Book Review - Natives: Race And Class In The Ruins Of Empire By Akala

Natives: Race And Class In The Ruins Of Empire by Akala is a book which doesn’t fit neatly into any single genre. Similar to how Akala himself is a rapper, author, lecturer, activist, poet, and entrepreneur this book is part autobiography, part history lesson, and part exploration of the ways race and class impact society and people. It is a book which defies efforts to put it in a box, and actively resists attempts at categorisation. Akala jumps from personal stories from his youth to deep dives into the Haitian revolution, to give but two examples, and threads them together effortlessly.

The more autobiographical aspects of the book where Akala examines his own mixed Jamaican, Scottish, and English heritage makes it almost work as a companion piece to Brit(ish) by Afua Hirch (which TREC has previously reviewed). Both books feature writers exploring ways personal identity can be linked to heritage but Natives, as could be expected, comes at the subject from the perspective of a mixed race man racialized as black. This difference in focus can be seen as where Hirsch wrote about the stigma she experienced that comes with natural black hair, Akala wrote about aspects of black masculinity and how they have changed as he has aged. Where Hirsch explored the hypersexualisation of both black men and women Akala looks at the hypersexualisation of black men. This is especially so in a chapter called “Lindford’s Lunchbox” where he takes a microscope to the media’s reaction to the Olympic success of athlete Lindford Christie in the 90’s. Akala exposes the racism baked into the mainstream media at the time pointing out that the first reaction of the media to Christie’s victories was not to celebrate his historic success on the world stage but instead to focus on his body, sexualising, and dehumanising him.

While writing about his own experiences growing up Akala seems to be of the opinion that our upbringing, and our surroundings play a very important role in making us who we are. Numerous times throughout the book he writes about how things could have easily gone another way for him and he could have ended up in prison or dead, and not become the author, artist, and lecturer he is today. The importance of our environment in shaping the person we become is emphasised throughout, and while it might not be his specific aim, Akala makes a strong argument for the importance of pan-african supplementary schools. Several of his stories focus on the combative relationship he had with his white teachers and as a reader I could feel the frustration at how he was treated radiating through the page. These teachers took a boy who regularly scored top marks and had the knowledge and awareness to challenge them, and placed him in the special needs class. Instead of encouraging him, and nurturing his growing intelligence they dismissed him.   

It is easy to draw parallels as a reader between the way the mainstream media treated Christie’s sporting success, and the way mainstream education treated Akala’s burgeoning academic success. In both instances the reaction was not to raise up, but to push down. These reactions reveal not just racism, but how brittle white supremacy is when confronted with black excellence. Akala himself notes the fragile nature of white supremacy, and white privilege a few times throughout the book pointing out that it is actually damaging to white people as well as non-white people. As he puts it “We talk about white privilege, but we rarely talk about the white burden, the burden of being tethered to a false identity, a parasitic self-definition that can only define itself in relation to blacks’ or others’ inferiority.” Akala shows in his chapter focused on the British empire that the concept of whiteness has historically defined itself primarily by what it is not. This incidentally, is the root of why white pride, or white power movements are inherently racist where black pride, or black power movements are not. Black power, and black pride are based in celebrating their culture and achievements in the face of centuries of adversity, where as white pride, and white power movements are usually based in denigrating others as inferior.

One problem Akala identifies is the tendency to define racism along individual, and not societal terms. White people especially are taught from an early age to consider racism a primarily interpersonal problem. I know this is how it was explained to me growing up. This popular definition contends that racism is primarily a matter of individual people’s morality, and not societal, or institutional. Bad individuals are racist, and good individuals are not. By this definition Britain is not plagued by institutional racism with roots in colonialism, it is a “beacon to the rest of Europe” when it comes to issues around race (at least according to the Sewell report). By this definition there is no institutional racism in the police force, it is those individual officers who disproportionally use stop and search on people of colour. By this definition there is no institutional racism in education, its just those individual teachers who had a problem with an intelligent black child. By this definition there is no institutional racism in the NHS, its just those individual doctors and nurses who don’t believe it when black people say they’re in pain. This idea that it’s just a few bad apples seems to be a self defence mechanism as people need to be able to get through the day and get to sleep at night, and to do that some need to believe that their country is “good” and that they are “the good guys” for lack of a better term. This seems to be the same impulse that results in the whitewashing of the British empire with myths that Britain was the first country to make slavery illegal, or that it was made illegal for primarily moral reasons. These are often brought out ideas which Akala thoroughly disproves.

Akala writing his book in 2018 ends on a somewhat pessimistic note, as he tries to imagine what kind of life a mixed race child born in the same circumstances as him in 2018 would have. He concludes that his 2018 counterpart would struggle more than he did, being more likely to go to prison than he was, and less likely to receive adequate healthcare. Considering events that have happened since like the traumatic strip search by police of a 15 year old girl, referred to as child Q, it is difficult not to share this pessimism. Despite this however, Akala does find a sliver of hope as while he recognises that the injustices of racism will continue he notes that the fight for equality will also continue unabated for as long as it needs to. He points to the fall of formal Apartheid in South Africa, and how “British law firms brought cases against the state on behalf of Kenyans tortured in British concentration camps during the 1950’s” as victories that have been won. Writing in 2022 I would point to the explosion of support for the Black Lives Matter movement in recent years as a victory in the court of public opinion. These victories, Akala contends, could lead to a snowball effect with a small win here and a small win there slowly adding up. However this will only happen if we remain engaged, challenge racism when we see it, and little by little keep the snowball rolling.

You can buy this book here: https://tinyurl.com/yc3asjyt