In this exciting new book, Jack Bowman shows the significance of the printed word to understanding the Pan-Africanist movement in Britain during the 1930s and 1940s. Important activist-intellectuals, including C. L. R. James, Jomo Kenyatta and George Padmore, as well as understudied figures like Ras T. Makonnen, are seen in new light.

Theo Williams, University of Glasgow, UK

Writing against Empire powerfully affirms that printing and publishing are not neutral acts but essential political practices in the struggle against empire. This book speaks directly to a sense of urgency concerning the history and understanding of the criticality and circulation of black print and thoughts of black liberation. Bowman's text locates Black radical print in all its missing chapters, overlooked chronicles, and pamphlets as a site of resistance. Bowman's contribution to this field aligns with the critical work in anti-imperialist scholarship that seeks to make visible the systematic suppression of Black histories.

Mark Sealy, OBE, University of the Arts, London, UK

The resurgence of interest in Pan-Africanism has been at the centre of the rise of black history in Britain. In this lucid and often surprising book Jack Bowman shows us how important the printed word has been to emergence and evolution of Pan-Africanism. The publications of the 1930s and 1940s years, so eloquently interrogated in Writing against Empire, laid the bedrock of radical thought that aimed to set the terms of Africa's decolonisation and its political and cultural implications. Ras T. Makonnen, George Padmore, CLR James, and Jomo Kenyatta all played a prominent part in the consolidation of Pan-Africanist ideas, each contributing to the resonance of Pan-Africanism in such diverse forms as the music of Kendrick Lamar or the Black Panther movie franchise. Bowman shows us that Pan-Africanist writing from the inter-war years remains vitally relevant today, as these foundational Pan-Africanist ideas continue to evolve.

David Anderson, University of Warwick, UK