The University of Chichester has unilaterally announced that it will suspend the important MRes (Master by Research) on ‘The History of Africa and the African Diaspora’. This decision was abruptly taken overnight without consulting its course leader, the world-renowned academic Professor Hakim Adi, currently the only Professor of the History of Africa and the African diaspora in Britain. More than that, Professor Adi is actually the first person of African heritage to become a history professor in Britain – but despite this accolade, he is not being celebrated, but rather threatened with redundancy. What does this move signal for the broader study of Africa and its diaspora in the United Kingdom? What consequences can Black British people expect?
In a country where “only 6% believe the empire is something to be more ashamed of than proud”, I cannot stress enough why the British public must have access to courses, modules, and degree programmes excavating the history of the British Empire on the African continent and its spawning of the African diaspora in Britain. Access to such knowledge and research is already poor – a report by the Institute of Race Relations, citing analysis from The Guardian, found that “just 11% of GCSE students studied modules that referred to the presence of black people in British history, and just 9% of GCSE students … opted for modules that make specific reference to the British Empire”. Stemming from the neglect
— source counterpunch.org | Malick Doucouré | Aug 2, 2023