Additional Information
Book Details
Abstract
For over 1500 years before the Empire Windrush docked on British shores, people of African descent have played a significant and far-ranging role in the country’s history, from the African soldiers on Hadrian’s Wall to the Black British intellectuals who made London a hub of radical, Pan-African ideas. But while there has been a growing interest in this history, there has been little recognition of the sheer breadth and diversity of the Black British experience, until now.
This collection combines the latest work from both established and emerging scholars of Black British history. It 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, and the never ending struggles against racism in between.
An invaluable resource for both future scholarship and those looking for a useful introduction to Black British history, Black British History: New Perspectives has the potential to transform our understanding of Britain, and of its place in the world.
Hakim Adi is Professor of the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Chichester, and a trustee of the Black Cultural Archive in London. He also has served as a historical advisor to the Museum of London Docklands, and to the Black Cultural Archive’s Young Historians project. His other works include Introduction to Black British History (2018), Pan-Africanism: A Global History (2018), and Pan-Africanism and Communism (2013).
'A truly ground-breaking collection bringing new and important insights to the history of Black people in Britain. Black British History is a powerful body of work that reimagines the role Blackness in Britain. An indispensable contribution to how we understand Britain.'
Kehinde Andrews, author of Back to Black: Retelling Black Radicalism for the 21st Century
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front Cover | Front Cover | ||
| About the Editor | ii | ||
| Title Page | iii | ||
| Copyright | iv | ||
| Contents | v | ||
| About the contributors | vii | ||
| Introduction | 1 | ||
| 1: ‘Blackamoores’ have their own names in early modern England | 15 | ||
| African countrymen | 15 | ||
| ‘Sacred white’ spaces | 16 | ||
| The act of naming | 17 | ||
| The ‘Blackamoore’ lives in early modern societies | 18 | ||
| New scholarship ‘discovers’ Blackamoores | 20 | ||
| Blackness of the Blackamoore | 21 | ||
| A Moorish nation | 23 | ||
| The intersection of modern ethnology | 26 | ||
| Notes | 27 | ||
| 2: Between colony and metropole: empire, race and power in eighteenth-century Britain | 37 | ||
| The status of black servants | 39 | ||
| Colonial power in the metropole | 44 | ||
| Conclusion | 47 | ||
| Notes | 49 | ||
| 3: ‘Race’, rank, and the politics of inter-war commemoration of African and Caribbean servicemen in Britain | 52 | ||
| Introduction | 52 | ||
| Black war service in the multiple theatres | 53 | ||
| The Peace Day Parade of 1919 | 55 | ||
| The Cenotaph and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior | 56 | ||
| The ‘One Million Dead of the British Empire’ memorial | 58 | ||
| The Royal Navy and Merchant Navy memorials | 61 | ||
| Africans and Caribbeans in cemeteries in Britain | 63 | ||
| Hollybrook memorial to the missing | 64 | ||
| South African Native Labour Corps graves as signifiers of racial status | 65 | ||
| Conclusion | 67 | ||
| Notes | 67 | ||
| 4: ‘You ask for bread, they give you hot lead’: when\rCaribbean radicals protested against conscription\rfor colonial subjects | 71 | ||
| George Padmore: another Trinidadian Internationalist | 72 | ||
| The International African Service Bureau | 73 | ||
| The declaration of war | 75 | ||
| Manifesto Against War | 76 | ||
| Ideas travel | 79 | ||
| Why colonial/West Indian workers opposed conscription | 81 | ||
| Belonging to British history | 84 | ||
| Notes | 87 | ||
| 5: Before Notting Hill: the Causeway Green ‘riots’ of 1949 | 90 | ||
| Earlier NSHC disturbances | 91 | ||
| The Causeway Green ‘riot’ | 92 | ||
| Introducing quotas | 98 | ||
| Conclusion | 101 | ||
| Notes | 103 | ||
| 6: History beyond borders: teaching Black Britain and reimagining black liberation | 107 | ||
| London’s March on Washington | 111 | ||
| Malcolm X in Smethwick | 114 | ||
| Defending Angela Davis and resisting the power of the state | 119 | ||
| Notes | 123 | ||
| 7: ‘The Spirit of Bandung’ in 1970s Britain: the Black Liberation Front’s revolutionary transnationalism | 125 | ||
| Black Power for the Third World | 125 | ||
| Survival and liberation | 128 | ||
| Repression breeds resistance | 129 | ||
| Serve the people | 133 | ||
| Pan-Africanism and the Third World | 135 | ||
| Notes | 137 | ||
| 8: The evolution of ideas and practices among\rAfrican-centred organisations in the UK, 1975–2015 | 144 | ||
| Introduction | 144 | ||
| Relevance and purpose | 144 | ||
| The impact of the Sixth Pan-African Congress | 145 | ||
| Strictly an African family occasion | 146 | ||
| The ‘Turbulent 80s’ | 149 | ||
| The Nile Valley civilisation and the reawakening of Black consciousness | 152 | ||
| Power | 155 | ||
| Conclusion | 158 | ||
| Notes | 159 | ||
| 9: The New Cross Fire of 1981 and its aftermath | 162 | ||
| Introduction | 162 | ||
| The New Cross Massacre Action Committee | 163 | ||
| The government | 165 | ||
| The police | 166 | ||
| The press | 167 | ||
| The Black People’s Day of Action | 167 | ||
| Community responses | 169 | ||
| Conclusion | 171 | ||
| Notes | 173 | ||
| 10: The long road of Pan-African liberation to reparatory justice | 176 | ||
| Introduction | 176 | ||
| Defining Pan-Africanism | 180 | ||
| On the meaning of reparations | 181 | ||
| Selected landmarks in UK reparations historiography | 183 | ||
| Notes | 195 | ||
| 11: Quest for a cohesive diaspora African community:\rreliving historic experiences by Black Zimbabweans\rin Britain | 199 | ||
| Introduction | 199 | ||
| Zimbabweans in Britain | 200 | ||
| Migration trends and diaspora Shona–Ndebele demography | 202 | ||
| Gukurahundi legacy on Shona–Ndebele relations in Britain | 205 | ||
| Shona attitudes | 208 | ||
| The transformation of ethnic demography and its impact on relations | 209 | ||
| Ethnic identities within the diaspora Christian community in Britain | 212 | ||
| Conclusion | 214 | ||
| Notes | 215 | ||
| Selected bibliography | 218 | ||
| Index | 223 |