CEO Ben Roberts admits Faisal Qureshi has been 'let down' after report finds his complaint was badly handled

African Odysseys was set up in 2007 by Black community activists who were already showing films at various London venues. The programme is very popular and even BFI staff have lobbied against the cuts. The petition has been signed by figures like Dame Professor Elizabeth Anionwu, Dr Patrick Vernon OBE, Terry Jervis, Rudolph Walker, Paul Gilroy, Courttia Newland, Mia Morris OBE, Professor Gus John, Imruh Bakari, Adjoah Andoh, Margaret Busby CBE and many more.

African Odysseys invited Black female academics, and their work, to the white spaces of the BFI and brought people to the venue that had never been there. In the above video Dr Althea Legal-Miller speaks on Sexualised Violence and the USA Black freedom movement, a topic that is rarely covered by mainstream venues.

This is the type of crowd and topic African Odysseys brought to the BFI Southbank. Emma Dabiri is now a famous author and media star but at this time she was still doing her Phd and the public had not heard about her work. In this session Black women attend an interactive lecture to speak openly about how they are seen, how they feel and and what British stereotypes play a role in peoples skewed perceptions of them. The event showed a rare film about Black men praising Black women by Souleyman Garcia. That film and others by Garcia were later screened at the BFI as part of African Odysseys

African Odysseys have programmed 8 rare films on Baldwin in October. As African Odysseys works six months in advance these maybe some of the last films programmed. Due to the proposed redundancy and job cuts there are no African Odysseys events past January whereas, normally films would have already been programmed up to April/May 2025

African Odysseys presents 'Round Midnight' + discussion with writers Gary Younge and Caryl Phillips A dramatic re-creation of the Black American migrant community in post-war Paris jazz clubs, starring legendary saxophonist Dexter Gordon. Director Bertrand Tavernier France 1986. There will be a short break before the discussion. Tickets HERE

The British Film Institute (BFI) plans to terminate African Odysseys (AO) by redundancies and job cuts. African Odysseys is a vital initiative celebrating Black cinema for the past 17 years. It is the only such programme in Europe. The petition to keep it now has 10,700 signatures.

On 1st October, renowned British Civil Rights activist Professor Gus John, wrote a nine page open letter to Ben Roberts CEO of BFI, detailing the history of Black film exhibition since the 1980s with fifteen signatures from the media and education world. Link HERE

On 8th October, the BFI put this statement about African Odysseys on their website: HERE

On 10th October, the Guardian published this article about racism at the BFI and an apology from Ben Roberts to Faisal Querishi HERE

On 11th October, ScreenDaily published this article on the same topic: HERE

At present, the BFI has not reversed its decision, therefore the 8th October statement makes no sense. If they are looking forward to the 20 years celebration, why remove the person who set up, and is responsible for its success, three years in advance of the anniversary?

If there is ‘commitment’, why choose to lose the unique 17 years of Black film history curation that no one else in the BFI has by proposing a redundancy in the first place?

How does ‘commitment’ to African Odysseys mean deleting the post that demands 48 weeks of work every year to produce African Odysseys in the first place?

The BFI management are stating publicly what African Odysseys will and will not do but they have not consulted with the African Odysseys Steering Committee, the Black people who created it in 2007 and have curated it since then.

In fact, the BFI management has repeatedly ignored the committee’s advice. In a letter to the CEO Ben Roberts, 13th June 2024, the committee specifically asked if a Race Equality Impact Assessment had been ordered. This request was repeated verbally in an online meeting on 2nd July with senior management, including the diversity department, and in further emails most recently on 8th August.

To date no Race Equality Impact Assessment has been done.

The senior management have ignored the decades-long, persistent exclusion of African Odysseys from the BFI magazine Sight and Sound.

Sight and Sound magazine’s October 2024 issue out now, does not mention Black history month. It reviews sixty films, not one of them is African. In 17 years, Sight and Sound has never done a feature on African Odysseys. AO programmed eight rare films on James Baldwin including a screening of one of Baldwin’s favourite movies with a Q & A with Gary Younge and Caryl Phillips on 22 October. HERE

None of this is featured in the October issue.

Unusual films from Haiti, Bahamas, New Guinea, Sudan, Brazil are at risk if AO is discontinued. The AO programme uniquely provides a monthly avenue, unlike annual one-off film festivals, for educational and anti-racist films ignored by the mainstream.

Below is a tiny sample of the kind of films/events AO has produced.

·   Who was Frantz Fanon? Q&A

·   Horace Ove, the legend of

·   Darcus Howe, Black Power to Broadcasting

·   The Marcus Garvey story premiere and Q&A

·   Race and Representation in Shakespeare with Burt Caesar and Hugh Quarhsie

·   Black British Civil rights with Professor Gus John and Gary Younge

·   The Real Warrior Queen Nzingha with Dr Ama Biney

·   Secrets of the Grenada Revolution with Dr Bruce Paddington

·   Blacks Britannica, banned Black British Civil rights film, Q&A Margaret Henry, Colin Prescod

Click on this link HERE to see video extracts. This archive of African Odyssey events is recorded and maintained by voluntary family members, as the BFI said they had no money to record such Q&A’s. See also: HERE

The BFI is receiving lots of calls and emails from concerned people. Please continue to share the link on your social media.

The petition is supported by people like Dame Professor Elizabeth Anionwu and Dr Patrick Vernon. This is significant as they were both involved in the successful 2013 campaign to reverse Michael Gove’s decision to remove Mary Seacole from the school curriculum.

Eventbrite - Black History Walks presents Mapping Black London, Demo and Discussion - Wednesday, November 20, 2024 - Find event and ticket information.

Eventbrite - Black History Walks presents Black History Walks, Regents Canal - Saturday, 26 October 2024 at Regent's Canal, London, England. Find event and ticket information.

Eventbrite - Black History Walks presents Hackney (Dalston) Black History Walk - Sunday, 20 October 2024 at Meet point on REQUEST. Find event and ticket information.