We need to embody the change we want to see, and be accountable as a public institution, looking like and reflecting the public we serve…
..the status quo in the film community is undoubtedly still a system that privileges whiteness, and it has persisted for too long..
We will be transparent in how we report who we employ, recognising that a global ‘diversity’ average can hide a lack of senior POC.
Ben Roberts, BFI CEO in his own words 17 June 2020
Some of the 8 questions the BFI has refused to answer for over a year are:
A. Why does BFI Flare have eight times more staff than African Odysseys?
B. Why has Flare received a BFI-produced trailer annually for 10 years, while African Odysseys has been denied one for 17 years?
C. What is the budget for African Odysseys?
D. What is the racial composition of BFI’s Sight & Sound staff by rank and length of service?
E. Why has Sight & Sound excluded African Odysseys for 17 years despite its significance?
The refusal to answer simple questions is the exact opposite of 'transparency and accountability'. There are no Black people on the BFI governors board and there is only one Black person on the 88% white executive team, five years after 2020 when there were none at all.
BFI’s Sight and Sound magazine mentions African Odysseys less than ten times in 17 years despite African Odysseys being a monthly programme with events that regularly sold out the 450 seat cinema at Southbank
Sight and Sound has 156,000 followers on twitter. It is a medium for spreading information about the BFI and it activities.
The decades of race discrimination African Odysseys was subjected to are exemplified by the fact that none of the events below were given a feature article of 750 words or more.
Terry Jervis from Hackney to Hollywood, 24th February 2024
Jervis, a child of Windrush pioneers went from playing on Hackney bombsites, to producing TV shows with audiences of 4 billion. As one of the few Black executives at BBC in the 1990s, he introduced/produced shows like: The Real Mccoy, Top Gear, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Beyond the Beat. He’s worked with Michael Jackson, Patti Labelle, Lenny Henry, the Williams sisters, Mick Jagger, Quincy Jones, Jazzy B, Diana Ross, Oprah Winfrey, Clarence Avant, Public Enemy, LL Cool J and many more. His 40 year track record in media is incredible. He recently sealed a deal where Bentley and Rolls Royce collaborated to produce a unique car made with metal from the engines of World war 2 fighter aircraft flown by Black pilots. He worked with Marvel on the Black Panther animated series. He also designed a spaceship.
Jervis ,who smuggled films out of Apartheid South Africa for the ANC and broke countless racial barriers in media, paved the way for people like Steve McQueen. He is also a two-time cancer survivor.
African Odysseys introduced Jervis to the BFI .He was responsible for bringing tens of thousands of pounds sponsorship to the BFI’s Black Star programme in 2016.
The February event required weeks of preparation, archive research and rehearsal. The trailer for this African Odysseys event was filmed at the BFI and can be seen HERE
This is the queue of people wating to sign Jervis' south London superhero book ‘Spirit of the Pharoah’ in the BFI Blue room after the event HERE
Terry Jervis/African Odysseys and the above achievements were not considered worthy of a 1000 word article or a front page by Sight and Sound.
Round Midnight/James Baldwin Q&A with Professor Gary Younge and Professor Caryl Phillips 22nd October 2024
A unique event with two literary giants of Caribbean descent discussing 100 years of Baldwin. The event was only filmed due to David Somerset, the co-founder of African Odysseys, asking his brother to come with his own equipment to film it. The BFI said it had no resources for filming despite their £127 million budget. The session, took place in October, which is Black history month in the UK. It was not even listed in the October issue of Sight and Sound far less featured with an article/front page.
The Walter Rodney story : What they don’t want you to know, 23rd October 2022
There was a 450 sold-out crowd for this world premiere about the inspiring Guyanese revolutionary who wrote the seminal ‘How Europe under-developed Africa’ book. He was assassinated in 1980. The incredible Q&A with his widow Dr Patricia Rodney and Professor David Dabydeen can be seen HERE
It is preserved for history only due to Tony Cealy, an audience member, as the BFI said they had ‘no resources to film’ and David Somerset’s brother was unable to volunteer his time and equipment.
Marcus Garvey story, African Redemption 5th February 2022.
Another 450 sold-out crowd for one of the greatest Black leaders of the 20th century plus Q&A chaired by Professor Gus John. This was the 15th anniversary of African Odysseys but neither the occasion or the event itself was covered in any detail by the Sight and Sound team.
Toussaint L’Ouverture double bill 2nd July 2016
450 sell out crowd plus Q&A for the true story of the Haitian Revolution the only successful slave rebellion in the world which directly led to the creation of the USA.
