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Malik Al Nasir

@malikandtheogs

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Author of ‘Searching for my Slave Roots’ (2025) & ‘Letters to Gil’ (2021) HarperCollins

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We are delighted to announce SEARCHING FOR MY SLAVE ROOTS, the new book from Malik Al Nasir.

Malik Al Nasir was born in Liverpool to mixed parentage, with a white mother and a black father. Bemused by childhood memories of racist shouts for him to ‘go back to where you came from’ – he came from Liverpool after all – he began to look into his father’s ancestry. This resulting book charts the twists and turns of his journey into the past and explores an untold chapter in both Black and British history. As Malik investigates his roots, he reveals a new history of the transatlantic slave trade and the role of Scottish, Dutch and English merchants.

Largely set between Liverpool and Demerara, in what was British Guiana, this is a story of sugar and of the barbaric transportation and abuse of human beings that facilitated our insatiable desire for the sweet stuff.

In Guyana, he discovers ancestors that had been both enslaved Africans and prominent white slaveholders. He finds himself part of a complex lineage linking slaveholdings to high sheriffs, mayors, a British Prime Minister and bankers, whose companies formed major modern-day financial institutions, some of whom have yet to acknowledge their connections to the slave trade.

Announced by the University of Cambridge as the winner of the Vice-Chancellor’s Global Impact Award for his research, SEARCHING FOR MY SLAVE ROOTS unravels not just the legacies of slavery but also plantation economics and the wealth of a slaveholding dynasty and that he himself was a descendant of theirs and those they had enslaved. A major theme of this history is the nuanced ways that trauma plays down through generations of the enslaved, and how wealth and privilege plays out across generations of slaveholders and their descendants.

#WCBooks #NonFiction #History #LifeStories #SearchingForMySlaveRoots #MalikAlNasir by @malikandtheogs

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2 years ago

MALIK AL NASIR | BLACKFEST × BRISTOL
CONNECTING LIVERPOOL AND BRISTOL

BlackFest × Bristol presents MALIK AL NASIR, bringing together history, literature, research and the shared connections between Liverpool and Bristol.

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: MALIK AL NASIR

Malik Al Nasir is an author and PhD candidate in History at the University of Cambridge, St Catharine’s College, and an Associate of Cambridge Digital Humanities.

His research explores the legacies of enslavement and colonialism, reparative justice and the decolonisation of archives.

Malik is the author of Searching for My Slave Roots (2025) and Letters to Gil (2021).

He is Co-Founder, with Dr Leona Vaughn, of Barriers to Black Academia, a policy-focused initiative addressing structural inequities in higher education. He is also Founder of the Sandbach Tinne Project, an interdisciplinary research and public history initiative examining the commercial and cultural legacies of Sandbach Tinne & Co.

Malik is also Project Manager of the Connector Project, in partnership with National Museums Liverpool and Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

Join us as BlackFest connects Liverpool × Bristol through history, culture, literature, music and shared stories.

📆 Wednesday 28 October 2026
📍 The Jam Jar, Bristol

#BlackFest2026 #BlackFestBristol #BlackFestXBristol #MalikAlNasir #SearchingForMySlaveRoots #BlackHistory #BlackLiterature #Liverpool #Bristol #BlackArts #BlackCulture by @malikandtheogs

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British corporation continued trafficking of enslaved Africans to Guyana 40 years after abolition.

Letter written in 1847 to Sandbach, Tinne and Company’s Liverpool office reveals it engaged in practice after receiving taxpayer-funded compensation, book says.

