Fifty-eight years ago, in a series of lectures delivered at the University of Sussex, the British historian Prof Hugh Trevor-Roper stated emphatically: ‘Perhaps in the future there will be some African history to teach. But at present there is none, only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is largely darkness, like the history of pre-European, pre-Columbian American. And darkness is not a subject for history.’ Underpinning his dismissal of the entire ‘non-European world’ is the belief that writing is superior to speech; that written histories are more valuable than oral.  

The AFI’s first major academic project, Speaking History, is a multifaceted initiative that interrogates and overthrows this outdated, Eurocentric and racist assumption. This initiative will take several different forms, from a documentary series to longer-term partnerships, conferences and workshops. >