Representatives of modern multicultural, "polychrome" societies continue to demonstrate the ability and desire to distinguish colors, distinguish "their" and "others", "black" and "white"," red "and"yellow". But, as it was centuries ago, the variety of shades of each of the pvets is still often beyond the comprehension of many of them.

Monograph of the Africanist, Doctor of Historical Sciences, social anthropologist D. M. Bondarenko " Shades of Black. Cultural and anthropological aspects of mutual perception and relationships between African-Americans and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa in the United States" (Moscow, YASK Publishing House, 2016, 232 p. with fig.) It is devoted to the extremely complex problem of detailing the shades of one of the most significant colors in the palette of the ethno-social map of the United States.

"Colored worlds" - an expression used by the ideological inspirer of pan-Africanism, the American educator William Dubois (1868-1963) as the title for one of the novels, is the best way to characterize the subject of D. M. Bondarenko's research. The monograph focuses on two worlds: the world of African-Americans and the world of Africans who immigrated to the United States. Ambivalence of such an ephemeral concept as "black community"

Traditionally expressed in the division into African-Americans and all other black people, this book was more specific: it considers two groups - "black children of America" and first - or second-generation African migrants.

The relevance and novelty of the study are beyond doubt. Questions of mutual perception and relations between Africans and African-Americans at different periods of time worried prominent thinkers belonging to both groups. At the beginning of the twentieth century, W. Dubois and the Jamaican public figure, founder of the World Association for the Advancement of Negroes, Marcus Garvey (1887-1940), were keen to find common features, sought to draw the attention of Black Americans towards Africa and talked about unification. In the last third of the same century, Kenyan political scientist, historian and cultural critic Ali Mazrui (1933-2014), Ghanaian poet and publicist Kofi Awunor (1935-2013), Malian writer and cultural critic Mantiu Diawaru (b. 1953), British - American Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah (b. 1954), American author of the book, and the author of the book, the author of the book, the author of the book, the author of the book, the author of the book, the author of the book, the author of the book, the author of the book, the author of the book, Literary critic and historian Henry Lewis Gates (b. 1950)was interested in the nature of the differences between Africans and African-Americans. ¹

Each of them noted the complexity and versatility of this issue, regardless of how they assessed its current state and prospects for development. Currently, the topic remains relevant: it is discussed in university classrooms, on the pages of journals, on forums and in social networks, and its first publication is published in the Internet.-

think writers, artists, and filmmakers ².

The biased nature of the study is due not only to the interest of the scientific community, but also to the state of identity crisis characteristic of African-Americans, who are a vulnerable ethnic anomaly, and immigrants who are forced to adapt to a new place.

The monograph is based on materials collected by the author and his colleagues during three field seasons (2013-2015). The geographical scope of the study is very extensive and covers all regions of the United States, with the exception of the Mountain West (11 states). The author of the monograph focuses on the problems of coexistence within the borders of cities and their districts of two groups of African origin - African-Americans and immigrants from Tropical Africa, currently living in the United States, their mutual perception and experience of relationships.

The research is based on the method of observation, as well as semi-structured and unstructured interviews (conversations lasting 1-2 hours and lasting up to 1 hour). During the expeditions, interviews were conducted with African-Americans and immigrants from 22 sub-Saharan African countries. The respondents belonged to different age groups and occupied different social positions. The author of the monograph was present at a number of formal and informal events held by African-American church and public organizations, members of African communities and Papafrican associations, carefully studied the expositions of museums and thematic exhibitions, which was reflected in the photographic materials presented in the book, and allowed for an in-depth analysis of images, representations, memorial culture and historical memory.

The book consists of three chapters: the first is devoted to the similarities and differences of the studied groups, as well as the basics and processes of forming mutual images and representations; the second is devoted to issues of historical memory; the third is devoted to forms and situations of interaction between African-Americans and African migrants.

D. M. Bonda-Renko identifies skin color and place of residence (USA) as common for African-Americans and Africans (some homogenizing factors). However, the attitude of both to these two categories is different. Africans tend to concretize shades of black, while African-Americans prefer to absolutize black. Given these circumstances, the author of the monograph expresses an extremely important idea about the identities of the two groups. If for Africans the basis of identity is the country of origin or ethnicity, then for black Americans the key aspect of identity has become race.

Prominent African-American publicist and public figure James Baldwin (1924 - 1987), following the famous American writer Henry James (1843 - 1916), described the essence of the "color barrier" and called "black America ""another country"³. To this day, as shown in an interview with Dmitry Bondarenko, some African-Americans who strive for isolation and claim their culture as special, agree with him, positioning themselves as a "state within a state".

