As a Nigerian who came to England at a young age, I can relate to Olusoga as he tells his personal story of experiencing racism although my family did not go through the racism that he went through. The only time in my youth I ever felt racism was when I was waiting at a bus stop and some white boys threw eggs at me. Whether it was racially motivated I cannot say for certain but I sure felt hatred for those who did it.
In secondary school, I felt that teachers loved me and if I ever got into any trouble I always got off lightly compared to my other black friends. I loved history class because the teacher that taught us was also our basketball coach. He taught me about principles and being disciplined and treated everyone the same. He didn’t care about the color of your skin but by how much you worked and took his instructions seriously.
He didn’t hesitate to kick you out of the training session but if he saw that you were trying and had no talent, he had a lot of patience. In his history class, I learned about the Tudors and Henry Viii and a few other things but one thing that was strikingly absent was the role of black people in Britain before the slave trade.
It was refreshing that Olusoga traces the history of black people in Britain from Roman Britain to the Tudors and then to the positive contribution of black troops in the first and second world war. Olusoga aims to remind us all that British history is a shared history and this book is an uncovering of black British history.
The book is comprehensive as Olusoga covers a wide period of history as he traces the connections of Black people from Britain, America, and Africa. He details the impact of the slave trade on Africa and focuses on certain individuals who had a significant impact on the abolition of slavery that is often forgotten.
The book is powerful and it accomplishes what it sets out to achieve which is to uncover the forgotten history of Black people in Britain and in the British empire.
K.Oni
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