We look forward to welcoming award-winning television and radio journalist, civil rights activist, and author Zeinab Badawi from London for a special evening at M.Bassy. Badawi will present her book »An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence« (2024), followed by a conversation that opens up new perspectives on the rich and complex history of the African continent–beyond the narratives shaped over centuries by White historians, missionaries, and colonialists. At the heart of Badawi’s account are African sources and perspectives. Over a period of more than seven years, she travelled across Africa, visiting museums and significant historical sites and speaking with people from a wide range of backgrounds, including academics, museum directors, civil society representatives, politicians, and descendants of former rulers.
The event is part of our 2026 poetry & literature series »Dreams Don't Flow in Square Houses« inviting selected lyric writers, poets and authors from the African diaspora to Hamburg. The series reflects Afro-diasporic lyrics, poetry and literature as socially engaged art practices that challenge dominant narratives, encourage collective world-building, and promote togetherness. The title metaphor suggests that rigid (post)colonial Western thinking and social structures restrict freedom of thought, action and art. This concept underpins the series' assertion that poetry and (song) writing are fluid, free, critical and artistic processes that drive social transformation and dismantle racist and oppressive systems. For each event we will dive into an intimate artistic dialogue with our guests about the unifying power of words and lyric, exploring voices, texts and meaning, and discussing the in-between spaces of creativity, vulnerability, dignity, fellowship and solidarity within a shared Afro-diasporic history.
Zeinab Badawi
Zeinab Badawi was born in the Sudan in 1959. Her family moved to the UK when she was two years of age. She has a BA Hons degree from Oxford University, where she is an honorary fellow, and an MA in Middle East history awarded with a distinction from SOAS, London University. In addition to a long broadcast career that includes an epic 20 part BBC tv series on the history of Africa, now available on BBC YouTube »The History of Africa with Zeinab Badawi« and programs such as HardTalk, Zeinab holds several positions including eg President of SOAS, she is a member of the high-level group of the Africa-Europe Foundation, The Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the Royal Opera House, she is a member of the advisory boards of Afro-Barometer and MINDS - the Mandela Institute for Development Studies, and sits on the Council of the UK’s Arts, Humanities and Research Council, the International Crisis Group and the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. She is a former board member of the British Council, and the National Portrait Gallery, a Queen’s appointment to the board of Historic Royal Palaces and is former Chair of the Royal African Society amongst other previous posts. In 2025 Badawi along with other members of the Sudanese diaspora in the UK set up Humanitarian Action for Sudan to assist the civilians caught up in the conflict in Sudan She is the Chair of HAS.
Zeinab Badawi has received many awards such as Broadcaster of the Year awarded by the Association of International Broadcasters, the Sir Brian Urquhart Award for distinguished service to international journalism and the UN, the British Academy’s President’s Medal for services to international broadcasting and female education, the Royal African Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award for services to Africa and the Order of the Star of Italy for services to Italian opera. She has received several honorary doctorates. Her book »An African History of Africa« was published in April 2024 and became an instant bestseller reaching the number one slot in The Sunday Times best hardback non-fiction category. It has been translated into 13 languages and is being used as a teaching resource in British education. It has been shortlisted for British Book of the Year and the Nero Book Awards. The children’s version of the book is due to be published in 2027. Zainab Badawi has four children.
@thezeinabbadawi
piper.de/buecher/eine-afrikanische-geschichte-afrikas
18.12.2026, 7 PM: »Dreams Don't Flow in Square Houses« #3 - Reading & Talk with Zeinab Badawi
Venue: M.Bassy e.V., Schlüterstraße 80, 20146 Hamburg
Entrance Fee: 15,00 € (for students, school students or unemployed: 5,00 €)
Language: English
Please reserve via: reservation@m-bassy.org
We would like to thank the Literature Department of the Ministry of Culture and Media in Hamburg for their funding and support of the series.
