Hakim Adi: three decades (and counting) of reclaiming the historical narrative
Last year’s cyber-attack on the Library continues to impact on social science disciplines where researchers rely on current material. Whilst remote ordering for print and archival materials received before April 2023 has now been restored, the Library remains unable to provide access to published material held in digital formats (ebooks, ejournals and archived web content) and to print materials received after April 2023.
Rather than focusing on recent work, at the conclusion of this year’s Black History Month, it seems fitting to present a retrospective overview of the work of one of someone who has been at the forefront of reclaiming the historical narrative for over three decades. Hakim Adi held the post of Professor of the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Chichester, until the university discontinued the Masters course on which he taught and made him redundant in July 2023. He was the first historian of African heritage to become a professor of history in Britain. Hakim Adi established a ground-breaking Masters by Research (MRes) programme on the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at Chichester. His most recent work, African and Caribbean People in Britain (Penguin, 2023) was shortlisted for the prestigious Wolfson history prize, and he was instrumental in the founding of History Matters whose free, online journal is celebrating the organisation's 10th year. History Matters will host the 3rd New Perspectives on the History of African and Caribbean People in Britain Conference on Saturday 9 November 2024.
Cover of Winter 2024 issue of History Matters Journal, Volume 4, no.1.
Hakim Adi founded the Young Historians Project to promote the study and popular understanding of Black history. The project encourages the development of young people of African and Caribbean heritage into historians, researchers, editors, public speakers, creatives, and more: passing the work of reclaiming the narrative to a new generation. In this light, it perhaps not surprising that the earliest of Professor Adi’s works held by the Library is one of his books written for children, rather than adults: African migrations (Hove, Wayland, 1994, YK.1995.b.8866). This book was republished with an updated cover by Hachette in 2021.
African migrations, by Hakim Adi. Hove, Wayland, 1994. YK.1995.b.8866
This post highlights Hakim Adi’s books and chapters in collective works that are held by the Library in print format, and which are currently available to readers using the Library. Professor Adi can be counted among the many voices calling for Black history to be incorporated more fully into the curriculum at school and university, and to be a concern across the whole year rather than confined to Black History Month. The books featured in this post can be accessed in the Library’s reading rooms in London and Yorkshire. Anyone over 18 can register for a free reader’s pass to use the reading rooms.
The earliest of Professor Adi’s works for adults, co-authored with Marika Sherwood, and held by the Library recounts the history of the fifth, and arguably most significant, Pan African Congress, held in Manchester in 1945. The book includes the report of the 5th Congress edited by leading Pan-Africanist and writer George Padmore (1903-1959). The book was published by Britain’s first Black publishers and bookshop, New Beacon Books, founded by John La Rose and Sarah White.
The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress revisited. Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood. London: New Beacon Books 1995, YC.1995.a.3969
Adi followed on three years’ later with West Africans in Britain 1900-1960: nationalism, pan-Africanism and communism, which not only shines an important light on the lives of Black people living in Britain before the Second World War but also shows the influence these pioneers have had on a world scale.
West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: nationalism, pan-Africanism and communism, by Hakim Adi. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1998 YC.1999.a.3231
An inside page from West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: nationalism, pan-Africanism and communism, by Hakim Adi. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1998 YC.1999.a.3231
Professor Adi, again working with Marika Sherwood, followed up with a book tracing the wider history of political figures from Africa and the African diaspora. Pan-African history: political figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787, was published by Routledge in 2003.
Pan-African history: political figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787, by Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood. London: Routledge, 2003. YC.2004.a.199
Adi adapted his scholarship to author another book for children, The history of the African and Caribbean communities in Britain, published in London by Hodder Wayland in 2005, YK.2008.b.5900. This book has been through multiple editions, and was republished most recently by Hachette in 2021.
The history of the African and Caribbean communities in Britain. London, Hodder Wayland, 2005. YK.2008.b.5900
Professor Adi’s concern not only with history but with the way colonial histories have been presented, comes to the fore in the chapter he contributed to a collective work edited by Simon Faulkner and Anandi Ramamurthy: Visual culture and decolonisation in Britain, YC.2007.a.933. First published by Ashgate in 2006, and subsequently by Routledge, the book traces the way in which different visual genres – art, film, advertising, photography, news reports and ephemera – represented and contributed to political and social struggles over Empire and decolonisation during the mid-Twentieth century. Hakim Adi wrote a chapter with Anandi Ramamurthy under the title, 'Fragments in the history of the visual culture of anti-colonial struggle'.
Simon Faulkner and Anandi Ramamurthy: Visual culture and decolonisation in Britain, YC.2007.a.933
Another chapter in a wide-ranging and fascinating historical work followed. Adi contributed the chapter on ‘The Negro question; the communist international and black liberation in the interwar years’ to From Toussaint to Tupac : the Black international since the age of revolution (Michael O. West, William G Martin and Fanon Che Wilkins) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009, YC.2010.a.684. From Toussaint to Tupac is a collection of essays across geographic and cultural lines exploring black internationalism and its implications for a black consciousness. Its description reads, “At its core, black internationalism is a struggle against oppression, whether manifested in slavery, colonialism, or racism. The ten essays in this volume offer a comprehensive overview of the global movements that define black internationalism, from its origins in the colonial period to the present.”
From Toussaint to Tupac, YC.2010.a.684, in the centre of other books on the basement shelves, waiting to be ordered up to the reading rooms.
