Thanks very much for your support please continue to sign and share and tell your MP about this latest revelation as a new scandal reveals double standards @BFI
A recent Times newspaper article about BFI’s ‘Professor in Practice’ Clive Nwonka’s conduct at a previous employer has raised red flags as to how he was given the role in the first place and the links to African Odysseys cancellation at Southbank. The article by David Sanderson 17th April can be found here HERE
The position of ‘Professor in Practice’ was invented in June 2025, four months after the BFI cancelled the popular, educational, African Odysseys monthly film programme despite 18,000 signatures supporting the petition against ending the programme, and without doing a legally required Race Equality Impact Assessment which BFI’s Stuart Brown had agreed to do.
Stuart Brown, Head of Programmes and Acquisitions said this about Nwonka’s ‘appointment:’
"We're really excited to be working with Clive, and UCL, on what we hope will be a long-lasting partnership. Clive is one of the UK's leading experts and voices on Black screen culture, and we're looking forward to developing and presenting his programming to celebrate, discover or re-discover and re-appraise Black film and television." HERE
However, the BFI already had ten experts on Black screen culture including one paid member of staff, David Somerset, and over nine volunteers who had poured in £6 million of unpaid labour into the BFI since 2007 HERE
The African Odysseys Steering Committee, a collective of grassroots film/education activists, regularly filled the BFI’s 450-seater for just under 20 years.
David Somerset, who co-founded the unique programme was not only the BFI’s sole and leading expert on Black film since 2007 but he had, with the Steering Committee, built a massive, under-served audience via community outreach that, as recently as 2025, was selling out all three BFI cinemas in advance: a feat difficult to achieve even for Hollywood blockbusters. Nwonka has no such track record, no such community outreach, no such grassroots presence so how Brown gave him that ‘first ever’ role that was already being done by African Odysseys, is deeply concerning.
Even moreso given that the BFI stated they had ‘no money’ for African Odysseys and had to both get rid of Somerset and delete his post, despite his outstanding track record in this specific area. This was done according to Brown to ‘cut costs and promote diversity’. Meanwhile two years later the BFI has refused to state what the budget for African Odysseys was. BFI Flare meanwhile has massive budget, at least 12 staff while African Odysseys had one staff member, Somerset, who was made redundant and post deleted. BFI Flare had at least 22 big sponsors while African Odysseys had one tiny sponsor. BFI has refused to explain this discrepancy in treatment.
Nwonka’s appointment by Brown is highly dubious as it did not follow due process. Apparently:
· There was no public advertisement for the role
· There was no person specification/ job description
· There was no apparent selection process
· There was no closing date to apply
· There was no interview date or length of tenure
· There was no list of interviewers
· There were no terms of service
· There were no salary details
· There was no public explanation as to why or how this role was created or who authorised it
This high-profile, ‘first-ever’ role which is basically what David Somerset/African Odysseys was already doing successfully since 2007, seems to have just been made up and given to Nwonka with no competition or public scrutiny whatsoever by the BFI, a taxpayer funded charity. This is very suspicious and raises governance questions. Why was there no opportunity for anyone else ?
This seems especially unfair considering there were at least nine volunteers who had put in almost 20 years of free consultancy, marketing, advertising, research etc into the BFI and had a proven track record of doing what Nwonka was handpicked and paid to do by Brown. When people write to BFI complaining about the absence of African Odysseys, they are routinely given Nwonka’s name as an explanation, but 18,000 people did not ask for Brown to give Nwonka a job..
By way of comparison the BFI recently advertised a recruitment of 6 governors where the process is transparent, and all the above protocols are met and publicly visible HERE
It gets worse as there is an 18,000 strong petition to keep Somerset in his role and retain his post thereby maintaining African Odysseys and have a Race Equality Impact Assessment carried out before any redundancies were made or posts deleted. The redundancy or deletion of the 8000 hours post would have the effect of ending the monthly African Odysseys programme as there would be no human or financial resources to run it. The BFI did that anyway but are simultaneously telling the public that there ‘are no plans to end African Odysseys’ and they are ‘committed’ to it and that it is 'on pause'.
Stuart Brown and Melanie Hoyes, Director of Inclusion, had agreed to run a REIA at a meeting with the Steering Committee on 2nd July 2024. Hoyes had previously admitted that BFI was racist in the Faisal Qureshi case.
Brown went back on his word in August 2024 which is one reason why the Save African Odysseys petition HERE was launched on September 26th, 2024. The18,000 signatures to the petition, which the BFI continues to ignore, includes over 20 academics, many of whom outrank Nwonka and whose advise was offered for free to the BFI but repeatedly disregarded.
