Current Research
Over the last thirty years, Onyeka's research has re-contextualized popular perceptions of British ethnicity. This includes the study of ancient, medieval and early modern English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish societies. Based on research of over 250,000 documents he has proved that these societies were more diverse than hitherto postulated. In addition, for the first time, Onyeka has been able to trace Africans present in early modern Europe to their living descendants. And through rigorous investigations he decolonizes the mythos of England as envisaged by Shakespeare and Milton to create a new English narrative. Through a different approach he has taken British mythology and examined its role, importance and significance to England's story. .
In the 1980's and 1990's Onyeka's research interests were focused on post-colonial concepts such as 'the abnegation and alienation of self,' and 'how Black self-hate became a fashionable fetish.' He is now also interested in exploring 'Black agency in revolt.' He was a pioneer in movements to mainstream the history of people of African descent such as: Mary Seacole, Olaudah Equiano and Walter Tull. These movements led to greater inclusiveness in the National Curriculum. During the same decade he became a leading advocate for people of African descent to write their own history.
From 1988-2007 Onyeka had been the pioneer of an intersectional approach that blends his research interests in African-American Studies with Mediterranean, Black Atlantian, English and Colonial American histories. He has facilitated lectures and seminars on Black British history for graduates and undergraduates in history, public history, historical method, study skills, writing academically, historical interpretation, in universities throughout Britain and the USA, 2003-2017.
Onyeka has conducted intensive research into the intersectionalism of adult literacy, urbanity and ethnicity. As Director of Studies for 'Mother Tongue': creative writing programmes, he coordinated research in Barnet, Barking, Brent, Camden, Greenwich, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth and Waltham Forest 2001-2007.
Past Research
Books
Onyeka, England's Other Countrymen (London: ZED Books, 2019). .
Onyeka, The Battle of the Somme: The Missing Pages of World War I (London: Narrative Eye, 2016).Onyeka; Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England Their Presence Status and Origins (London: Narrative Eye, 2013, 2014),
Onyeka, Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England Their Presence Status and Origins (London: Narrative Eye, 2013, 2014).
Onyeka, Sekai Hunte, The Battle of the Somme: The Missing Pages of World War I (London: Narrative Eye, 2016).
Monographs (Chapters in Books)
Onyeka, Murat Ogutcu (eds.), Materializing the East in Modern Performances (London: Society for Renaissance Studies, 2025).
Onyeka, Laura Flannigan (eds.), 'Africans in Early Modern Court Proceedings,' Researching with English Court Records 1200-1700 (London: Routledge 2025).
Onyeka; Jonathan Elmore; Jenni G Halpin (eds.), An Introduction to African and Afro-Diasporic Peoples and Influences in British Literature and Culture before the Industrial Revolution (Atlanta: University System of Georgia, 2021), pp.37-48. http:
Onyeka, Suzannah Lipscomb (ed.), Helen Carr (ed.),'Why We Must Decolonise His-story,' What is History Now? (London: Hachette Book Group, 2021). https://www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/suzannah-lipscomb/what-is-history-now/978
Onyeka, Hakim Adi (ed.), 'Blackamoores' have their own names in early modern England,' Black British History: New Perspectives (Blackness in Britain) (London: ZED Books, 2019)
Onyeka, Shabina Aslam, Milton Brown, Mandeep Samra, Elizabeth Pente, Natalie Pinnock-Hamilton; Paul Ward (ed), 'Who Controls the Past Controls the Future: Black History and Community Development,' Black History in Britain (Bristol: Policy Press, 2018).
Academic Articles (redacted)
Onyeka, 'Reconsidering the Role of African Children in the Renaissance,' In Your Face, (University of Florence, August 2023), http:
Onyeka, 'Understanding Diversity in Tudor Music,' Modern History Review, 25/3, (February 2023), pp. 18-21, http:
Onyeka, 'Decoding Early Modern European Ethnography in the Masque of Blacknesse,' European History Quarterly, 53:1, (December 2022),
Onyeka, Times Literary Supplement, 'The Language of Racism,' no. 6067, 12 July 2019, p. 14. https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/private/language-of-racism/
Onyeka, 'Africans in Early Modern England;' 'Henrie Anthonie Jetto,' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, March, 2019.
Onyeka, Louis Walcott, 'There is some corner of a foreign field that will be forever Africa: Africans in World War I and the Battle of the Somme' (London: Black History Month Magazine, 2016).
