Basil Davidson: The University of Manchester link

As an addendum to my last post, did you know that Basil Davidson once walked the hallowed corridors of Manchester University?

He was appointed a senior Simon Research Fellow for the academic year 1975/76, doing library research for another book on the Centre’s shelves  – his  Africa in Modern History: The Search for a New Society, published in 1978. How intriguing that he may have spent many hours on campus, in the Main Library and perhaps the Dover Street Building  (where the Department of Sociology was then based).

Nice to know Manchester played its part in helping Basil restore to Africans their history and culture, don’t you think?

If anyone bumped into him and has any memories to share, do let us know…

Basil Davidson and African Elephant Book no 5

The Roving Reader Files

So here we are. It’s Black History Month. It’s 50 years since the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.  It’s 50 years (give or take a few) since many African countries gained independence.  So why, I hear you ask, talk about a dead white guy?

Well, Basil Davidson is no ordinary dead white guy (if any dead white guy is ordinary).  Writer, activist, spy, guerrilla fighter, academic, great explorer, media star – you name it, he did it. Without him would there have been any Black History Month as we know it today? Now there’s a question.