Pan-Africanism: A history

Join us at SOAS University of London to celebrate the launch of the Centre for Pan-African Studies (CPAS). The Centre is a platform for promoting interdisciplinary research, policy dialogues, and public engagement on issues related to the African continent and its diaspora.

CPAS kicks off its launch with a series of lectures on Pan-Africanism. This series will delve into the rich history of the concept, exploring its evolution, its significance in anti-colonial and anti-racist movements, as well as its contemporary relevance in black activism and regional and continental policy-making.

In the first series of lectures, Professor Hakim Adi will discuss 'Pan-Africanism: A History.' This lecture will highlight the pivotal role of British-based activists in the emergence of modern Pan-Africanism since the founding of the African Association in 1897. Professor Adi highlights some of the key Pan-Africanists and their organisations and explain why they had such a central role.

About the speaker

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 at the University of Chichester in 2015. In 2018 he launched the world’s first online MRes in the History of Africa and the African Diaspora which trained many students including six currently engaged in PhD research. In August 2023 the University of Chichester suspended all recruitment to the MRes and terminated Hakim’s employment.

Professor Adi was instrumental in the founding of the History Matters initiative in 2014 and is also the founder and consultant historian of the Young Historians Project.

He has appeared in many documentary films, on TV and on radio and has written widely on the history of Africa and the African Diaspora, including three history books for children. His publications have been translated into Arabic, French, Spanish, Portuguese and include: West Africans in Britain 1900-60: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and Communism (Lawrence and Wishart, 1998); (with M. Sherwood) The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress Revisited (New Beacon, 1995) and Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787 (Routledge, 2003).

His most recent books are Pan-Africanism and Communism: The Communist International, Africa and the Diaspora, 1919-1939 (Africa World Press, 2013), Pan-Africanism: A History (Bloomsbury Press, 2018), and, as editor Black British History: New Perspectives (Zed, 2019), Black Voices on Britain (Macmillan, 2022) and Many Struggles: New Histories of African and Caribbean People in Britain (Pluto, 2023). His latest publication Africa and Caribbean People in Britain: A History (Allen Lane, 2023) was shortlisted for the prestigious Wolfson History Prize in Britain in September 2023.