Onyeka, Runnymede Trust: GCSE National Curriculum, Supplementary Materials for Schools, OCR, GCSE modules, paper and electronic on 'Our Migration Story: the Making of Modern Britain,' London, 26 May-16 September 2016. They include course materials for students and teachers from the medieval, early modern and modern period. Winner of the Guardian University Award, https://www.runnymedetrust.org/blog/runnymedes-online-resource-wins-guardian-university-award
Onyeka, 'Artisans, servants, musicians and Kings: Africans in Tudor England' in, Commonwealth Year Book, Commonwealth Secretariat, Commonwealth of Nations, 2015, pp. 75-78.
Onyeka, 'Port Towns, Diversity and Tudor England,' Port Towns, 22 July 2014,
Onyeka, 'The Missing Tudors: black people in 16th-century England,' BBC History Magazine Extra, 24 January 2014, http://www.historyextra.com/feature/missing-tudors-black-people-16th-century-england
Onyeka, 'The Black Equestrians Africans in Georgian Britain,' History Today, Volume 64, Issue 7, July 2014,
Onyeka, 'The Missing Tudors: black people in 16th-century England,' BBC History Magazine, July 2012.
Onyeka, 'What's in a Name: Africans in Tudor England,' History Today, Volume 62, Issue 10, October 2012, http://www.historytoday.com/onyeka/tudor-africans-whats-name#sthash.G2xe8vO4.dpuf
Short Articles
Onyeka; 'Understanding John Blanke in Context,' Who is John Blanke: Historians and Artists Reimagine Black Tudor Trumpeter (Kingston upon Thames: Canbury, 2025), pp. 208-209, (260).
Onyeka, 'A Pagan Masterpiece, 'BBC History Magazine, July 2024.
Onyeka, 'Best Books of the Year,' BBC History Magazine, Christmas Edition, 20/12/25.
Onyeka, 'Best Books of the Year,' BBC History Magazine, Christmas edition, 20/12/24.
Onyeka, Endorsement and Review of The Caribbean and the Second World War,' Lawrence Wishart (as part of their Peer Review Process), 16/04/2024.
Onyeka, 'Review of Stuart Britain and Ireland: A Very Short History,' Oxford University Press (as part of their Peer Review Process), 23/02.2024.
Onyeka, 'Review of Race and Materiality in Early Modern Venice,' Bloomsbury (as part of their Peer Review Process), 19/02/24.
Onyeka, 'Review of Richard C Maguire Africans in East Anglia,' Journal of British Studies, 62: 4, October 2023, pp. 1067- 1069.
Onyeka, 'A Review of Simon Newman's Freedom Seekers,' American Historical Review, January 2023.
Onyeka, 'Africans in East Anglia'1467-1833,' Norfolk Archaeology: A Journal of Archaeology and Local History,' I, (Norwich: Norfolk and Norwich Archaeology Society: July 2023), pp. 272-273.
Onyeka, 'A Review of: African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History, Hakim Adi,' History Today, January 2023 (London: Allen Lane, 2022), p. 635.
Onyeka, 'Routledge Handbook of Pan Africanism,' English Historical Review, (Oxford: OUP, August 2022).
Onyeka, 'A Review (endorsement) of Black Victorians Hidden in History,' (London: Duckworth 2022.
Onyeka, 'A Review (endorsement) of Claudia Jones: A Life in Exile,' (London: Lawrence &Wishart, 2021)
Onyeka, 'Black British History a Review,' Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, 22:2 (Leicester: John Hopkins University, August 2021).
Onyeka, '"Furnisht with Such Members as Are After a Sort Burthensome unto Them": White Traveller Perceptions of Black Male Bodies and the Construction of Race, 1450-1730,' Gender & History, (as part of their peer-review process) 25/07/2021.
Onyeka, 'Charlotte Artese. Shakespeare and the Folktale: An Anthology of Stories,' Journal of British Studies, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020). https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-british-studies/article/abs/charlotte-artese-ed-shakespeare-and-the-folktale-an-anthology-of-stories-princeton-princeton-university-press-2019-pp-392-8500-cloth/F03DB3EBDFDEAFC52750C8CCBDD0D31E
Onyeka, 'Speaking in Tongues: Languages in Early modern England,' Social History Reviews, 45:3, 6 August 2020, (Washington: American Historical Association, 2020).
Onyeka, 'Mark Dawson. Bodies Complexioned: Human Variation and Racism in Early Modern English Culture, c. 1600-1750,' Journal of British Studies, 59:2 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020), pp. 280.