ADI, Hakim (2022). African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History. London: Allen Lane, 688 pp., ISBN: 978-0-241-58382-1

African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History is the newest volume by the well-known historian Hakim Adi, author of several books and the first person of African heritage to have held a full professorship of history in the United Kingdom.Founder of a unique research master's degree (MRes) in the History of Africa and the African Diaspora, Adi recently received considerable media coverage in the United Kingdom owing to the University of Chichester's decision to curtail its humanities provision, leading to the closure of some of the institution's history degree programmes 1 .At 688 pages, the book is divided into a Preface and 11 chapters, together with bibliographical references, acknowledgements, and an index.In the work's Preface, Adi summarises existing scholarship on the topic and underlines his decision to opt for the designation of "African and Caribbean People".Structured in chronological order, the book's focus is squarely on the timeframe ranging from the early modern era up until the present day, and thus the two opening chapters are both relatively compact.Chapter 1 gives an overview spanning from Roman times through the Domesday Abbreviato and the Black Death into the end of the mediaeval era.Chapter 2 centres principally on the developments during the Tudor and Stuart dynasties of the 16th and 17th centuries.During this complex era, Adi elucidates how people of African origin came to be present in England and Scotland, some of whom were forcibly trafficked via Spain and Portugal and others who came to the British Isles by different means.Among others, Adi profiles Africans who worked at the English royal court, such as the trumpeter John Blanke, the situation of Africans in Scotland, as well as ordinary African students and workers, situating them within broader questions relating to the status and names used to describe Africans living in Britain at that time.The book's third chapter is more expansive than the previous two and focuses on the development of the triangular trade and its repercussions in Britain.Noting that "the slave system therefore cannot be separated from every aspect of Britain's economy and society in the eighteenth century" (p.32), Adi develops points raised in the previous chapter about the status of Africans in the British Isles from the late 1600s onwards.As such, he outlines several legal cases regarding slavery and freedom, provides profiles of Africans in England and Scotland and their social gatherings, as well as the beginnings of a community of African people.This is complemented by profiles of specific personages -for example, the celebrated