Hakim Adi is currently Professor of the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Chichester in the UK. Trained as an historian focusing on Africa and African history in the twentieth century, his publications “focused on the history of the African Diaspora in Britain, a relatively new subject for academic study and in particular on the political history of West Africans in Britain, and the influence of Communism and Pan-Africanism on anti-colonial activism”. His work sought to demonstrate not only the important links that were established between those on the African continent and its diaspora but also that Africans and those of African descent have played a significant but often neglected role in the history of Britain.

​

“My research on such organisations as the West African Students’ Union was necessarily also international in scope and led to further research and publications on the history of Africans in Britain in previous centuries, as well as various aspects of the Pan-African movement and the influence of communism on Africa and the African diaspore in the first half of the twentieth century”.

​

That research led to Professor Adi’s 2013 book, Pan-Africanism and Communism, which looks at the Communist international and its activities in Africa and amongst the African diaspora (principally in the United States, the Caribbean, Britain and France) from 1919-1939. As one of the few historians specialising in the history of the African diaspora in Britain, his work has led to many speaking engagements around the world, including China and the USA, as well as media appearances, work with museums and archives and the publication of three history books for children.

​

His latest book, Pan-Africanism: A History, is the very first survey this 21st century, of the Pan-African movement. Professor Adi covers many of the key political figures of the 20th century, including Du Bois. Garvey, Malcolm X, Kwame Nkrumah and Muammar Gaddafi, as well as Pan-African cultural expression from Negritude to Bob Marley.