What powers of legitimacy do physical representations of the past hold? Duncan McLean explores the journey and repatriation of a radical object, the Obelisk of Axum, from Abyssinia to Italy to Ethiopia – its return seemingly affirming Tigray’s influence as long-standing grievances have led to hostility in the region.
How does writing a community-engaged history of the Rastafari in Britain challenge the white-dominated production of history and demand new methodologies? Aleema Gray explores her dual position, as an ‘outsider from within’: a Black historian researching Black community histories.
Martin Plaut, until recently the Africa Editor at BBC World Service News, tells the story of a remarkable cache of interviews with African soldiers in the Second World War, which has just been deposited with the Imperial War Museum
