This is a beautiful book. I am so glad to have read it, especially as a Londoner who has not been able to read lots of books about African diasporic life in the city. It definitely overlapped with my experiences going to a church with a big Black African community. I found his explanations of the past and what is happening now really clever as well as the tensions of "identity" and "community" he explores. Will recommend to students and friends alike.

This is an entertaining read. It is about the African experience in London. It is very thought provoking. This must have been a hard book to write. At times it was shocking

Please see published review below in Spectator magazine. An excellent and insightful book which is highly readable.

British-Nigerian author Famurewa takes us through life in Black African London through the lens of his own lived experience and that of the people he interviews and his craft of journalism. He divides the book into themes rather than chronologically, although we do take a look at the practice of "farming" first of all, where African parents, often coming to London to study, placed their children with mainly White foster families, often in poorer parts of Kent and London, with varying and not always negative effects (he states in the Prologue that he started out with the aim of providing a positive portrait but wasn't always able to). Then we look at markets, immigration patterns, crime, police and prisons, religion, restaurants and the outward movement of Black African families, echoing the constant moves from the inner city to the outer city, the suburbs and beyond but with its own special issues and features.

Famurewa opens the book with a vivid journey through different aspect of Black African life in London, from tutoring businesses to community halls, street preachers and parties to markets and traders, and his descriptions of people and places remain atmospheric and vivid throughout. He draws out various themes across the chapters - an entrepreneurialism based on necessity (you can't get the goods you want to consume, you can't get ahead in a company, you can't get traditional funding, so you do a side project or start a small business, maybe renting a kiosk in a bigger premises, a larger one, an individual shop, etc.); the need to employ extra resources to keep up and get ahead, leading to the mass migration of children across London to attend selective grammar schools; the division between Caribbean and African people that was encouraged but is now maybe dissipating; the fact that "we are here because you were there" - notably in the fact that British missionaries went to Africa to convert the local people then did not always give them a welcome in British churches when they emigrated, leading to the development of the large, active, community service orientated Black churches in London. The last chapter has an interesting look at the phenomenon of second-generation Black African people returning to Africa, either full or part time, and he talks to some of them and the advantages they see in that. And he says, referencing the way that African students were appalled by an exhibit of people from Africa at an exhibition in the 20th century, protested and had it stopped,

"... what Ajala's generation [of returners] is doing is not all that dissimilar to what the students who were appalled by the Empire Exhibition were doing. Which is to say, by actively pushing against the idea that the West is inherently better or more civilized, she is expanding and sharpening our perception of what African identity can mean or look like."

although he also emphasises that these returners are often living between the UK and their African country and city, not settled in either place.

An excellent, highly readable book with plenty to learn and think about, and a portrait of a city in a time of change and development which has apparently not been written about before. He does reference a lot of other writers, from Sam Selvon to Akala, and I assume that the finished version will include references and perhaps a bibliography.

Settlers
This is a book about the African experience in London and it is a really entertaining, although at times very shocking, read.
The author, Jimi Famurewa, is the restaurant critic for the London Evening Standard and I’ve always found his reviews to be very lively and colourful. And Settlers is no exception. From the prologue in which he describes the black African presence in London as
‘Black African presence can be glimpsed in the whir of seamstresses at work off Dalston’s Ridley Road Market, the smell of the spice prickled puff of barbecued croaker fish drifting on the Old Kent Road.’ These are images and smells that a Sarf Londoner like me can relate to.
Then with more arresting sensual images, the author invites the reader to
‘let us walk with unwrinkled nose, past the market stalls piled high with plantain, cassava, cow foot and strung together garlands of stockfish, through restaurants, Congolese pubs…..waakye joints.’ Famurewa is himself Nigerian and references the traditional Nigerian foods such as jollof rice and pounded yam several times in the book.
He states in the prologue that his intention when writing the book
‘while in the first throes of writing the book had been to accentuate the positive; to compose a deliberately celebratory and joyous snapshot of Black African diaspora culture.’
And I would say that he has succeeded. It has so much positivity as when, for example, he is discussing the growth of African restaurants which was something I noticed when living near Lewisham, SE London. However, there is also a serious side to the book as when he discusses racism and socio-economic disadvantage amongst other barriers.
The book is divided into 8 chapters beginning with ‘Farm’ which is another name for the practice of some African families of fostering their children with white UK families during the 60s and 70s. Other chapters involve markets, religion, restaurants and suburbia amongst others. Racism is discussed including the needless, tragic deaths of Damilola Taylor and Stephen Lawrence as well as the sad and appalling death of David Oluwale. The blue badge commemorating his drowning by a bridge in Leeds has recently been stolen and so it carries on. The author also writes about his own experience of it and the ‘black flight’ to the suburbs of SE London and Kent.
The African community seems more visible these days with African restaurants, shops and the small general stores. The author reveals how important they are to the local African community as a meeting place and the preservation of a culture. The ones in Woolwich which were familiar to me seen from along the bus route are in danger of disappearing under gentrification which is sad as another part of London life vanishes. There is also the money transfer element with the large signs on shop windows. Until I read this book, I hadn’t realised how vital sending money home is to the African community. For example, the Somali community transfers over £1 billion pounds annually. This book is full of little sidelights like this.
The chapter on restaurants begins with one African eaterie, Ikoyi, being awarded a Michelin star which created a furore. There were concerns about its authenticity, but does it want to cater for a strictly African clientele or broaden its appeal? The author also mentions the large portions at African restaurants which are designed to enable diners to leave with plenty of leftovers ‘
in a truly sophisticated doggy bag operation….’
This book was a real insight into the West African community in London and avoids the urban, inner city image as the African community moves out of inner London.
It’s a very visual book which also involves the five senses. The descriptions of market stalls or fast food joints with their pungent, familiar scents and colours, the hum of seamstresses sewing machines enabling them to survive possibly as a second job. It was such a portrait of a community determined, no matter what tried to get in the their way, to make something of themselves in the brave new world that they and their descendants had arrived in.
This book was an entertaining and thought-provoking glimpse into a world that I was only aware of as an observer passing through. It was a fascinating read and at times it must have been a difficult book to write. But the impression that I was left with was of an entrepreneurial culture that ingeniously found way around the barriers that were put in their way.

In each chapter of Settlers, Jimi Famurewa shines a light on a different aspect of life for African Londoners. He deftly weaves between past and present helping readers understand how what came before has led to where we are now.

I am Black African, I grew up and came of age in London so this book really resonated with me. The chapters on food, church and education in particular rang true and reflected my own experiences in a London whose demographic was changing before my eyes.

I loved that Famurewa tried to include more from African countries we don't see represented as often in Western mainstream media, which tends to focus on West Africa where any African representation does exist. While I think this book does still skew towards West Africa, Famurewa tries harder than most to be inclusive in this regard.

Straddling the line between our African heritage and our London-based cultural experiences is a real struggle for many Black African Londoners particularly those born and educated in London. It's a bitter pill to swallow when even after adhering to all the "rules" of being a Londoner - speaking like one, eating like one, dressing like one - you find yourself ostracized because you're still Black at the end of the day.

Carving out a space for Black African Londoners continues to be a struggle. There will always be those who are angered by the very existence of Black African people in London but, as Famurewa's book clearly shows, we exist, and are thriving, in every cultural sphere with no sign of us going anywhere any time soon.

A very powerful and gripping story that is difficult to read in some parts but worth sticking with. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.