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.

Professor Hakim Adi. Image credit: hakimadi.org

Professor Hakim Adi is an award-winning historian. 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. In 2018 he launched the world’s first online MRes in the History of Africa and the African Diaspora which has trained many students of African and Caribbean heritage as historians including six currently engaged in PhD research.

In what can only be described as an attack on Black history and training Black historians in August 2023 the University of Chichester unilaterally suspended all recruitment to the MRes and terminated Hakim’s employment.

Join us and Professor Adi to find out more about the importance of the History of Africa and the African Diaspora and the successful MRes, the threat that the University of Chichester’s decision poses to Black history and learn more about the action being taken in support of the course and Professor Adi.

Following the lecture there will be a panel chaired by BBC Radio Presenter Dotun Adebayo MBE and featuring two MRes students and members of the Young Historians Project, Hannah Francis, and A.S. Francis.

Copies of Professor Adi most recent book African and Caribbean People in Britain will be available for purchase on the night.

Comprehensive review of the book here.

Register to attend here

Header image: courtesy Penguin Books