Black History Month - Hakim Adi

African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History

Acclaimed historian Hakim Adi demonstrates in his new book 'African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History', that from the very beginning, from the moment humans first stood on this rainy isle, there have been African and Caribbean men and women set at Britain's heart. Libyan legionaries patrolled Hadrian's Wall while Rome's first 'African Emperor' died in York. In Elizabethan England, 'Black Tudors' served in the land's most eminent households while intrepid African explorers helped Sir Francis Drake to circumnavigate the globe. And, as Britain became a major colonial and commercial power, it was African and Caribbean people who led the radical struggle for freedom - a struggle which raged throughout the twentieth century and continues today in Black Lives Matter campaigns.

Hakim Adi

Hakim Adi is Professor of the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Chichester. Hakim was the first historian of African heritage to become a professor of history in Britain. In January 2018, he launched the world’s first online Masters by Research (MRes) programme on the History of Africa and the African Diaspora. Hakim is also the founder and consultant historian of the Young Historians Project. 

He has appeared in many documentary films, on TV and on radio and has written widely on the history of Africa and the African Diaspora, including history books for children such as 'The History of African and Caribbean People in Britain' (Wayland, 2020) and 'African Migrations' (Wayland, 2020). His publications have been translated into French, Spanish and Portuguese and include: 'West Africans in Britain 1900-60: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and Communism' (Lawrence and Wishart, 1998); (with M. Sherwood) 'The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress Revisited' (New Beacon, 1995) and 'Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787' (Routledge, 2003). His most recent books are 'Pan-Africanism and Communism: The Communist International, Africa and the Diaspora, 1919-1939' (Africa World Press, 2013), 'Pan-Africanism: A History' (Bloomsbury Press, 2018) and, as editor 'Black British History: New Perspectives' (Zed, 2019) and 'Black Voices on Britain' (Macmillan, 2022). His latest publication is 'Africa and Caribbean People in Britain: A History' (Penguin, 2022).

Professor Adi's personal website

Registration

This will be a free, in-person event. The discussion will be lead by Katuch Bento, Lecturer in Race and Decolonial Studies in the School of Social and Political Science.