SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE | THE JHALAK PRIZE | THE BREAD AND ROSES AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITINGThis is the book Ive been waiting for - for years. Its personal, historical, political, and it speaks to where we are now Benjamin ZephaniahI recommend Natives to everyone Candice Carty-WilliamsFrom the first time he was stopped and searched as a child, to the day he realised his mum was white, to his first encounters with racist teachers - race and class have shaped Akalas life and outlook. In this unique book he takes his own experiences and widens them out to look at the social, historical and political factors that have left us where we are today.Covering everything from the police, education and identity to politics, sexual objectification and the far right, Natives speaks directly to British denial and squeamishness when it comes to confronting issues of race and class that are at the heart of the legacy of Britains racialised empire.Natives is the searing modern polemic and Sunday Times bestseller from the BAFTA and MOBO award-winning musician and political commentator, Akala.The kind of disruptive, aggressive intellect that a new generation is closely watching Afua Hirsch, ObserverPart biography, part polemic, this powerful, wide-ranging study picks apart the British myth of meritocracy David Olusoga, GuardianInspiring Madani Younis, GuardianLucid, wide-ranging John Kerrigan, TLSA potent combination of autobiography and political history which holds up a mirror to contemporary Britain IndependentTrenchant and highly persuasive MetroA history lesson of the kind you should get in school but dont Stylist