[18] In August 2023, Adi delivered the annual Dorothy Kuya Slavery Remembrance Memorial Lecture for National Museums Liverpool, addressing the theme of combatting racism through transformative education.
His work is characterised by rigorous research, interdisciplinary analysis, and a commitment to amplifying marginalized voices within historical narratives, thereby empowering contemporary African communities.
[21] Noting that the course is the only one of its kind in Europe "and was one of the recommendations of the History Matters conference in 2015 supported by the University of Chichester", Adi was reported in The Voice as saying: "All the evidence we have is that the course is badly needed.
This action also sees the redundancy of Professor Hakim Adi, the course leader and a prominent UK contributor to the understanding and communication of Black British history.
News of Professor Adi's redundancy came a week before inclusion of his latest book, African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History, on the 2023 Wolfson Prize shortlist....With its decision, the University of Chichester goes against initiatives that seek to build an infrastructure for teaching and researching Black British History—one that's accessible to students of diverse backgrounds across the UK.
"[30] Gretchen Gerzina in a review of his 2022 book African and Caribbean People in Britain wrote: "Adi's project is a comprehensive social and political history that stretches from recent discoveries concerning inhabitants of Roman Britain all the way through to the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement, the Grenfell Tower fire and the Guardian's coverage of the Windrush Scandal.
"[32] In a review for The Observer, academic Kehinde Andrews wrote that Adi's 2022 book African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History "is his crowning achievement; a meticulously researched tour de force that charts black presence on the British Isles from Cheddar Man through the African Roman legions and Black Tudors and into the present day.
[34][35] The judging panel (comprising Mary Beard, Sudhir Hazareesingh, Richard Evans, Carole Hillenbrand, Diarmaid MacCulloch, and chair David Cannadine)[36] described Adi's work as "[a] comprehensive history of African and Caribbean people in Britain and the vital role they played in the struggle for equality.
"[37] Hakim Adi featured (alongside Maulana Karenga, Muhammed Shareef, Francis Cress Welsin, Kimani Nehusi, Paul Robeson Jr, and Nelson George) in the multi-award-winning documentary 500 Years Later (2005), written by M. K. Asante, Jr. and directed by Owen 'Alik Shahadah.