritual spaces as well as religious identities (p. 189). The relationship of immigrants with their African host countries is also very complex. For example, tensions have been observed in many countries that bear witness to the marginalization to which migrants are subject. Angola and South Africa, to cite just a couple of examples, provide contexts in which negotiations between migrants and their host countries take place at the intersection of migration, statebuilding, economics, and identity.

The third part of the book, ‘Feminization and the Appearance of Diasporic Identities’, consists of four chapters written by Jane Freedman, Cheikh Anta Babou, Beth Buggenhagen, and Rachel Reynolds. These works discuss the changes to migratory patterns, including the participation of thousands of African women in waves of migration from Africa. Analysis of the feminization of migrations reveals, among other things, specific hardships endured by African women. Those seeking asylum because they have been raped, for example, must retell the sexual violence of which they are victims and which left deep scars on their entire lives. The feminization of migration also prompts the recomposition of gender roles in new host countries. Working women challenge traditional gender roles seen in patriarchal societies. Such recomposition is usually accompanied by tensions, as many men have difficulty embracing their new status within the diaspora.

The essays in Belonging in Europe: The African Diaspora and Work, edited by Caroline Bressey and Hakim Adi, seek a better understanding of the histories of the empire in several European metropolises between the eighteenth century and the Second World War. The contributors examine the African Diaspora in Great Britain, France, Germany, and the Netherlands and seek to better understand the everyday experiences of diaspora members through their professional activities. As Bressey and Adi write in their introduction, the aim is to contribute to the development of comparative histories of the black presence in Europe by assembling research focusing on various European countries (pp. 1, 6).

This eight-chapter volume opens new research paths and calls on scholars to deepen their analyses of black people's presence in Europe. Essays by Kathleen Chater, Dienke Hondius, Caroline Bressey, Jan Marsh, and Sean Creighton focus on black people's social mobility in different European countries. These works demonstrate that some blacks achieved high levels of education, as did Eliza Capitein in the Netherlands. John Archer became a local politician in the Labour movement, while many other blacks were able to achieve job mobility with relative ease. These authors examine the disparate treatment of people of African descent living in the metropolis, who enjoyed certain advantages or rights, and those living in the colonies who were oppressed.

Essays by Robbie Aitkin, Gavin Schaffer, and Hakim Adi examine the presence of Africans in Weimar Germany, during the Second World War, and between the two world wars. Aitkin suggests that black people living in Weimar Germany shaped Germans’ ideas about race and identity. Schaffer's article suggests that even if tens of thousands of black soldiers fought alongside British troops to defeat Nazi Germany, the metropolis and British policies continue to be shaped by long-held views about black people's ‘inferiority’. Adi's essay explores efforts made by the Communist International to organize African and Caribbean workers in Europe in the early twentieth century as part of an effort to organize all workers. Adi argues that ‘this contributed to ushering in a new form of Pan-Africanism, one that not only linked black workers in Europe with Africa and the Caribbean but also with other workers in Europe and with each other’ (p. 137). The authors of the collection themselves assert that it is important to expand research. For example, it would be interesting to contrast Adi's argument about the unity of all workers in Europe with that of Laclau and Mouffe (1985) who suggest that there are not unified classes and that tensions exist among working people.

The authors' suggestions to examine comparative histories of people of African descent in Europe can only expand and bring nuance to our understanding of the African Diaspora in European metropolises. Such studies will benefit disciplines such as diaspora studies, postcolonial Studies, African studies, as well as analyses of imperialism and colonialism.