In Memoriam: Marika Sherwood

It is with profound sadness that I write about the passing of Senior Research Fellow (ICwS), Marika Sherwood, in the early hours of 16th February 2025, aged 87.

Sherwood was born in Hungary in 1937 to a Jewish family, many of whom died during the 2nd World War.  She emigrated with surviving members of her family to Australia in 1948 before eventually settling in the UK in 1965.  She witnessed, as a teacher living in London, the high rates of discrimination that Black students faced within the education system and the parallel absence of the ‘Black presence’ in the national curriculum.  This was the catalyst to Sherwood’s life-long, pioneering research into the history of the African diaspora and her dedication to its dissemination.   

Always at the forefront of some of the most exciting developments in Black British and African diaspora history, Sherwood, together with Hakim Adi and other colleagues, co-founded the Black and Asian Studies Association (BASA).  Its radical objective has been, and remains, to encourage research in understudied aspects of history and to lead anti-racism campaigns on education. A prolific reader, researcher and writer, her work has been characterised by an independence of spirit.  Some of her most well-known writings include After Abolition: Britain and the Slave Trade Since 1807 (Bloomsbury Publishing: London, 2007) and Origins of Pan-Africanism: Henry Sylvester Williams, Africa and the African Diaspora (Routledge: London, 2012). 

The ground-breaking nature of Sherwood’s work and her extraordinary dedication to the field was awarded with an Honorary Doctorate of History at the University of Chichester in October 2022.   

Her son Craig Sherwood has noted that she passed at home ‘without any hospital interference’ and that ‘there will be no funeral service’: both as she wished.  Sherwood would be grateful if money, for those who want to make a donation, was directed to Médecins Sans Frontières.

Her legacy is profound and will have a lasting impact on African-descended communities here in Britain and beyond.

Written by Juanita Cox, Black British History Community Engagement Fellow

Marika’s extensive publications are listed on the ICWS Research website( and on her Wikipedia entry. In 2022 Marika was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Chichester. 

Image © University of Chichester