Professor Gus John authored an open letter offering help to BFI CEO Ben Roberts and Chair of Governors Jay Hunt on 1st October 2024 HERE
Roberts refused to meet with him. This is remarkable as Roberts was forced into a public apology on 10th October 2024 to Faisal Quereshi for how the BFI had treated him over a five-year period HERE .The BFI also had to apologise to the legendary Tariq Ali for failing to consult him about their screening of the Bandung File as reported by Lanre Bakare in the Guardian on 3rd February 2026 HERE
Professor John is an expert on equality laws having helped write them alongside Home Secretary Jack Straw in the 2000s. He also has formidable knowledge about Black screen culture having worked with Sir Horace Ove, Menelik Shabbazz and Sir John Akomfrah. Why was Professor Gus John’s offer of free consultancy rejected while the BFI was happy to seek out and pay Nwonka for his advice when John is far more qualified and experienced?
Later, after refusing to communicate with the Steering Committee for three months in 2024, Stuart Brown also refused to meet with Prof Gus John or the committee and, with the permission of Jason Wood Executive Director of Public Programmes and Audiences, cancelled the only meeting with the committee two hours before it was due to start on 17th January 2025 HERE The BFI does not mention these basic facts in their public statements about African Odysseys cancellation.
Apart from the disrespectful treatment given to Prof Gus John, to give Nwonka this paid position is profoundly disrespectful to those academics and experts, such as:
· Dame Professor Elizabeth Anionwu, co-chair of the Mary Seacole statue campaign
· Paul Gilroy Emeritus Professor of Humanities, Founding Director of the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation, one of the foremost theorists of race and racism working and teaching in the world today according to UCL
· Professor Deidre Osborne formerly of Goldsmiths University, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
· Professor Hakim Adi, formerly of Chichester University
· Professor June Bam Hutchison director of the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation, University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
· Professor Adoah Anjoh who plays Lady Danbury of Bridgerton
· Professor Patrick Vernon OBE who successfully lobbied for Windrush day
Celebrities who’ve signed include Akala, Rudolph Walker, Dona Kroll, Courttia Newland, Burt Casear, Hugh Quarshie, Clarke Peters and many more.
Stuart Brown was directly responsible for getting rid of David Somerset the co-founder of African Odysseys; the only person with two decades experience of programming Black film at the BFI and deleting his 48 week post which meant the work could not continue. Not a 'pause', a destruction.
This is significant as Brown had agreed at a meeting in 2023 with the all-volunteer Steering Committee that curated African Odysseys for a celebratory season in 2026. This is in writing. Obviously, this could not go ahead if David Somerset was made redundant and his post no longer existed but this is what Brown authorised as supported by BFI CEO Ben Roberts. Presently the BFI is telling the public that it is the Steering Committee that is ‘unable to agree a way forward’ the same Committee they have refused to meet numerous times.
The BFI says this in the Times article
“We value the contribution Dr Clive Nwonka is making to the BFI. His research into black screen culture represents a leading body of work in this area and is informing our cultural programme and helping us reach and engage with new audiences,”
When the people who signed the petition, saying that the kind of films produced by Somerset and the AO Steering Committee are exactly what they want but this 18,000 strong demonstrated audience demand is being totally ignored by BFI management. This Orwellian behaviour has led to a massive reduction in footfall at the BFI Southbank and cancelled memberships as people are outraged. The BFI is losing money due to its actions.
Apart from the above the BFI is dishonest about the meetings they cancelled. In order to progress the matter the Steering Committee asked these 8 simple questions since two years ago. The BFI at the most senior level of CEO Ben Roberts and Governor Jay Hunt have repeatedly refused to answer any of these simple queries to the public while being funded by the taxpayer.
1. Who is responsible for the restructure?
2. Who decided not to conduct a Race Equality Impact Assessment, and what are their qualifications? When was that decision made?
3. Why does BFI Flare have eight times more staff than African Odysseys?
4. Why has Flare received a BFI-produced trailer annually for 10 years, while African Odysseys has been denied one for 17 years?
5. What is the budget for African Odysseys?
6. What is the racial composition of BFI’s Sight & Sound staff by rank and length of service?
7. Why has Sight & Sound excluded African Odysseys for 17 years despite its significance?
8. Was ‘What If’ informed about the Steering Committee the 2020 and 2023 complaints of racial discrimination to CEO Ben Roberts when they were involved with diversity training of BFI staff?
Clearly it is the BFI who are acting in bad faith, failing to follow its own protocols and digging itself deeper into a variety of scandals while taking no responsibility. Due to Brown's behaviour in January 2025 the Steering Committee wrote a nine page letter of complaint to Chair of Governors Jay Hunt on 21st January 2025 titled 'BFI brought into disrepute by actions of senior management' which got a four paragraph response from Brown, not Hunt, that failed to address any of the serious issues raised.
African Odysseys continues to screen films across London using grassroots resources. Next big events are the Frantz Fanon Weekender and Champion Black Boxers HERE The community will continue to hold the £127 million taxpayer-funded BFI to account for its multiple failures, breach of policies, deliberate misinformation, intentional lack of transparency and for refusing to listen the public it is supposed to serve..