Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation

“Black Ghost of Empire is an excellent book that deals with 500 years of Atlantic slavery and the unfinished and brutal business of the so-called emancipation. In the public discourse and the historical record of, let’s say, Britain, we pride ourselves on the fact that we were the first nations to abolish slavery. Kris Manjapra looks at this narrative of the liberal British Empire and the benevolence of its administrators and leaders, who imposed abolition in their colonies first, and then policed the oceans to stop slavery, especially from Africa to the Caribbean and South America, etc.” Read more...

The 2023 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding

Madawi Al-Rasheed, Anthropologist