Through the many dog-eared pages in my copy of the book, here are some of the bars I found most interesting: In a way I’ve rarely seen articulated so well, Akala demonstrates the ways in which race and class intertwine in Britain. race (racism) and class.Įntwining his own life and personal stories with facts and figures for the naysayers, Akala explores the construct of race, and what it means to be racialised (as he phrases it) as white/black in Britain.ĭivided into 11 chapters, Akala exudes raw honesty as he breaks downs the moment he realised he was black (though mixed race) and his mother white, the reasons why white people (now) love Mandela, the typically English way Great Britannia views its empire as well as state education and the way it stifles black children. Simply put, Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire is a critical analysis of the fragile world structures and foundations that Britain or more broadly the West / global North have built their riches upon…. Thought provoking and insightful are just some of the adjectives that best describe this book. Read on to find out why she loved this book so much. Natives is the searing modern polemic and Sunday Times bestseller from the BAFTA and MOBO award-winning musician and political commentator, Akala.“The book that got me back into non-fiction again”, our Literary Editor, Vanessa Thomas said she read Akala’s Sunday Times bestseller, Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire like she was 15 years old again.

In this unique book he takes his own experiences and widens them out to look at the social, historical and political factors that have left us where we are today.Ĭovering everything from the police, education and identity to politics, sexual objectification and the far right, Natives speaks directly to British denial and squeamishness when it comes to confronting issues of race and class that are at the heart of the legacy of Britain's racialised empire. It's personal, historical, political, and it speaks to where we are now' Benjamin Zephaniahįrom the first time he was stopped and searched as a child, to the day he realised his mum was white, to his first encounters with racist teachers - race and class have shaped Akala's life and outlook. 'This is the book I've been waiting for - for years.

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