Black Liverpool
'The real thing': West African, West Indian and Afro-American culture at the end of the twentieth century
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Liverpool University Press
Publishing:28th Jun '26
£25.00
This title is due to be published on 28th June, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This book describes the Black community in Liverpool and the arrival, embrace and transformation of waves of transnational Black culture from Africa, the West Indies and the United States in the final three decades of the twentieth century. The role of gender ideologies, institutional practices and the experiences of Black women are closely examined, as well as music and nightlife, social and political ideologies, Black Studies courses, language and dialect, and personal fashion, dress and hairstyles. The religious and secular aspects of Rastafarian beliefs and practices are also foregrounded. Transnational cultural influences were spread via media, others were brought first-hand by visitors to Liverpool, and others by Liverpool residents who travelled internationally. This fascinating book reveals how, because of Liverpool’s unique history, the Black community in the 1970s was fundamentally different from Black communities in other cities. There were far more Africans than West Indians, more long-term citizens than recent immigrants, the highest proportion of inter-racial marriages and people of mixed race in the nation, and a far more vivid collective memory of imperialism in West Africa than in any other city. Liverpool’s Black community’s embrace of transnational culture was markedly different to the embrace of Black culture in other cities. One important difference is the far greater salience of African cultural patterns, revealed in African family names, the largest concentration of African clubs in the nation, and the emergence of African-inspired organizations like Delado African Drum and Dance company, the Steve Biko Housing Association, and Amadudu women’s refuge. An illuminating book that is essential reading for all who are interested in Black culture as well as the city of Liverpool.
'This is a compelling story about one of Britain’s oldest and most beguiling Black communities. Written from the perspective of a son of the city, highlighting both the community's successes and its numerous challenges, this is a mesmerizing and unflinching journey through the history of the Liverpool Black community, written with a balance of frankness and affection.' Dr Richard Benjamin, Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of International Slavery, University of Liverpool
'Stephen Small’s writing provides a depth of consideration when reflecting on the critical discourse that shaped Black consciousness in Liverpool from the 1970s – early 2000s. This reflection on arts and activism acts as a crucial account and ensures that significant forces such as Delado African Drum and Dance Company, Steve Biko Housing Association, Liverpool Black Sisters and the Transatlantic Slavery Gallery are clearly contextualised within the chronicles of the times and their impact today, both in Liverpool and across the UK.' Pawlet Brookes, MBE, Founder CEO and artistic director of Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Culture
'Black Liverpool: The Real Thing is Prof. Stephen Small’s singular deep dive into the port city of Liverpool, providing vivid detail and insights on the multiple meanings of blackness in the most continuous Black community in a European city. Equal parts ethnography, cultural framing and sociological portrait, local activists, musical groups, athletes and community-built institutions (including his father’s barbershop) pop up from the pages of this lively read. Prof. Stephen Small generously shares a labour of love, pain and memory, nurtured over many years and spread across these pages. The Real Thing is yet another reminder of how so many communities across the world are tethered together by transnational Black culture. Bravo!' Dr. Michael G. Hanchard is the Gustave C. Kuemmerle Professor in the Africana Studies Department of the University of Pennsylvania
ISBN: 9781805967521
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
320 pages