Blacks Britannica: Diversity in Medieval and Early Modern England

Blacks Britannica: Diversity in Medieval and Early Modern England

Lecture by Onyeka Nubia

Given at Gresham College on November 10, 2021

Abstract: Africans have been present in England for more than two thousand years, but we rarely see them or hear about them. And often their existence is dismissed as a figment of ‘political correctness’ or ‘wokism.’ This lecture will critically assess the myth of England’s story as a ‘sacred white space’ and examine the evidence for diversity in medieval and early modern history. Africans are integral to English history and forgetting this diminishes Englishness, by preventing us from understanding ourselves.

Onyeka Nubia is an Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham. He is a pioneering and internationally recognised historian, writer and presenter, focusing on our perceptions of the Renaissance, British history, Black Studies and intersectionalism. Click here to visit his university webpage.

You can get the transcript and powerpoint display of this lecture from the Gresham College website.

Top Image: Das Nürnbergische Schönbartbuch / Wikimedia Commons