British Academy Lecture 2024: Affirming the History of African and Caribbean People in Britain

We look forward to welcoming Professor Hakim Adi to Leeds to deliver this year's annual British Academy Lecture on:

Affirming the History of African and Caribbean People in Britain

It is now over 60 years since Hugh Trevor-Roper - professor of history at the University of Oxford - declared ‘Perhaps in the future there will be some African history to teach. But at present there is none, only the history of Europeans in Africa.’ It might be hoped that such Eurocentrism had long been dead, but too often it appears to be alive, if not well, and a recurring question in the study and teaching of history in the UK.

In this lecture, Hakim Adi reflects on how affirming the history of African and Caribbean people enhances the study of the history of Britain and the importance of countering Eurocentrism in all its forms, both in higher education and beyond.

Hakim Adi is an award-winning historian. His latest book, African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History, was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2023. He was the first historian of African heritage to become a professor of history in Britain when he was appointed Professor of the History of Africa and the African Diaspora in 2015 at the University of Chichester where he established the MRes in the History of Africa and African Diaspora. The University of Chichester announced in 2023 that the course was suspended and Professor Adi's role made redundant.