Britain’s history of writing by authors of colour stretches across several centuries and genres, from abolitionist texts in the 18th century to revolutionary journalism in the 20th and vivid memoirs in the 21st. These writers have born witness to slavery, empire and anticolonial independence movements; their sociopolitical analyses have forged new ground in how Britain’s past is told and its present understood; and their personal accounts have carved out much needed space to address questions of gender, mental health, identity and race.
Keeping It Real traces this literary journey: from early voices like Ottobah Cugoano and Ellen Craft who fought to end the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Africans, to political organisers like Dadabhai Naoroji and Claudia Jones, to historians and memoirists like Ron Ramdin and Ghada Karmi who trace our interconnected past.
Together, they and many others have reshaped political discourse and continue to inspire today.