This position determines the attitude to the country of residence. If Africans who have recently moved to the United States see it as a land of opportunity, then for African-Americans (who are much less educated) it seems to be a place where they are constantly deprived of opportunities. "What is so often forgotten in discussions about the 'place' of the Negro population in American society < ... > is the fact that it was only as a slave that they had this very place. In a post-slavery society, there was no place for a black American, and if there was any sphere in society where Negroes could find an integral function, it was a space created by them and for themselves, " wrote the famous African-American poet, publicist and public figure Leroy Jones (1934-2014), who later preferred to call himself Amiri Baraka. This view allows African-Americans to talk about being chosen and allow comparisons with other peoples who have been oppressed for centuries, such as the Jews, as the author of the book testifies.

However, the majority of African-Americans, according to D. M. Bondarenko, feel "in their own place", which is reflected in their historical memory.

The author's merit is to describe the factors and mechanism of forming mutual images of the studied groups. Among them, D. M. Bondarenko highlights personal experience gained in the process of communication, established stereotypes, value judgments and knowledge in the field of history. Of particular interest is the second chapter of the monograph, in which the author, acting in line with current trends in world historical science, raises the topic of representation and perception of the past.

The philosopher, sociologist, and author of one of the concepts of historical collective memory, Maurice Halbwachs (1877-1945), presented history as the "universal memory of the human race", and saw the historian's mission in creating a unified picture of past events by "removing" them from the memory of social groups. to study collective memory ⁶ in order to create the most complete picture of the mutual perception of intergroup relations. By including questions about fairly well-known historical figures and events in the interview, the author of the monograph identified the "consolidating forces" ⁷ of collective memory and revealed the presence of asymmetry in the historical memory of African-Americans and immigrants from African countries.

The third chapter, which is a logical consequence of the previous two, contains a large number of interview materials, on the basis of which the author analyzes the influence of mutual images and historical memory on intergroup relations. The chapter implements one of the key research goals-to confirm or refute the thesis about the historical and cultural unity of Africans and African-Americans.

* * *

D. M. Bondarenko's work became an event not only in Russian, but also in international anthropology: This is the first in-depth, comprehensive and conceptual study of the problem of cross-cultural interaction between African-Americans and African migrants in the United States.

The book is intended for a wide range of readers - anthropologists, historians, sociologists, Africanists, Americanists and all those who are interested in this topic. The author of the monograph not only shares unique information obtained during the expeditions, but also opens up new prospects for further research.

A multicultural society poses new challenges for scientists, including a detailed study of all its constituent groups, the relationships between their representatives, identifying localizations of conflicts and prospects for their development, as well as finding strategies for peaceful coexistence. Through his research, D. M. Bondarenko brings the reader closer to understanding the essence of those cultural and anthropological factors that determine the behavior of African-Americans and Africans in relation to each other. A multi-factor analysis of the problem presented by the author showed that despite the fact that representatives of the studied groups often have similar phenotypic characteristics and live within the borders of the same state, there is a distance between them that is unlikely to be overcome in the near future.

N. E. KHOKHOLKOVA, post-graduate student, I. G. Demidov Yaroslavl State University

^{Gavristova T. M.} 1 Afrikanskie intellektualy za zagranim Afrika [African Intellectuals outside Africa]. Yaroslavl, 2002; Gavristova T. M. Neizvestnaya Afrika: istoriya v biografii [Unknown Africa: History in biographies]. Yaroslavl, Filigran, 2014. (Gavristova T. M. 2002. Afrikanskie intellektualy za predelami Afriki. Yaroslavl; Gavristova T.M. 2014. Neizvestnaya Afrika: istoriya v biografiyakh. Yaroslavl) (in Russian)

² In 2014, Kenyan-born filmmaker Perez Owino released the documentary "Connection: Africans vs. African-Americans".

^{Baldwin J.} 3 Another Country. N.Y., Dial Press, 1962.

⁴ Cit. by: Zaitsev A.V. Afrikano-amerikanskaya muzyka i problemy afrikano-amerikansky identichnosti. M., Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2004, p. 12. (ZaitsevA.V. 2004. Afrikano-amerikanskaya muzyka i problemy afrikano-amerikansky identichnosti. M.) (in Russian)

^{Assman A.} 5 The Long Shadow of the Past: Memorial Culture and Historical Politics, Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2014, p. 45. (Assman A. 2014. Dlinnaya ten proshlogo: Memorialnaya kultura i istoricheskaya politika. M.) (in Russian)

^{Bondarenko D. M.} 6 Fight for common cause? Memory of recent events and mutual perception of African-Americans and modern migrants from Africa to the United States // Asia and Africa today. 2015. N 7, pp. 34-41. (Bondarenko D. M. 2015. Borba za obshchee delo? Pamyat о sobytiyakb nedavnego proshlogo i vzaimovospriyatie afrikano-amerikantsev i sovremennykh migrantov iz Afriki v SShA // Aziya i Afrika segodnya. N 7) (in Russian)

⁷ Ibid., p. 36.

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