#HistoryMatters BCA pens letter to stop University of Chichesters axing of the MRes History of Africa & the African Diaspora

For over 40 years Black Cultural Archives has been dedicated to ensuring that Black British history and culture is adequately represented at all levels of society. Our charitable purpose is to educate the United Kingdom public and therefore we recognise the importance of embedding Black history at all levels within the education system, including the Higher Education sector.

Recently, University of Chichester announced that all recruitment to the Master of Research (MRes), History of Africa and the African Diaspora has been suspended. A comparable course is not offered by this or any other university in the UK and this imposition, is threatening Professor Adi (the first African-British historian to become a professor of history in Britain) with redundancy, whom was excluded from the decision.

Professor Adi has worked relentlessly at the University of Chichester for over a decade and pioneered the way for successive historians from similar backgrounds and underrepresented communities.

In 2021, Goldsmiths University of London announced job cuts targeting its English and History departments, which would affect courses in Black British and Caribbean Literature, Queer and Black British History (the UK’s only course of its kind), and Critical Theory.

Read our full open letter to the Council & Senior Management team at Chichester University, below.

Read and sign the live petition, written by History Matters.