The story of African and Caribbean people in Britain goes back to before the Roman empire. Rhiannon Davies spoke to Professor Hakim Adi to discover how their lives and stories have shaped Britain’s history, from the African Roman emperor Septimius Severus to the abolition of the slave trade and the arrival of HMS Empire Windrush in 1948.

Hakim Adi is the author of African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History (Penguin, 2022)

Authors

Rhiannon DaviesSection editor, BBC History Magazine

Rhiannon Davies is section editor for BBC History Magazine and our Tudor ambassador, writing a fortnightly newsletter in which she shares the latest Tudor news, anniversaries and content with her audience. She also regularly appears on the award-winning HistoryExtra podcast.