Forward ever: the Killing of a Revolution, Grenada, 17th May 2014
450 sell-out crowd plus Q&A with director Bruce Paddington and Professor Gus John with members of the revolution who survived the US invasion in the audience.
The Steering Committee noticed this consistent absence of African Odysseys events over the decades. David Somerset raised the issue internally numerous times with no change. When new BFI CEO Ben Roberts arrived in 2020 the Steering Committee wrote a detailed letter on 23rd June raising this shabby treatment and other examples of neglect. Ben Roberts took three months to respond to that letter despite his words 17th June as printed above.
Three years later there was no change in the exclusion of African Odysseys by Sight and Sound despite further unique events and more full cinemas. The Steering Committee wrote to Ben Roberts again on 5th May 2023 including this specific request:
Monthly feature in Sight and Sound. The representation of AO has been very poor, and we have pointed this out to them on numerous occasions. Again, we recognise this is a separate body to yourselves but after 16 years of pioneering programming and a monthly presence, we feel that the BFI as a body should be lobbying Sight and Sound on our behalf to reflect our importance. Post George Floyd it is difficult to understand why we even need to make the point about representation in that media.
At a face to-face-meeting with Stuart Brown, Head of Programme and Acquisitions on 29 August 2023, minutes taken by Justin Johnson state: 'Stuart to speak to Mike Williams, editor of Sight and Sound'
In 2024 Stuart Brown told the Committee via email that they should contact Mike Williams themselves.
On the 20th February 2025 the Committee wrote a further email to CEO Ben Roberts including this quote;
With respect to A we have for example, raised concerns about racism at Sight and Sound to you and your senior staff at least ten times over five years with no improvement. In fact, Mike Williams’ October 2024 issue did not mention Black History Month, did not review any African films and did not feature the African Odysseys events about two outstanding Black, creatives of the LGBTQ+ community. Your actions clearly condone those five further years of exclusion as you have done nothing to rectify the situation despite your 2020 public-facing commitment to ‘anti-racism’. Therefore, it is difficult to take your 2025 words seriously when your actions, or lack thereof, speak for themselves. Please indicate your related proposals to be discussed.
That email was sent after the BFI cancelled the meeting with Professor Gus John to discuss the petition on 17th January 2025, two hours before it was due to start HERE, and after the BFI had ignored 15,000 people and gone ahead and made African Odysseys co-founder, David Somerset redundant and deleted the 48-week work post which was essential to producing African Odysseys
After almost two decades of such evidence, it is clear that BFI management deliberately starved African Odysseys of publicity despite its success.
The BFI suppressed knowledge in its own media about the impact of African Odysseys and the fascinating Black history the programme highlighted.
When this information is combined with the fact that BFI never produced a single trailer for AO in 17 years but did produce a trailer for BFI Flare every year for ten years, it shows a 17 year-long pattern of blatant discrimination.
When those facts are combined with the knowledge that BFI Flare has 8 staff to run it while African Odysseys had only one, and that one person was made redundant by the BFI without doing a Race Equality Impact Assessment, shows further massive disparity in treatment.
All of the above combined with the fact that BFI frequently chose not to film, far less archive, African Odysseys Q&As, shows a pattern of deliberate inferior treatment over almost 20 years. This was also exemplified by the apology Ben Roberts was forced to give Faisal Querishi after his five year battle for equality HERE
African Odysseys grassroots, community organising succeeded in bringing massive global majority audiences to the BFI Southbank despite the consistent undermining by the BFI itself.
The 17 years of race discrimination culminated in the same, very white BFI management, five whole years after Roberts declaration that ;
We need to embody the change we want to see, and be accountable as a public institution, looking like and reflecting the public we serve…
..the status quo in the film community is undoubtedly still a system that privileges whiteness, and it has persisted for too long..
choosing to cancel African Odysseys against all common sense, community advice, good practice, equality laws and the wishes of 17,000 people.
Please continue to sign and share the petition.
African Odysseys continues outside of the BFI, next films are here
- 20 Banned Black films you need to see
- Institutional racism in academia and @BFI and how to fight it
- Harry Belafonte story and Black British Civil Rights
- 60 years of struggle, British Civil rights. Film and lecture by Professor Gus John on racism @BFI
- UK Civil Rights, Kung fu movies and anti-racist street fighters with Professor Lez Henry
- All events listed on this link HERE