Hakim Adi is a British historian and scholar who specializes in African affairs. He has written widely on Pan-Africanism and the modern political history of Africa and the African diaspora, including the 2018 book Pan-Africanism: A History. Currently a professor at the University of Chichester, Adi is an advocate of the education curriculum in the UK, both at secondary school and higher education level, being changed to reflect the history of Africa and the African diaspora, including the contribution of African people to world history.
Career
Adi obtained a BA and his PhD in African history from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, and has described himself as "a late developer into higher education.... I've taught history at every level you can imagine: schools, prison, adult education, further education, university. I've taught in Broadmoor, Strangeways — you name it, I've done it...". He was Reader in the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at Middlesex University for many years until the department of history was closed down. He currently lectures in African History at the University of Chichester, West Sussex, and is one of the fewAfrican British academics to become recognised as a professor. He was a founder member in 1991 of the Black and Asian Studies Association, which he chaired for several years. He also leads the History Matters group, a collection of academics and teachers concerned with the under-representation of students and teachers of African and Caribbean heritage within the History discipline. In 2015 the group convened the History Matters conference of the same name held at the Institute of Historial Research.
Writings
Adi has written widely on Pan-Africanism and on the history of the African diaspora, particularly Africans in Britain. He is the author of the books West Africans in Britain 1900-1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and Communism, Pan-Africanism and Communism: The Communist International, Africa and the Diaspora, 1919–1939, and the joint author of The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress Revisited and Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787. He has also written history books for children, including The History of the African and Caribbean Communities in Britain.
Film work
Hakim Adi featured in the multi-award-winning documentary 500 Years Later, written by M. K. Asante, Jr. and directed by Owen 'Alik Shahadah.
"George Padmore and the 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress", in Fitzroy Baptiste and Rupert Lewis, George Padmore: Pan-African Revolutionary, Kingston, JA: Ian Randle, 2009.
