A major research project costing almost £1 million in taxpayer money has ignited a fierce debate over funding priorities and 'reparatory justice' in British academia.
The Million-Pound Archive Project
The UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) is providing £850,000 for scholars to explore and preserve Africa's 'audiovisual heritage'. A further £250,000 is being contributed by the universities of Oxford, King’s College London, and Liverpool, which are leading the two-year initiative.
The project will focus on gathering films from the colonial era to the early 2000s, with a particular emphasis on footage about decolonisation and anti-colonial movements. A key aim is to 'repatriate' footage currently held in archives in the 'Global North'—including newsreels, documentaries, and feature films—and make it more accessible to people in Africa.
Researchers will initially concentrate on Ghana and Sudan, working with archivists and filmmakers in cities like Cairo, Accra, Tamale, Berlin, Khartoum, and London. The collected archives will be taken on tour to 'sites of encounter with young African creatives'.
Controversy and Criticism
The project arrives amid ongoing campaigns, such as the long-running 'Rhodes Must Fall' movement at Oxford University, which seeks the removal of a statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes. It also comes at a time of significant pressure on public finances.
Critics have lambasted the use of funds. Professor Anthony Glees, a politics expert at the University of Buckingham, stated: "They are funding this project for cynical political reasons... Using films to make a political point and getting almost £1 million for doing so is hardly a sensible use of money."
William Yarwood of the TaxPayers' Alliance was equally scathing: "At a time when families are being squeezed from every angle, pouring almost £1 million into an academic project involving 'decolonisation film archives' is staggeringly out of touch. AHRC's funding record increasingly looks like a conveyor belt for activist scholarship." He called for the AHRC to be defunded and abolished.
Academic Defence and Wider Context
Project leaders and participants defend its scholarly and preservational value. Dr Dan Hodgkinson of Oxford University, who has been involved in decolonising activism, said: "There's a lot of talk these days about redress, decolonisation, and restitution... But there’s much less clarity on what actually needs to be done. [Our project] tackles these issues head on."
The project brief argues that cinema was a key medium for anti-colonial movements, but that "years of resource poverty and political inaction" have left this heritage neglected or locked away in Northern archives.
This grant is the latest in a series of AHRC awards to face scrutiny. Others include nearly £850,000 for a study entitled 'The Europe that Gay Porn Built, 1945-2000' and funding for PhDs on subjects like lesbians living on canal boats. A recent analysis found terms like 'equity', 'diversity' and 'inclusion' in UKRI grant applications have risen sharply in frequency since the mid-2000s.
A UKRI spokesman said its investments "broaden our knowledge... and find new and innovative ways to benefit citizens," including by exploring challenging subjects and shared history. A spokesperson for King’s College London contested the characterisation, stating: "It is not true that this project is about decolonisation, the purpose… is to preserve digital archives that document major events in the 20th century."
