On the Spot: Hakim Adi

‘It is not the rich and seemingly powerful that make history, but the majority of humans.’

Black Cultural Archives, Brixton.
Favourite archive: Black Cultural Archives, Brixton. Photographed in 2014. Wiki Commons/Mark Longair.

Why are you a historian of Africa and the African diaspora?

I wanted to research and teach a subject that had been denied to me.

What’s the most important lesson history has taught you? 

That it is not the rich and seemingly powerful that make history, but the majority of humans.

Which history book has had the greatest influence on you? 

A.L. Morton’s A People’s History of England.

What book in your field should everyone read?

African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History.

Which moment would you most like to go back to?

To when I was 19 and about to start my study of African history at university.

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