Fighting For History: We Need Your Help Professor Hakim Adi & First MRes Course Under Threat
by Bro. Jeorge
photograph of Professor Hakim Adi & Bro. Jeorge
Dear Progressives,
The Black Secret needs the support of the community to help with a very important cause which is dear to our hearts. A revered academic and friend of the founders of The Black Secret, Professor Hakim Adi and his first of a kind History course are under threat of permanent closure. Professor Hakim is the first African Heritage Professor of History in the UK. At Chichester University in 2015 he created the Masters by Research ( MRes ) and PHD courses in ‘History of Africa and the African Diaspora’, of which he is both the tutor and thesis supervisor of both programs.
In July 2023 Chichester University announced it was closing the MRes course and ending Professor Hakim Adi’s employment. This decision was made without any consultantion with either Professor Adi or his students. The MRes course is the first and only Master’s course in the UK specifically focused on the subject of African History and the African Diaspora.
A campaign was quickly launched by the History Matters Group to raise awareness and to resist Chichester University’s discriminatory actions, with an aim to restore the MRes course and to reinstate Professor Adi to his post. The campaign quickly gained traction through word of mouth at a grassroots level, leading to the story been picked up by aspects of the UK media resulting in articles in both The Guardian & The Voice newspapers which has helped to raise awareness in the matter. Professor Adi has since been invited to multiple platforms online to talk about the situation, including Trisha Goddard’s Talk TV show, Andrew Muhammed’s The Hidden Truth show and recently even on an online seminar with the University of Johannesburg amongst many other, news of this shocking state of affairs has began to spread globally. The campaign has even gained the support of UK Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy. What Chichester University has done here is an injustice and a backward step, there are both MRes and PHD students who have now been left in a position where they have no supervision or support in their studies, they have literally been left in limbo! And Professor Hakim has been treated with no regard what so ever, the whole situation is utterly disgraceful.
We at The Black Secret couldn't sit idly by and watch this assault against Professor Adi and the study of Black and African History take place. In fact we have a very close relationship with Professor Adi and the MRes course. Our very own 'Black History Man' Robin Walker, has known Professor Hakim for decades. One of our directors, Danny Thompson has studied under Professor Adi and has completed his MRes in 'The History of Africa and the African Diaspora' and he is currently pursuing his PHD in the same subject. On top of this, some of our very own Black Secret subscribers are also students under Professor Hakim on the MRes course now under threat. This is not only a cause close to our hearts as educators disseminating 'Real' and 'Substantive' African and Black history to a global audience, it is also very personal to us as an organisation and as a community.
We met up with Professor Hakim at his home to interview him about what was happening with Chichester University and the campaign to save the MRes course. We spent a good hour interviewing Professor Hakim, covering the importance of saving the MRes program, the benefits that having such a course has contributed to the research of African History in the Diaspora. We also had a chance to discuss his early life and career in the field of education and his route to becoming the first African Heritage Professor of History in the UK. So that people can get to know the man, his history, his story, as well as the campign to save this symbolically significant and practically important course which he created and has run passionately and efficiently for the past eight years.
Click on the image above or the link below to learn more about the Campaign and what’s going on, from this shortened version of our interview with Professor Hakim Adi.
Click on the image above or the link below to watch the full length Interview and to learn about Professor Hakim Adi himself and his fruitful, life long work and commitment to African History and Heritage ( specific info on the campaign begins around the 38 minute mark ).
How You Can Help
You can help directly by raising awareness of what's happening and signing the Change.org campaign. At the time of writing the campaign has over 10,000 signatories and counting. We need your support, if you haven't signed the petition already, please do os, every signature counts and every additional one helps, pass on the word.
Click here to sign the petition:
Why History Matters and Why We Should support the Study of African & Black History
History is a powerful tool of change making, the knowledge and awareness of which is transformative. It impacts the present and changes the perspective and understanding of those who study it. It gives people a clear understanding of what they can achieve on an individual and group level. It also motivates and inspires people into making positive choices and taking constructive actions. A lack of an awareness in one’s own history, generally has the opposite effect.
It is therefore no accident that African and Black History is rarely presented in a complex or coherent fashion in the mainstream, neither in the media nor through the education system by and large. Because if Black communities worldwide had a clear understanding of the depth and significance of their own historical contributions, it would dynamically transform those communities for the better. This is the reason why we created The Black Secret Education Project in the first place, to bring about that dynamic change to our communities worldwide, by delivering the most comprehensive Black History course available to a global audience.
It is also the reason why it is important that we as a collective support hard fought for academic courses, such as the MRes course at Chichester University. Which is producing skilled researches who are making a tangible contribution to documenting, researching and publishing important findings concerning African History in the Diaspora.
Take action today and make a different, sign the petition and spread the word, support the study of African History.
Here is the link to the Change.org petition again:
Other useful links:
https://www.historymatters.online
Empower Youself by Learning African & Black History
There is no better or more convenient way to do so, then by joining The Black Secret. If you haven’t done so already, then consider enriching your mind and your family too with the truth of ‘Real’ and ‘Substantive’ Black History and African Heritage, you won’t regret it.
"Whatever you want in life you must make up your mind to do it for yourself and accomplish it for yourself." - Marcus Garvey
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And learn more amazing truths of Black History and African Heritage.
