The British Film Institute (BFI)’s African Odysseys strand, created to show African diaspora content and bring an underserved Black audience into the BFI Southbank, has been put on hold, BFI CEO Ben Roberts confirmed today to Screen.
“We have not yet been able to agree on a shared approach to managing it [with the programme’s steering group],” Roberts explained.
Roberts said the BFI will “reserve a space in our monthly programme for African Odysseys to return”.
The last African Odysseys took place on January 11, 2025 at BFI Southbank and no further dates are in the calendar.
Supporters of the programme voiced their disappointment.
“Black diaspora films/events, actors, directors will suffer as the BFI demonstrably do not care when 16,000 [as per an online petition] global majority people request that the BFI follow their own basic race equality guidelines and maintain a popular, educational, anti-racist film programme,” said Tony Warner of Black History Walks, the co-founder of African Odysseys and a member of the voluntary steering group that helps to run the programme.
The move follows months of uncertainty. Concerns over the future of African Odysseys were raised when it became known in June 2024 that programmer and co-founder David Somerset was facing redundancy amid a BFI restructure. Somerset is understood to have left the BFI at the end of January.
The BFI has “eviscerated African Odysseys by removing co-founder David Somerset and deleting his post [running the programme at the BFI],” Warner said. “The very post that enabled African Odysseys for 17 years and had repeatedly sold out BFI cinemas up to January 2025.”
African Odysseys was set up in 2007 by grassroots Black community activists who were already showing films at various London venues, with a view to give a singular home to those films.
The programme comprised a monthly strand of programming as well as accompanying seasons, covering the work of figures including Ousmane Sembene, Horace Ove and Raoul Peck.
It also offered training to young Black filmmakers through various short courses held at the BFI.
Community partners
The full statement from Roberts reads: “Over 17 years ago, African Odysseys was co-founded by the BFI and our community partners to celebrate and platform Pan-African cinema. The influence of African Odysseys can be felt across all BFI programmes from showcasing Black British stories, to promoting new African and African diaspora voices.
“We would like to reassure our African Odysseys audience that despite some internal staff reorganisation, we do not want this programme to end. However, African Odysseys is programmed in partnership with an external Steering Group, and we have not yet been able to agree on a shared approach to managing it.
“In the meantime, our in-house programmers and external advisors and partners continue to ensure that Black British, African, and African diaspora stories are platformed and celebrated across the BFI’s public programme. We are very grateful to the dedication of the Steering Group who have partnered with us to deliver the programme over the years. We will reserve a space in our monthly programme for African Odysseys to return.”
Since 2020, the African Odysseys steering group has expressed in a series of letters and emails to Roberts and BFI senior management, as well as in a meeting in August 2023, that it felt marginalised and overlooked within the BFI as an institution.
When it became known that Somerset’s job was at risk, the steering group said it felt frustrated at what it deemed a lack of clear communication or meaningful engagement from the BFI concerning Somerset’s redundancy and the future of the programme. A meeting between the group and the BFI has not taken place since an initial virtual discussion in July 2024.
”There has been no change, no progress and no respect from the BFI. Things are not well,” said Warner.
A BFI spokesperson said the BFI could not comment on an individual’s employment status within an internal restructuring process, beyond that a wider restructure was undertaken to evolve teams in line with priorities set out in the Screen Culture 2033 strategy, but the programme was not being cancelled.
In January 2025, the group sent an email to Roberts calling for the reversal of Somerset’s redundancy and immediate action to conduct a Race Equality Impact Assessment (REIA) – which is an examination of how different racial and ethnic groups will likely be affected by a proposed action or decision. The BFI rejected this request on the grounds that the number of staff directly impacted by the restructure was too small to warrant one, in line with its human resources guidance, and said it would not reverse Somerset’s redundancy.
Concerns were also voiced through an online petition from the steering group that no figurehead has yet been established within the BFI to keep the programme ongoing. The petition has 16,073 signatures as of March 25.
The BFI lodged a complaint with Change.org, where the petition is housed, requesting it be taken down as it is based on the “incorrect assertion” that the BFI is cancelling African Odysseys following Somerset’s departure.
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