In 2011, with Caroline Bressey, Adi edited and contributed a chapter to Belonging in Europe : the African diaspora and work, London: Routledge 2011, YC.2014.a.9592. In this book, which makes connections across Europe through the experience of work and labour, Adi’s chapter was on ‘The Comintern and Black Workers in Britain and France 1919-37’. The book’s chapters cover the period from the long eighteenth century to the Second World War.
Belonging in Europe: the African diaspora and work, edited by Caroline Bressey and Hakim Adi, London: Routledge 2011, YC.2014.a.9592
A flavour of Caroline Bressey’s important work can be gained from her chapter (chapter 11) in Slavery and the British Country House (edited by Madge Dresser and Andrew Hann, and published by English Heritage, which is freely available online.
Adi updated and extended his earlier work on communism and Pan-Africanism in 2013, publishing the 445-page Pan-Africanism and communism: the communist international, Africa and the diaspora, 1919-1939. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2013. YC.2019.a.166
Pan-Africanism and communism: the communist international, Africa and the diaspora, 1919-1939. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2013. YC.2019.a.166
In 2018, Adi published Pan-Africanism: a history, Bloomsbury Academic, covering many key figures in the twentieth century development of Pan-African thought and practice from W.E.B. De Bois, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and Kwame Nkrumah through to the music of Bob Marley.
Front cover of Pan-Africanism: a history, Hakim Adi, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. YC.2019.a.2646
Back cover of Pan-Africanism: a history, Hakim Adi, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. YC.2019.a.2646
Adi brought the work of established and emerging scholars together in the publication of his edited work Black British History: New Perspectives, Zed Books, 2019. The book spans the centuries from the first Black Britons to the latest African migrants, covering everything from Africans in Tudor England to the movement for reparations. This is held in the Library as an ebook at ELD.DS.649502 and is not currently available.
Adi’s most recent sole-authored work, African and Caribbean People in Britain: a history, Penguin 2023 is also unavailable at present. He came to the British Library to speak about the book, in conversation with historian David Olusoga in November 2022. A recording of the event is available online
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqe5TyD09Yk
Adi's edited work, Many Struggles: New Histories of African and Caribbean People in Britain, Pluto Press, 2023, also features the work of emerging scholars and scholar-activists. The book draws on new archival research to emphasise often-neglected themes such as local histories, women, gender and political activism. Voices from the archive also come to the fore in Black voices on Britain, London : Macmillan, 2022 (held digitally as ELD.DS.729195, not available at the moment). In this book, Adi draws on published works to give voice to people who lived, worked, campaigned and travelled in Britain from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Writers featured include James Gronniosaw, Mary Prince, Frederick Douglass, and William Wells Brown among others. The Library appreciates the patience and understanding of its users whilst these books, received in digital format, are unavailable to readers. Similarly the Library is grateful for the understanding of publishers currently unable to deposit books in digital format whilst work is undertaken to make ebooks and ejournals available once more.
Fortunately, following up on references to chapters Hakim Adi has contributed to other works can lead to the discovery of major contributions to scholarship that aim to redress the historical narrative. One such work is Representing slavery: art, artefacts and archives in the collections of the National Maritime Museum, edited by Douglas J. Hamilton and Robert J. Blyth (Aldershot: Lund Humphries: 2007. LC.31.a.5400. Adi contributed a short chapter to this substantial work, which is currently available and is relevant to the work of a wide range of British institutions confronting the legacy of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.
Professor Adi’s work can also be found in another book available in the Library, with a detailed preview on JSTOR : Global Africa : into the twenty-first century, edited by Dorothy Hodgson and Judith Byfield, University of California Press, 2017. YC.2018.a.12042
Global Africa : into the twenty-first century, edited by Dorothy Hodgson and Judith Byfield, University of California Press, 2017. YC.2018.a.12042
Similarly Professor Adi’s history books for children, which are held by the Library, remain important markers along the way to creating a more inclusive and accurate narrative for a younger generation.
Nelson Mandela: father of freedom, by Hakim Adi. London: Hodder Wayland, 2000. YK.2001.b.3940 (stored in Yorkshire, allow 48 hours for delivery to London reading rooms)
References
African migrations, by Hakim Adi. Hove, Wayland, 1994. YK.1995.b.8866
The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress revisited. Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood. London: New Beacon Books, 1995. YC.1995.a.3969
Pan-African history: political figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787, by Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood. London: Routledge, 2003. YC.2004.a.199
The history of the African and Caribbean communities in Britain, London, Hodder Wayland, 2005. YK.2008.b.5900.
(With Anandi Ramamurthy) 'Fragments in the history of the visual culture of anti-colonial struggle' in Visual culture and decolonisation in Britain, Simon Faulkner and Anandi Ramamurthy, Ashgate, 2006. YC.2007.a.933.
'Black people in Britain' in Representing slavery: art, artefacts and archives in the collections of the National Maritime Museum, edited by Douglas J. Hamilton and Robert J. Blyth Aldershot: Lund Humphries: 2007. LC.31.a.5400
‘The Negro question; the communist international and black liberation in the interwar years’ in From Toussaint to Tupac: the Black international since the age of revolution (Michael O. West, William G Martin and Fanon Che Wilkins) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009, YC.2010.a.684.
Belonging in Europe: the African diaspora and work, edited by Caroline Bressey and Hakim Adi, London: Routledge 2011, YC.2014.a.9592
Pan-Africanism and communism: the communist international, Africa and the diaspora, 1919-1939. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2013. YC.2019.a.166
'Pan-Africanism: An Ideology and a Movement' in Global Africa : into the twenty-first century, edited by Dorothy Hodgson and Judith Byfield, University of California Press, 2017. YC.2018.a.12042
Pan-Africanism: a history, Hakim Adi, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. YC.2019.a.2646