Searching for my Slave Roots by Malik Al Nasir by @malikandtheogs

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a month ago

On Sunday I’m launching the £1m Connector Project for the International Slavery Museum on UNESCO International Slavery Remembrance Day. Overwriting- Underwriting is our passionate community led research pilot designed by @lucymoynihan tune in at 21:15pm live

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live/bbc_radio_merseyside?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile taken in BBC Merseyside by @malikandtheogs

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a month ago

‘In ten years’ time. we’ll struggle to imagine how we tried to understand Britain’s involvement in slavery and the slave trade without this huge dynastic epic at the centre of it’
David Olusoga

‘A gripping read that really illustrates the complexity of Britain’s colonial past, and how it remains present today in the individual lives of so many people in Britain and beyond
Carrie Gibson by @malikandtheogs

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2 months ago

In my research journey to uncover my roots through enslavement and colonialism, I came across a collection at the Scottish Businees Archives. It was from an engineering firm Mirrlees Watson & Co. of Glasgow, who produced sugar machinery for the Carribean, the America’s and the wider British empire. Thanks to the efforts of the archivists, they secured funding to digitise key order books, which inadvertently map plantation ownership from 1840 onwards based upon machine and parts orders placed. This is another win for decolonising collections and making them accessible to researchers of slavery and colonialism.

#MalikAlNasir #LucyMoynihan #MirrleesWatson #ScottishBusinessArchives #Slavery taken in Archives of the University of Glasgow by @malikandtheogs

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2 months ago

#malikalnasir #harpercollins #authorsacademy #LettersToGil #SearchingForMySlaveRoots taken in 1 London Bridge by @malikandtheogs

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3 months ago

Psyched that the paperback of my new book ‘Searching for my Slave Roots - from Guyana’s Sugar Plantations to Cambridge’ will be out on 27th Aug 2026. Advance purchase here...
https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/searching-for-my-slave-roots-from-guyanas-sugar-plantations-to-cambridge-malik-al-nasir?variant=55812340449659
#MalikAlNasir #SearchinGorMySlaveRoots #Cambridge #Guyana #harpercollins by @malikandtheogs

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3 months ago

Officials from the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, UK, visited the Jamaica Music Museum’s exhibition, ‘African to Jamaican: Music & Creolized Black Culture,’ and are in absolute awe. Describing it as an inspiring and deeply moving experience. The exhibition brilliantly traces the enduring influence of African heritage on Jamaica’s musical journey and powerfully celebrates the resilience and creativity of the creolized Black identity. It is a testament to Jamaica Music Museum’s commitment to preserving and sharing stories that resonate far beyond Jamaica’s shores.

📸@richbelto

@mcgesjamaica @hon.oliviagrange @internationalslaverymuseum @malikandtheogs @livmccormick

#jamaica #music #museum #Internationalslaverymuseum #africa by @malikandtheogs

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4 months ago

On my way to Jamaica 🇯🇲 for the conference Slavery, its Legacies, Labor, and Maritime History in the Caribbean
57th Annual Conference of the Association of Caribbean Historians (ACH) #Jamaica #Conference #carribeanlife🌴☀️ #history #malikalnasir taken in London Gatwick Airport (LGW) by @malikandtheogs

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4 months ago

I’m always amazed when I come to Africa - a mix of innovation and a complete disregard for protocols including safety. #malikalnasir #Nigeria #roadmanbusiness taken in Auta Balefi, Keffi Road by @malikandtheogs

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6 months ago

This week we're taking over @cambridgeunion for our series of key-note talks. 🙌

Most are fully booked, however, we encourage people to walk up on the night in case of no shows. While we cannot guarantee entry, we will do our best to fit you in!

Here's what's coming up tonight ⬇️

💉 In a post-Ozempic world, have we cured obesity? with Professor @gilesyeo at 6pm (Chamber)
🗣️ Sharing the mic: Building bridges between young people and MPs with @camcarbonfootprint at 8pm (Chamber)

📖 Searching for My Slave Roots: From Guyana’s Sugar Plantations to Cambridge with @malikandtheogs at 6pm (Keynes Library)
🏥 From past to future: 50 years of the @cambridge_scm at 8pm (Keynes Library)

🔗 See everything taking place today via the programme link in our bio.

#CamFest #Cambridge #CambridgeUniversity by @malikandtheogs

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6 months ago