We Were There: How Black culture, resistance and community shaped modern Britain

(Hardback)

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A clear-eyed, sweeping survey of recent Black British history, politics and culture beyond London We Were There is about a Black Britain that for too long has been unknown and unexplored - the one that exists beyond London. From the late 1970s to the early 1990s Britain was in tumult- rocked by Margaret Thatcher's radical economic policy, the rise of the National Front, widespread civil unrest. With anti-immigration policies in the political mainstream, Black lives were on the frontline of a racial reckoning. But it was also a time of unrivalled Black cultural creation, organising and resistance. This was the crucible in which modern Britain came into existence. We Were There brings into the spotlight for the first time extraordinary Black lives in once-rich cities now home to failing industries- the foundries of Birmingham, the docks of Liverpool and Cardiff, the mills of Bradford. We are in Wigan, Wolverhampton, Manchester and the green expanse of the British countryside. We meet feminists and Rastafarians, academics and pan-Africanists, environmental campaigners and rugby-league superstars; witness landmark campaigns against miscarriages of justice; encounter radical groups of artists and pioneering thinkers; tread dancefloors that hosted Northern Soul all-nighters and the birth of Acid House. Together, these voices and stories rewrite our idea of Black British culture. London was only ever part of the picture - We Were There is about incorporating a vastly broader range of Black Britons into the fabric of our national story. Alive with energy and purpose, We Were There decisively expands our sense of who we are. Confronting, joyful and thrilling, this is a profoundly important new portrait of modern Britain.

Reviews

An urgent conversation about Britishness and the breadth of Black British experience [that] will take us on affecting and insightful journeys * Arifa Akbar, author of Consumed *
A revelation of a black history almost lost, a chronicling of a rich black British life outside of London told with such love and tender, evocative prose that it immediately colourises the present. In tracing this history, Bakare offers not just a homage to Black British identity, but a reinforcement of it * Nesrine Malik, author of We Need New Stories *
This is an important and ambitious book, and Bakare has found the right stories and language to do it justice * Andy Beckett, author of Promised You A Miracle *

Author Bio

Lanre Bakare was born and grew up in Bradford, West Yorkshire. He is a correspondent covering arts and culture for the Guardian, where his writing focuses on the intersection of art, race and culture across multiple disciplines. He was senior correspondent on the award-winning Cotton Capital project and has worked in New York and Los Angeles as part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Guardian US team.