AnonymousAnonymous wrote:
I remember hearing some sort of rumour a while back that Beethoven was part black. I looked into it again earlier, and I'm with you - I don't buy it. I wouldn't mind if he were; I just don't find the evidence convincing.
Apparently there was a book by Nadine Gorimer called 'Beethoven was one-sixteenth black' that was partly responsible for spreading the idea, plus the fact (if it is a fact) that Beethoven was nicknamed der Schwartzer for his dark complexion.
I think some people like to exaggerate the part non-Europeans played in pre-20th-century Europe. There just weren't that many black people in Europe before the 20th century. America is another matter of course.
Still, I remember being pretty surprised when I learnt about the writer Alexander Pushkin (quarter black?) and the composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (half black).
Anyway, I'm going off at a tangent.
I know this thread is about black aspies, and I don't really have any more suggestions.
[Btw, Coleridge-Taylor's wiki entry says he was 'shy'! And he was no relation to the poet Taylor-Coleridge.]